As a child in the 60's, I remember sitting in my parents' dining room looking out at the huge, cumbersome and wonderful bird feeder that sat in the backyard. I can still recall how the cardinals and blue jays swooped up to land and grab a sunflower seed. It was a large glass globe that screwed onto a metal tray and sat on top of a pole. Because it was made of glass and was large, it weighed a ton even without seed in it. I'm sure it must have gone empty at times just because it was difficult to fill. No feeders manufactured today are built like that one, and for good reason.

Since I am in the bird feeding industry, I often have thought about the history and evolution of bird feeding in this country. Indeed, I feel that the Boulder Store has been part of that history. When I opened the Wild Bird Center of Boulder in January 1989 there were no bird feeding specialty stores in the mountain west and very few on the west coast. Now there are about 10 bird feeding specialty stores just in Colorado. For many years after I opened the store, people would comment 'can you even feed birds in the West?', assuming that it was only a mid-west and east coast activity.

I recently received a copy of "Feeding Wild Birds: A Short History in America" by Paul Baicich, Margaret Barker, and Carrol Henderson. This is a fascinating little book which answered many of my questions about how much and how little has changed in the bird feeding industry and in attitudes about wild birds

The article below highlights some of these topics;