Winter bird-watching in your backyard

Katie Andersen is the store naturalist at Wild Birds Unlimited, in Millcreek Township. She was photographed on Nov. 21. JACK HANRAHANERIE TIMES-NEWS

Have a question about birds? It's a safe bet that Katie Andersen will have the answer.

Andersen, an Erie native, is a 17-year veteran of Wild Birds Unlimited, 3330 W. 26th St., and most recently the national chain's sales associate of the year for 2012.

As the store's naturalist, she spends her days providing customers with valuable information including such things as courtship and nesting behaviors and why birds attack windows. "I have been around them and exposed to them since I was little," Andersen, 35, said.

She credits her parents for making nature come to life at an early age. Now she does the same for fellow bird enthusiasts.

"I answer pretty much any and every question people have about the birds in their area," Andersen said.


1) What's the most common question you are asked?

The most common question you get asked are about birds attacking windows. This is an aggressive behavioral display, usually in males, sometimes in females, where they're seeing their reflection and they think there is another bird in their territory. We get the most calls about it when breeding season really starts to kick off. Cardinals and robins are the two biggest perpetrators of this behavior, although we've had discussions about other birds doing this. Cardinals can start as early as February with this behavior, and then in March and April we really get flooded with calls -- five, six, seven, eight calls within an hour -- as the birds really start to just go crazy.


2) Is bird watching popular in the winter?

You definitely see who the heartier birders are at that time of the year. But there is a draw to birding out there (at Presque Isle State Park).

Last year, there were some of these winter finches that came down (as well as) the common redpoll. There was another redpoll, called the hoary redpoll, one of them showed up in a flock out in Presque Isle. So there were a lot of people out there looking for it. You don't get to see them very often.


3) What types of birds will you most commonly see around this area in the winter?

A lot of people don't realize how many birds stick around for the winter. You get cardinals, chickadees, goldfinches, house finches, jays, doves. Those are year-round residents here. Then we get birds that come and nest only in the wintertime. This is when some of the northern sparrows come in. This is also the time when we get certain species that are known as irruptive species (defined as large numbers of birds that appear in places outside of their normal areas). This year we're seeing a lot of the winter finches doing this.

So winter brings a lot of cool things, a lot of good waterfowl. We had tons of swans the other day coming through, all kinds of ducks out there. Sometimes you can find different things out there. There's a lot to see in the winter.


4) How should people feed these birds, and what should they feed them?

You always want to have lots and lots of sunflower seed out. That's the No. 1 food to have out because they are a fatty, high-energy food with a soft shell. Birds get a lot of energy out of it. Most of the songbirds, especially the pretty birds people like to see, love sunflower seeds. Birds, they're not too fussy. They'll eat out of anything. So you can scatter it right onto the ground.

There are a couple types of feeders. There are open tray feeders that basically have a platform. It's easy for them to see the food and see the area around them. Hopper feeders, which are those house-shaped feeders, those are great for feeding birds. They give more protection from the weather.

A lot of people pull their finch feeders down because they don't think the finches are there, and they are, goldfinches in particular. In a winter like this, you'll have a lot of those northern finches coming through.


5) When did your love for birds begin?

It started at home. My parents made certain that we were exposed to nature quite a bit. That's where it started. Then I got interested in it. I probably didn't (fully) focus on birds until maybe high school (at Villa Maria Academy), and then I read everything I could get my hands on. And then college gave me an opportunity to pursue it a little more. And then a lot from just working at the store.

You get a wealth of information coming in from customers every season. You get these phone calls at certain times of year. You hear about birds attacking windows. You start getting calls right around the first of May with people having their first orioles and hummingbirds. You kind of learn the rhythm of the seasons.