January 9, 2002

Do Black-capped Chickadees, House Finches and House Sparrows prefer feeding on a feeder hanging from a tree or a feeder fixed to a post? by Cierra

Beneath the Hummingbird's Wings by Drew, Jon & Antonio

Poetry

Evening Snowfall  by Class 6-1

Horned Owl  by Justin

Courtship Display  by Class 6-4

Art / Photographs

Purple Finch by Hyemin

Common Loon by Cesar

Fork-Tailed Flycatcher by Jonathan

Mourning Dove by Chris

Blue Jay by Brittany

Holiday Treats for the Birds by Ms. Conca's Class

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Evening Snowfall
By Class 6-1, Grade 6
Hamersville Elementary
Hamersville, OH
Ms. Henline

Clownish looks the males possess
Females, he tries to impress.
He calls a sharply sounding peeer!
It could be heard from far and near,
A female returns his call-
As he watches the snow gently fall.

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Courtship Display
By Class 6-4, Grade 6
Hamersville Elementary
Hamersville, OH
Ms. Henline

Male hopping with dangling wings,
Puffing out his chest, he softly sings.
Fluttering up, off the ground,
Hoping a female is somewhere around.

Showing-off his purple crest,
She's trying not, to look impressed.
She turns her head, and tries to ignore-
She does not like him any more.

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Common Loon
Cesar, Grade 8
Harrington Middle School
Mt. Laurel, NJ
Ms. Barrett

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Beneath the Hummingbird's Wings
By Drew, Jon, & Antonio, Grade 8
Harrington Middle School
Mt. Laurel, NJ
Ms. Barrett

Do you know that the hummingbird's wings beat at 50 to 80 beats per second, and sometimes even faster? This is possible because the hummingbird's wings are very powerful and controllable. Hummingbirds can reach speeds of up to 25 mph. Since the wings make a figure eight during flight, they look like a blurred infinity symbol.

Since the hummingbird has great control of its wings, it is able to fly up, down, forward, and backward. Its wings make the figure eight pattern because of its extremely mobile shoulder joint. Hummingbirds are the only true hoverers. They generate lift on both the forward and backward wing movements. Even though hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world, they are extremely maneuverable. When traveling great distances, like during their spring and fall migration, they eat half of their body weight in food. Can you imagine that?

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I am going to test whether Black-capped Chickadees, House Finches and House Sparrows prefer feeding on a feeder hanging from a tree or one fixed to a post. My hypothesis is that these birds will prefer to feed from the feeder hanging from a tree because it provides a place to perch as well as shelter from unfavorable weather conditions.

Materials/Methods

Two feeders were used. Both were "hopper" feeders. Each feeder was placed approximately 6 feet off the ground. One was hanging from a tree and the other was on a post. The food used was a combination of thistle, striped sunflower seed and "mixed" bird food. The observations were made from a window in the house about 10 feet from the feeders. Tables were used to record the count numbers, and the Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds was referred to before the experiment so that the field marks of each species was known. The experiment was run over a period of 15 days in eleven half hour time slots, 3 hour time slots, and one 20 minute time slot. All counts were made between the hours of 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM. The highest number of birds of the same species that were present at each feeder at one time during each count period were recorded. The Black-capped Chickadee, House Finch, and House Sparrow were chosen because of previous experience in identifying these birds and knowledge that they visited the observation area. After the data were collected, it was transferred to a large data table. Two pie graphs were also made (one for the hanging feeder and one for the post feeder) showing the percentage of visits to each feeder by the different species. 

Results/Analysis

There were 38 bird visits to the hanging feeder and 34 to the post feeder. Out of 72 total bird visits counted, 39 were by House Sparrows, 24 by Black-capped Chickadees, and only 9 by House Finches. The figure below shows percentages of visits by these birds to each of the feeders. House Finches visited the hanging feeder 5 times and the post feeder 4 times. House Sparrows visited the hanging feeder 21 times and the post feeder 18 times, and the Black-capped Chickadees visited both the hanging and post feeder 12 times.

Discussion/Conclusion

In this study, House Finches and House Sparrows prefer feeding on a feeder hanging from a tree rather than a feeder fixed to a post. Black-capped Chickadees do not seem to have a preference. However, since there was only a small difference between the number of birds at the different feeders, the results may vary if the experiment is repeated. Similar conclusions were reached by Crystal, another student who performed a similar experiment. If this experiment were to be repeated, running it over a longer period of time or making counts at different times of day may strengthen the results.

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Horned Owl
By Justin, Grade 2
George Washington School
Mahwah, NJ
Mr. Tedesco

Lives in the woods
And zooms from tree to tree
I think I'd run if I saw one
Scary

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Mourning Dove
Chris, Grade 7
F.D.R. Middle School
Bristol, PA
Mrs. Mueller

Holiday Treats for the Birds
By Ms. Conca's Class, Grade 3
Church Street School
White Plains, NY

This holiday season, students in Ms. Conca's class prepared a special treat for the birds visiting their schoolyard. They strung together popcorn and cranberries and then hung them in their schoolyard feeder area.

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Blue Jay
By Brittany, Grade 7
Minnehaha Academy Middle School
Minneapolis, MN
Mrs. Humason

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