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Wild Bird Center of Boulder Saturday Bird Walks
 bird watchers (that's us)
From 7:30 am (promptly)
to 9:45 am (approximately)
Every Saturday year-round. Every last Saturday of the month we travel further afield than normal
and return a little later.
Call for more info: 303-442-1322 Birdwalks
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Wild Bird Center
of Boulder Quick Links ________________
Xcel Energy
One fun way to participate in the lives of local birds is by viewing Xcel Energy's Web Cams
owl cam
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New Seed Mixes
Western Patio: This is a return to a no mess formula like the patio we sold a few years ago. It's a better mix because it does not include the nyjer seed. Nyjer is a fine seed, but in a mix I think it goes to waste and it makes it more expensive. Use this blend for all kinds of birds on platform, hopper, or tube feeders. It comes by the pound and in 20# bags.
Mountain & Plains: This is a new style mix for us. It is a no millet mix of both oil and striped sunflowers, safflower, peanuts, and cherries. This would be a great mix grosbeaks, finches, and jays on a platform or in a hopper feeder with a lot of tray space. It comes by the pound and in 20# bags.
Nature Cherry: No mess seeds and mixes are our best sellers. Nature Cherry adds another attractive seed blend to our patio, or no mess, mixes. As the name implies, this blend has lots of cherries so it's attractive to a wide variety including non-seed eaters like robins. It also includes sunflower chips, peanuts splits, and tree nuts. The cherries make it too chunky for a tube feeder, but it will work well in all others. It comes by the pound and in 20# bags.
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Birding Community
Bulletins
 National Wildlife Refuge Association
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Contact Information
Steve Frye, Owner
Wild Bird Center of Boulder
1641-28th Street
Boulder, CO 80301
(303) 442-1322
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The Demure Solitaire
by Steve Frye
Last month, around Halloween, we went to the cemetery for a creepy, dark, and ghoulish bird walk. It was early Saturday morning and the sky was a deep blue with small puffy white clouds and the birds were flitting about happily. Okay, so it wasn't that scary, but we were in the cemetery. One bird stands out from this walk, the Townsend's Solitaire. A Townsend's flew to a tree near our group, in perfect light, and sang its beautiful song for almost a minute. In my opinion, the Townsend's Solitaire is one our most elegant and beautiful birds. They are not strikingly colored or boldly patterned, but they have the most 'soft' looking plumage like they are made of porcelain combined with a sophisticated line and proportion.
Townsend's Solitaires are thrushes so their voice has a bit of a flute-like sound as with other thrushes and it also has elements of chatter like a thrashers' song. A beautifully complex song, but it is delivered without great volume as if the bird was trying to live up to its demure appearance. Their
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Townsend's Solataire
by Bill Schmoker
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call note is quite different. A clear single toned burst that carries far to announce its presence at the top of a tree. Both male and female solitaires use song and call notes in winter to announce and defend territory.
The bird we saw on our Halloween walk was announcing its territory by song and call. This is unusual for most birds because they are not singing in late fall/early winter. Most of our winter birds do not defend territory in the winter like they do during the nesting season, but solitaires set up territories to protect their favorite winter food source-juniper berries. A solitaires' winter territory will almost always include juniper trees and they will vigorously defend this food source against all comers, especially other solitaires. Sometimes, great battles ensue in the defense of their food sources. So much for being demure.
Juniper berries are their staple in the winter and in summer they still eat fruits including juniper berries, but they also eat insects and lots of caterpillars. Their genus name is myadestes which means 'fly eating', even though they do not consume many flies. They do, however, feed by flycatching which is the foraging strategy of flying out from a perch and catching insects in the air. The other part of their scientific name is townsendi which refers to John Kirk Townsend (1809-1851) a physician and naturalist who travelled with Nathaniel Wyeth and Thomas Nuttall to the Pacific in 1833 and collected the first solitaire specimen.
Our cemetery solitaire had come down from the mountains for the winter. When we first saw it, it was perched and calling from a juniper tree which will be the centerpiece of its territory this winter. On its summer territory,
solitaires live in open coniferous forests. They nest secretively on the ground under an overhang of vegetation or rock. The Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas shows that all solitaire nests found during the atlas project were found on steep banks like a bank cut or small cliff. One nest was discovered eight feet underground in a mine shaft.
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Townsend's Solitaire
by Wendy Marie Stuart
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If you want to attract a solitaire to your yard in winter, you'll need a juniper tree in or near your property. Other fruit trees and a heated bird bath will also help (see Ask Steve for more). If a Townsend's Solitaire comes to your
neighborhood, you will hear it singing its clear one-note call from quite a distance. And if you're lucky, the solitaire will
establish a territory near your home so you can hear its beautiful song in the middle of winter when all others are silent.
