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Welcome to BirdTracks® Online!
An e-mail newsletter from Wild Birds Unlimited for June 2003.

In This Issue:
1. Father’s Day is June 15 - Dads love tinkering with hardware!
2. Found A Baby Bird? What Do You Do?
3. Charming Chickadees

Father’s Day is June 15 - Dads love tinkering with hardware!
This Father’s Day, give Dad a gift that appeals to his “tinkering sense” as well as his love of feeding the birds. Our exclusive Advanced Pole System® (APS) is a revolutionary concept in backyard birdfeeding hardware design. The interchangeable hardware pieces allow you to build the birdfeeding set-up that best suits the habitat in your own backyard. With the step-by-step modular design, Dad can add and change hardware parts and other accessories - tinkering to his heart’s content! Then he can sit back and watch the variety of birds eager to visit his new birdfeeding station creation.

Stop by a Wild Birds Unlimited store near you and ask about an APS system for your Dad.

Found a baby bird? What do you do?
The best thing to do if you find a baby bird is to leave it alone. If the bird appears as though it has fallen from a nest, an attempt to locate the nest can be made, and the bird can be carefully returned. If the bird has feathers, it may be a fledged bird and a parent bird is probably close by. As long as the bird is in no danger from cats or other predators, it is best to watch the bird from a distance to see if a parent returns after an hour or so before determining that the bird needs human help.

Birds do not have a true sense of smell, so the myth that birds will reject a baby bird if touched by a human is not true. A baby bird that has been touched by a human, however, does make it easier for a predator (cat, raccoon, etc.) to find.

If a nest cannot be located or the bird is "rescued," the first important step is to call a rehabilitator to care for the bird. Second provide warmth to the baby bird. A hot water bottle or heating pad on a low setting or even hot water in a glass bottle will do.

Taking care of injured birds and wildlife should be left to people who know how to do it best. Contact the Wild Birds Unlimited store nearest you for help locating a rehabilitator.

Charming Chickadees
Chickadees may be just about everyone’s favorite backyard feeder bird. These petite, black, white and gray birds flit from place to place and bring smiles to all when they land on a feeder. Described as friendly, cheery, or a ray of sunshine, chickadees are the darlings of the backyard birdfeeding world.

Chickadees tend to feed one at a time because there is a hierarchy among the birds and the most dominant bird feeds first. Generally, chickadees take one seed from the feeder - sometimes choosing with care to get the heaviest seed - and they fly away to eat it and return for more. Their favorite food is oil sunflower seed, but they also eat striped sunflower seeds, peanuts and suet.

Chickadees are very vocal as they call to announce their find of food or a warning. Because chickadees generally do not migrate great distances, they are good at finding food sources. Other birds such as nuthatches, kinglets and woodpeckers sometimes join them in foraging for food. They have particularly strong legs that let them hang upside down while searching for food.

Black-capped and Carolina chickadees are the two most common chickadees that feed at feeders. They look virtually identical so you need to know their range to identify them. Mountain chickadees are less common at feeders and often forage at the tops of trees for spiders and larvae. Chestnut-back Chickadees also forage high in trees and spend quite a bit of time upside down in search of food.

Chickadees are bold birds and are easy to attract to feeders. To attract chickadees, try the WBU Seed Tube Feeder, the cling-a-wing or a WBU Peanut Feeder. The Certified Birdfeeding Specialists at Wild Birds Unlimited can help you choose the appropriate feeding setup for your backyard.