Can Bird Watching Boost Your Mental Health?

re: Can Bird Watching Boost Your Mental Health?

nesanels — 5/28/2024 3:46:11 PM

With bird feeders, you get a nice show, without any captivity. Some popular feeders are sunflower seeds - attracts many birds, Niger seed/thistle, attracts finches (gold/purple), and hummingbird feeders. For SUNFLOWER, get the Squirrel Buster feeder; the perch is spring loaded, so if squirrels or larger birds that eat a lot of seed perch on it, it goes down and shuts off the openings. For NIGER, get the metal screen type; the cheaper cloth type will get dirty or will get holes. For HUMMINBIRD, they only come when the temperatures are warm (apparently as they need small bugs in their diet too, although the can survive freezing temperatures, but the bugs are not around when it is cool). The simplest way to make feed for them is to boil 1 cup white table sugar to four cups water.

The boiling kills off any germs. Experienced birders say not to use honey or other types of sugar (but perhaps someone here has a solution to the type of sugar). Allow to cool and fill feeder. You can store extras in a bottle in the fridge. Do not use red dye. Wash hummingbird feeder weekly with soap and water, so they will keep coming. You will need some sort of ant blocker on top, otherwise they will visit, and the birds don't like that. In the rare circumstance that raccoons begin enjoying the sugar water (they can stand up and tilt the feeder - but it almost never happens), you can hang the feeder from fishing line strung from the pole to you house etc.

re: Can Bird Watching Boost Your Mental Health?

towhee2 — 5/19/2024 6:27:24 AM

I am a birder. It is so uplifting to participate in viewing and hearing the birds. I do use Merlin. I meet new people and make friends with birders. Birds are migrating now. Yesterday I saw five warbler species in my apartment complex. We must protect them from glass collisions with "Friendly Feathers" application. Yesterday my friend found a life bird in the apartment complex, the Yellow-throated Vireo. Get an app or book, binoculars and go birding, also shorebirds. Yesterday we saw the White-rumped Sandpiper at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and many more species.

re: Can Bird Watching Boost Your Mental Health?

TrudyG5 — 5/19/2024 4:24:40 AM

Oh, this is so true. Years ago, I got chickens. The most relaxing part of the day is sitting on the porch watching the chickens peck. I recently sent my chickens to live at my son's house (downsizing, preparing for retirement). His wife's grandmother has dementia and, every day, insists on going to John's house - just to sit on the porch and watch the chickens. They see positive changes in her - less agitation, better eating, even better balance. She positively cackles watching them chase the cicadas now hatching. Yes, nature and wildlife, not just birds, are good for mental health. There's actually a box turtle she's reporting to us on - it has laid eggs and now she's monitoring the eggs!

re: Can Bird Watching Boost Your Mental Health?

coffeecup — 5/18/2024 6:54:53 AM

I love to watch the birds from my kitchen window and love the app called Merlin, which, for bird lovers, is an amazing app that lets you hear what you can’t always see. I turn it on often and “watch” what shows up even if I can’t see it.