If you have any questions, give the Wild Bird Center a call at 303-442-1322.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds: Townsend's Solitaire
Xeno-Canto: Townsend's Solitaire
edips on Youtube: Townsend's Solitarire
eBird: Townsend's Solitaire
Bill Schmoker photo: Townsend's Solitaire
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Macaulay Library: Townsend's Solitaire
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Upcoming Events:
Wildlife Tree Day - Sat, Dec 3rd
10:30am - Noon 
Join us to make edible ornaments for your backyard friends. You can make peanut butter pine cones, fruit loop garlands, millet sprays, apple hangers, and more to decorate a tree in your yard for the birds. This is a free outdoor event so come prepared for the weather. No reservations required, just drop in during the time slot and take away something nice for the birds.
"Butterflies of the Colorado Front Range"
Book Signing - Sat, Dec 3rd
10:30am - Noon
Join local authors Jan Chu and Steve Jones for a book signing of their  wonderful new book. It has great information about local butterfly host plants, flight times, and interesting life cycle stories. This is a must have for all Colorado naturalists (and it would make a great present).
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Turkey Symbols
Native Americans associated turkeys with rain because clouds formed in the mountains and hills where the turkeys also lived.
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Wild Turkey
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From a Zuni prayer for rain:
We have given our plume wands human form
With the massed cloud wing
Of the one who is our grandfather,
The male turkey,
With eagle's thin cloud wings
And the massed cloud tails.
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----- Coupon ----- Coupon ----- Coupon -----
Hot Tub Party!*
$5.00 Off any Heated Bird Bath or Bird Bath Heater
Allied Bird Bath Deicer
Attract more birds this winter!
*Heated bird baths are not actually hot,
they just keep the water open.
To redeem this Coupon just visit our store or Call (303) 442-1322.
Not to be combined with other offers.
Offer expires 12/31/11.
----- Coupon ----- Coupon ----- Coupon ---
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 Ask Steve
Q: What is the best way to attract the
fruit eating birds?
A: We have a lot of frugivorous (fruit eating) birds in the winter. Even the common house finch belongs to the genus carpodacus which means 'fruit biting'. They, along with other 'seed eaters' like grosbeaks, jays, sparrows and chickadees, love to eat fruit. While we have a lot of birds that like fruit, they don't all like the same things either. So again, diversity is the key to attracting a wide variety of fruit eating birds. Planting fruit bearing trees, bushes, and vines is always important if you are serious about attracting birds to your yard. Some fruits are eaten right away and others persist and are not eaten until later in the winter. It's important to have both kinds of fruit sources. For example, I have a cherry tree which is usually picked clean even before most of the cherries are ripe. The birds are in that small tree grabbing everything they can at the same time we are doing the same. The cherries don't last long. We also have cotoneaster bushes which have beautiful red-orange berries on them now and will until late winter/early spring when the birds finally eat them. Obviously, these berries are not favored, but they serve an important function because they persist and are available when other foods are scarce.
You can also offer fruit in various ways to keep those fruit eaters around. At the Wild Bird Center, we have several feeders designed to offer fruit such as apples and oranges to the birds. These feeders are a great way to get rid of fruit that is past its prime. The birds don't want a crunchy firm apple like you do, they want it all mealy and mushy. So rather than throwing out your mealy apples, put then out for the birds on a fruit feeder. One way to attract robins is to put out a bowl of raisins soaking in water. The robins love eating up the plump raisins and they also seem to enjoy drinking the raisin water
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Orioles on Bird's Choice Fruit Feeder
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afterwards. A few customers over the years have mentioned offering apple sauce in a shallow pan for the waxwings. Another way to offer fruit is grape jelly. This is an especially good food for attracting orioles, catbirds, and tanagers. They are summer birds, but grape jelly has a much broader appeal than you might think and there are plenty of winter birds that will be attracted to it also. You can simply offer it in a small dish or we do have jelly feeders available at the Wild Bird Center.
Fruit eating birds can also be attracted to fruit suet like blueberry or orange suet cakes. Many of our customers have had luck attracting 'non suet eaters' like tanagers and catbirds to fruit suet.
Although it is not food, my heated bird bath attracts lots of fruit eating birds during the winter. I'm not sure why fruit eaters like water so much, but robins, solitaires, and waxwings all frequent my bath in disproportionately high numbers compared to the 'seed eaters'. Heated baths are one of the best ways to attract birds in the winter.
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Thank you for all of your support from all of us at YOUR Wild Bird Center!
We couldn't have done this without you! Twenty-two years is a long time in anyone's book and we owe our success to you -- our customers, compatriots, fellow birders, and friends. A hearty thank you to you all!
Steve, Wendy & Bill
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