A favorite activity in my family is watching the birds at our bird feeders. They’re great entertainment and a surprising amount of time can pass before you even realize it.

What amazes me is how some of them have adapted and changed their behaviors. 

Years ago I lived near Moorhead, which is where I first started feeding birds. We didn’t have much money, so the feeders would often be empty for a while before we could afford to fill them up again. That’s where I first saw birds – goldfinches – change their behavior. 

When the seed was low, the finches started holding onto the perches and then swinging down to peck at the holes in the feeders from upside down. It started with one, and soon they were all doing it. I’ve never seen that behavior anywhere else.

We’ve had numerous birdfeeders out ever since we moved to the Clearwater area, so we have many varieties of birds stopping by every day. To encourage them we have different feeder styles and offer a variety of food, which, depending on the time of year will include black oil sunflower, sunflower chips, mixed seed, suet, cobbed corn, sugar water, jelly, and peanut butter.

The first sign I saw of birds changing their behavior had to do with the suet. I noticed we were getting a lot more birds eating it than what we started with. In the beginning it was just woodpeckers. Then chickadees and red-wing blackbirds started eating it, and today you can find all kinds of different birds pecking away at it.

The sugar water and jelly feeders were next. While hummingbirds and orioles where the only birds visiting them in the beginning, within a few years I noticed other birds trying them out, and like the suet, today you’ll find a large assortment of birds eating from both.

Bird behaviors continue to evolve, as this winter a flicker started eating the suet. We’ve always had them around but they never visited any of our feeders, preferring to instead peck away at the cedar trees.  

I’ve spoken to other people who feed wild birds and they’re seeing the same thing we have. Every year more bird varieties are enjoying our offerings. I love this. The more birds we can attract to our yard and up close with the feeders the better. They’re much better entertainment than TVs or cellphones.