If you want to attract hummingbirds to your yard over the long term, it is recommended that you also give serious consideration to planting perennials that are naturally attractive to hummingbirds.  The Rock Pile Garden Center will be carrying a number of perennials sure to please hummimgbirds such as bee-balm, columbine, lobelia, astilbe, coreopsis, dianthus, foxglove, echinacea, blanket flower, lavender, garden phlox, Russian sage, sedum and veronica.  Add these shrubs to your yard for even more hummers: weigela, crapemyrtle and leptodermis.  With a little care the flowers represent a long-term investment. Another plus in planting flowers to attract hummingbirds is that many of the same plants that attract hummingbirds also attract butterflies.  For a  list of plants that Hummingbirds will love CLICK HERE!

Press play below to hear the Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Sometimes nicknamed “blue canaries,” these brilliantly colored yet common and widespread birds whistle their bouncy songs through the late spring and summer all over eastern North America. Look for Indigo Buntings in weedy fields and shrubby areas near trees, singing from dawn to dusk atop the tallest perch in sight or foraging for seeds and insects in low vegetation.

A breeding male Indigo Bunting is blue all over, with slightly richer blue on his head and a shiny, silver-gray bill. But, like all other blue birds, Indigo Buntings lack blue pigment. Their jewel-like color comes instead from microscopic structures in the feathers that refract and reflect blue light, much like the airborne particles that cause the sky to look blue. Females are basically brown, with faint streaking on the breast, a whitish throat, and sometimes a touch of blue on the wings, tail, or rump. Immature males are patchy blue and brown.

Indigo Buntings eat small seeds, berries, buds, and insects. Common seed forage includes thistles, dandelions, goldenrods, and grain such as oats; berries eaten include blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, serviceberries, and elderberries. Spiders and insect prey, which form the majority of their diet during summer months, may include caterpillars, grasshoppers, aphids, cicadas and beetles such as canker worms, click beetles, and weevils. The brown-tail moth caterpillar, which is covered with noxious hairs that cause nasty rashes and respiratory problems in people, presents no obstacle to a hungry bunting. On arrival to breeding grounds in spring, Indigo Buntings may feed on twigs, buds, and leaves of trees including aspen, cottonwood, oaks, beech, elm, maple, and hickory.

Attracting these little backyard visitors is as easy as one, two, FEED! Seriously, when it comes to the Downy Woodpecker, if you supply them with the right feed, they will be return visitors all year round. Try Black Oil Sunflower Seed, Sunflower Chips, or Peanut Splits. But the most popular menu item for the Downy is suet! Suet comes in a variety of flavors, and the best part is they are really economical!

In winter Downy Woodpeckers are frequent members of mixed species flocks. Advantages of flocking include having to spend less time watching out for predators and better luck finding food from having other birds around. An often acrobatic forager, this black-and-white woodpecker is at home on tiny branches or balancing on slender plant galls, sycamore seed balls, and suet feeders. Downies and their larger lookalike, the Hairy Woodpecker, are one of the first identification challenges that beginning bird watchers master.

White-throated Sparrows are brown and gray with a striking head pattern. The black-and-white-striped head is accented by a bright white throat and yellow between the eye and the bill. White-throated Sparrows stay near the ground, scratching through leaves in search of food, often in flocks. White-throated Sparrows sing their distinctive songs frequently, even in winter. Look for White-throated Sparrows in woods, at forest edges, at pond edges, and near treelines. In winter you can find these birds in thickets, overgrown fields, parks, and woodsy suburbs. They readily come to backyards for birdseed. Since they are ground feeding birds, try putting out a platform or tray feeder that rests on the ground. Or you can simply clear an area off your patio and place the feed directly on the ground!

INTERESTING FACT: Although they look nothing alike and aren’t particularly closely related, the White-throated Sparrow and the Dark-eyed Junco occasionally mate and produce hybrids. The resulting offspring look like grayish, dully marked White-throated Sparrows with white outer tail feathers.

Click below to hear the White-throated Sparrow.

