Bird Questions Answered - Where Did All My Goldfinches Go?
American Goldfinches are one of the jewels that frequent our bird feeders in Northwest Arkansas. With their bright yellow color and black wings, they are easy to identify and make an impression on everyone who sees them. Being year-round residents, they are also one of the most reliable species to come to our feeders. Even so, there are times when I hear, "What happened to all of my Goldfinches? They suddenly stopped coming to my feeder!" If this happens to you, there are
Bird Questions Answered - To Millet or Not to Millet
What is millet? White Proso Millet is a small whitish to yellowish seed that used to be the type of seed that was simply called "bird seed" by the public. Lately, it seems to have gotten a bad reputation as a seed that should be avoided; a so-called "filler seed" that birds reject and only attracts rodents. Actually, neither is totally true. In fact, millet can be used to attract an entirely new family of birds to our winter feeders: new world sparrows. Even though millet
Bird Questions Answered - How Long Will Hummingbirds Be at My Feeders This Fall?
I receive this question quite a bit. The answer is "it depends". Let's first back up and answer a related question: Will my hummingbird feeder prevent the hummers from migrating for the winter? The answer to this is an unequivocal "no". The timing of fall migration is physiologically triggered by decreasing day lengths. Furthermore, these physiological changes are genetically based. As such, there is always variation in the population with some hummingbirds genetically g
