Hi Eben,
White-throated Sparrows are common migrants in our area but quite uncommon as
breeders (We're at the southern edge of their breeding range). So, they're not
typical feeder birds for us in summer.
Indigo Buntings, on the other hand, are common breeders here. So you need a
different explanation for not seeing much of them at your feeders in summer.
I'd suggest that insects are that explanation. Insects and spiders form a big
part of the Indigo Bunting's summer diet. So these birds arrive well behind the
White-throated Sparrow pulse, just as insect populations are exploding. Soon
their favorite foods are plentiful in the wild, and feeders just become less
attractive.
-Geo Kloppel
On May 9, 2014, at 6:11 PM, Eben McLane etmcl...@gmail.com wrote:
I am curious if anyone knows about migrating birds that appear regularly at
feeders (home, CLO, anywhere bird feeders are maintained) and then disappear
after a week or so. Do they use the feeders as a staging area, so to speak,
for dispersal locally, or as a roadside tavern for a longer journey north? I
suspect maybe a combination of these two, plus other possibilities that I
can’t think of, which is why I throw the question out to you.
I understand that the White-crowned Sparrows at my feeders for the last three
weeks are headed farther north, and probably soon. But I don’t understand why
White-throated Sparrows (in abundance, and now singing lustily) also
disappear around the same time. Maybe they’re North Ontario birds and
migrating with the White-crowned? This goes on year after year, by my
observation. Indigo Buntings also spend a week or so at the feeders, then
simply disappear. In summer, I see the latter two species in habitats not
much different from the land right around my house. So, I’m a little confused.
Any thoughts?
Eben McLane
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