What a treat to find the Cedar Waxwing in your backyard!  This bird is a silky, shiny collection of brown, gray, and lemon-yellow, accented with a subdued crest, and brilliant-red wax droplets on the wing feathers. And how appropriate for this Halloween month, the Cedar Waxwing sports a bandit-like black mask!  In fall these birds gather by the hundreds to eat berries, filling the air with their high, thin, whistles. Look for Cedar Waxwings in woodlands of all kinds, and at farms, orchards, and suburban gardens where there are fruiting trees or shrubs.  The Cedar Waxwing is one of the few North American birds that specializes in eating fruit. It can survive on fruit alone for several months.  Many birds that eat a lot of fruit separate out the seeds and regurgitate them, but the Cedar Waxwing lets them pass right through.

So try attacking these beautiful year-round Ohio birds to your backyard.  Plant a berry bush or set out a fruit feeder at your feeding station.

If you are out on a nature hike or enjoying some quiet inlet of Lake Erie you may catch a glimpse of the Great Blue Heron. One of the most common herons, it often barks like a dog when startled. Seen stalking small fish in shallow water, it will also strike at mice, squirrels and just about anything else it might come across.

Found along calm freshwater and seacoasts. Usually nests in trees near water, but colonies can be found away from water. The nest is usually a large platform of sticks, lined with pine needles, moss, reeds, dry grass, or twigs, placed high in trees, occasionally on ground.

You can see this bird flying holding his neck in an “S” shape with its long legs trailing straight out behind him. This month, see if you can catch the Great Blue Heron in action!

Click on the play button below to hear the Great Blue Heron.

A tropical-looking bird, they arrive late in spring and leave early in autumn. The name “tanager’ comes from a South American Tupi Indian word meaning any small, brightly colored bird. A striking black-winged red bird, the Scarlet Tanager is a common species of the eastern forest interior. Despite its brilliant coloring it is often overlooked because of its rather secretive behavior and its preference for the forest canopy. This beautiful bird will eat insects and spiders, some earthworms, and fruits. If you are lucky, you may catch a glimpse of this amazing summer bird!

Click below to hear the Scarlet Tanager

Summer Birds… there is nothing else like them.

Two of our favorites include the nectar loving Ruby-Throated Hummingbird and the Eastern Bluebird.  The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird beats its wings about 53 times a second!  With all that fluttering, its no wonder these little guys love nectar.  They need that sugary goodness to boost their energy.  Feeders and flower gardens are great ways to attract The Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds, and some people turn their yards into buzzing clouds of them each summer. Enjoy them while they’re around; by early fall they’re bound for Central America, with many crossing the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight.

The Eastern Bluebird is not an easy bird to attract to every backyard. These birds will not eat seed, instead they have a diet of insects and berries. To get these beauties to appear at your feeding station, offer meal worms!  And even offering meal worms may not be enough to get bluebirds to come to your backyard.  Habitat and nesting availability are major factors in bluebird visits.  Keep a look out for these beautiful bluebirds and for more information about these fantastic summer visitors, check out this great site we found Click Here.

There are many kind of warblers, but one of the most common warblers in Ohio during spring migration is the Magnolia Warbler.  Look for them low in trees where they feed on insects. Males often feed higher up in trees than the females.  These beautiful birds were named by chance when ornithologist Alexander Wilson spotted the bird in a magnolia tree.

Northern Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a gentle expression and handsome black-scalloped plumage. On walks, don’t be surprised if you scare one up from the ground. It’s not where you’d expect to find a woodpecker, but flickers eat mainly ants and beetles, digging for them with their unusual, slightly curved bill. When they fly you’ll see a flash of yellow in the wings and a bright white flash on the rump. Northern Flickers usually excavate nest holes in dead or diseased tree trunks or large branches. Unlike many woodpeckers, flickers often reuse cavities that they or another species excavated in a previous year. Nests are generally placed 6-15 feet off the ground, but on rare occasions can be over 100 feet high. Northern Flickers have been known to nest in old burrows of Belted Kingfishers or Bank Swallows. Northern Flickers eat mainly insects, especially ants and beetles that they gather from the ground. They also eat fruits and seeds, especially in winter. So if you’re lucky, you may see one visit your feeding station.

Click on the play button below to hear the Northern Flicker.