Native Bird Care

05/08/2026

Kill weeds, not juniper and sage.

Central Oregon is home to a remarkable forest and shrubland ecosystem shaped in part by western juniper, Juniperus occidentalis . These native trees are more than scenery. They are habitat...

05/07/2026

If you are peering down into a nest with your camera mere inches or even a couple of feet away from babies, YOU ARE WAY TOO CLOSE TO THE NEST! Your presence is both directly and indirectly harmful to babies. First, you are showing every predator, from mice to jays to raccoons, where the babies are. Factoid: Predators watch humans for clues as to where they might find the lunch buffet. You also risk the parents abandoning the babies due to increased predator activity, which, in their view, threatens their own lives. This effect is even more pronounced if you make repeated visits. Birds consider humans predators, btw, not some benevolent, benign being. Our sight, our smell, our sounds - all are threats. Finally, babies and adults will push to leave a nest that has been discovered and visited SOONER than would occur naturally, resulting in early nest departure, which is a direct risk to babies' survival. The safety of our birds should take precedence over picture-taking. And, IDing these birds does NOTHING to help birds or their babies. In fact, one could easily argue that the increased popularity of bird watching and photography has increased the threats to birds. (photo by T Nieves on Baby Bird identification FB page).

05/07/2026

Here they come.

Migration Alert! 🚨 More than 373 MILLION birds are forecast to fly across the East Coast and eastern Midwest tonight. Help keep them safe and on track by turning off nonessential lights from 11 PM to 6 AM. Make windows safer with bird-friendly treatments to prevent collisions. More than a billion birds die in glass collisions every year. Learn more about migration, window safety, and sign up to get alerts: https://birdcast.org/migration-tools/

04/18/2026

What's not to love about Wisdom's babies. Crazy, she did it again. Good girl!

04/12/2026

Here they come.

03/23/2026

For the bird nerds out there. Surprising results of who is top dog at the feeder. A bit of fun science. (No, none of us get 136 species at our feeders; that number is the total of all birds throughout North America that either directly visit feeders or are associated due to flocking with other birds, like the hermit thrush).

In the study, 136 bird species were each given ability scores (given below each name) based on FeederWatch data about their dominance relative to other species. The higher a bird’s score, the more swagger it has at the feeder. Graphic by Jillian Ditner, Bartels Science Illustrator. From the Winte

03/16/2026

This statement is false (USDA): "The shrub and groundlayer understories are typically sparse in old-growth juniper stands." This will be a series on the incredibly poor and biased research on Juniper. It starts with researchers who originally sought to remove Juniper to get more grass forage for cows. That's right, their bias was to create more rangeland for an invasive species. Cows (or bovine) caused Juniper encroachment of the last 150 years by wiping out native grasses and shrubs, leaving no competition for Juniper.

However, that only applies to trees up to 150 yo, not any tree older than that. Also untrue is the claim that most of the trees we see today are young, under 150 years old. There are large areas where these trees have grown in greater density across all successional ages, mainly because they grow on scabland with a rocky substrate just beneath the soil.

Below is are two pictures of a healthy Juniper forest with shrubs and grasses growing directly under the tree canopy. These are old trees, not 150 years old, more like 500+. Note the huge bitterbrush, the green sage, the profuse grasses, and the vibrant green lichen on the ancient Junipers. These trees alone are a wildlife mecca housing multiple species in their bark, cores, and limbs and providing food. Ditto the thickets under them. This is the truth.

03/13/2026

If you are in Central Oregon and love wildlife. Get some natives in your yard. OSU Extension is offering this online class in April.

Saturday 4/18, 10:00-11:30am:

NATIVE PLANTS AND BIODIVERSE LANDSCAPES
with Gail Langellotto
Native plants are an excellent choice for gardeners seeking to promote and conserve biodiversity. In this talk, we will learn about (1) the science underlying the relationship between native plants and ecosystem function (2) specific native plants that are excellence choices for Central Oregon gardens, and (3) how to identify and purchase native plants at nurseries and garden centers with confidence. We will also touch on incorporating native plants into
existing garden landscapes, including maintenance and care.

The Central Oregon Chapter of OSU Master Gardeners™, in cooperation with the Oregon State University Extension Service, will present the annual Spring Gardening Seminar, online only.  

03/06/2026

Did you know the native insects that feed baby birds are often plant-species specific? Many insects evolved with specific plants. Take those away and we take away those insects. The birds notice as they too evolved with certain plants and insects. Non-native plants, as inviting as they seem, are usually a poor replacement, supporting a paltry number of insects, while native shrubs can host over a hundred species. In Central Oregon, our baby birds feed on insects that rely on sage, rabbit, and bitterbrush, along with many other native trees, shrubs, and other plants. Learn more in this blog post. If you plant native plants, you will get more birds. Please treat your windows and build a catio for the cat.☺️

When it comes to feeding baby birds, some prey species are the ideal superfoods. That's why Eastern Bluebirds feed caterpillars to their nestlings 40% of the time—they're rich in protein, fats, and vitamins! But birds need our help to reverse insect declines and turn "food deserts" into "food oase...

02/24/2026

Time for a reminder on how to fend off salmonella and conjunctivitis at the feeder. Here's a new, updated version of this popular post. Enjoy. Email questions if you have them.

Follow these handy tips for dealing with sick or dead birds at the feeder. Who Gets It? Any bird can get salmonella. However, it is particularly common among little birds, such as Pine Siskins and...