the BITBO project

In addition to having many bird feeders in my backyard I wanted to have some natural sources of food for the hummingbirds, then the bees and butterflies and finally the birds. The majority of my plants and bushes came from Siefferts Nursery. The two berry trees came from Seminole Farm and Nursery and the last two plants the Florida Flame and the Shrimp Bush (not pictured) came from Lukas Nursery. Trees with Berries I purchased a beautiful young Dahoon Holly tree because I wanted to have natural sources of food available for the visiting birds. It was full of berries when we planted it and within two weeks all of the berries were gone. So that was a successful endeavor. I also purchased a strawberry guava tree that should produce tasty berries later this year. Bushes These bushes were available at local plant nurseries Fire Bush Fire Cracker Plant Florida Flame - not pictured Shrimp bush - not pictured Pom-pom bush Dragon's Breath

Another Florida birdwatcher asked me on Twitter @thebitboproject what I use in my feeders. I promised her that I would do a blog soon...so here it is. Before we get started, I want to remind my wonderful #bitbo readers, visitors, followers, subscribers and fellow bird lovers that I  appreciate you all. It makes me very happy to share my backyard experiences with you. I am a novice backyard birdwatcher and amateur photographer.  I don't always know the names of the birds, or plants so I will ask for your help, guidance and expertise.  I also try to include photographs and video of  birds, wildlife, plants and flora so you know what I  am trying to convey. As you know, I  have 5 feeding stations. I use slightly different seeds at each one for various reasons. Mainly,  in the beginning, it was trial and error. I put out seed,  watching to see what worked and what failed. Then as I expanded the feeding station areas and added natural sources of nutrition, learned a bit

Over the last few years, I have tried many different types of bird seed from budget to costly. This is what I  have learned. Not all birdseed is created equal . I am no self proclaimed bird guru by far. I am a novice bird watcher. I am just someone who likes seeing birds come to my yard and once in a while I manage to take a halfway decent picture. In my experience,  shopping bird seed from dollar stores, Ace Hardware, Walmart, Sam's, Home Depot, Lowes, and Tractor Supply, there is one glaring issue.  Not all bird seed is created equal. Cheap bird seed, mixes and even single seed bags all come in their own quality. So I switched to buying smaller bags of premium seeds, which were a big hit, but expensive to keep the feeders filled so I  had to regulate how much and how many days the seed needed to last. I also learned that premium seeds are also not created equally. What the dust? I started out buying cheap/affordable wild bird seed mixes. They seemed to be extr

It started with two. two very quiet birds eating alone in the shadows on the feeders. I posted a video asking if anyone knew what they were. Radio silence Later, I noticed more and more were coming, so again, I posted another picture. This time I got an answer: brown-headed cowbird . As the weeks progressed they increased in numbers blending in with grackles, red winged blackbirds and crows until they were literally swarming the feeders, bullying the regular songbirds and even being aggressive toward the squirrels. The cowbirds took over the squirrel feeding area and would peck at the squirrels when they tried to access the food. As you can see below, male, female and juvenile cowbirds gathered and waited on the fence while the more dominant males took over the platform feeder and squirrel lunch box. Most of these pictures were taken in mid to late Nov 2019 using a Canon EOS T6i/sigma 150-600mm lens.  ISO 800 1/50 sec. f/6.3 516mm no filter/no edit