I am a farm boy from way back, brought up on meat and potatoes, and milk straight from the cow. Our meat was pork, beef of chicken, and occasionally yellow perch, if we’d had a chance the previous weekend to do to a little fishing in the Bay of Quinte. Our only diversion from that was when we went to the drive-in near Picton, and pigged out on french fries. So, it was a bit of a surprise to see me last week trying out a plate of food from East India. I am always game to try new things.
Birds, too, often wander away from their normal diet, and try new things. A local resident e-mailed me one day last year, wondering why her goldfinches had developed a sudden fondness for the foliage of her beets in the garden. "I keep their feeders full and their bird baths clean - are they lacking something, or just keeping me after them?" she asked in desperation.
Although goldfinches seem to thrive on nothing but niger seed and sunflower seed, truth is, they have developed other tastes too during their wanderings around the backyard. In our yard, they can often be seen dangling from hollyhocks, extricating the seeds from the seed heads. Other garden favourites are evening primrose, bachelor’s button, zinnias and cosmos. Once they leave the bounty of the backyard, the seeds of mullein and dandelion from open fields are taken and, of course, their personal favourite - thistle. Beet tops are just one more delicacy in a long list of acceptable foods on the menus of goldfinches in the Quinte area. But watch your lettuce and your Swiss chard. They have acquired a taste for those as well!
We already know how Baltimore orioles can be lured into our backyard with offerings of orange slices. But orioles have also been know to consume halved apples, raisins, grapes, bananas, and even strawberry jelly. One acquaintance of mine, actually an authority on foods for wild birds and who has penned many fine books on the subject, once related the story of when he was living in Massachusetts, and he encountered an oriole that had developed a taste for grape jelly, and would eat practically nothing else.
Birds’ departure from their normal diet of seeds, grubs and bugs is probably no better demonstrated than at our feeders during the winter months, when adventurous operators of bird feeders start experimenting with different foods, particularly leftovers from the kitchen table. At Algonquin Provincial Park last winter, I donated almost an entire half salmon sandwich to a hungry gray jay who flew to my outstretched hand repeatedly for small morsels which he stored away somewhere in the forest in typical gray jay fashion. At the same location, a black-capped chickadee had no use for the sunflower seeds I also held in my hand, but preferred the pieces of cheese I offered.
Stale bread, pastries and donut pieces have been offered by feeder operators, and subsequently snatched, by winter birds for many years in addition to the usual fare. A Carolina wren that visited our feeder all one winter survived on nothing else but pieces of Timbits. When a half box of leftover Timbits had been used up, I was forced to drive into Picton one day and purchase another small box. Little did the staff know as they gingerly placed the selection into the box using paper napkins, that it was not for an evening in front of the TV, but for the Carolina wren who was patiently waiting at our feeder.
House finches will eat plums, robins will suck down spaghetti, blue jays will carry off potato, cardinals will eat melon seeds, chickadees will fight over meat scraps, starlings will line up for grapefruit slices (but who really wants to feed it to them?), catbirds will thank you for fried fish, bluebirds will sample cottage cheese, and if you have watermelon, don’t let on to the house finches or they’ll clean you right out. Of course, the appeal of peanut butter to all winter birds is legendary.
Are any of these foods that birds come across, or are deliberately offered, dangerous to them? Not really, unless it is mouldy. But easy on the chocolate as it is as lethal to birds as it is to dogs. And don’t worry about salt poisoning with your offerings of bacon fat or other salty foods. Birds crave salt and need it, but they know when they’ve had enough.
Spend some time this summer when you are relaxing in your backyard and pay attention to what your backyard guests are eating. If they are getting a little friendly, it might be because they are eying your hamburgers on the grill.
