What Type Of Birds To Expect Throughout The Year

There are three categories that birds fall into when visiting your yard. There are winter visitors, summer nester's and birds of passage that will come through when migrating in the spring and fall.


Depending on what type of birds visit your yard, there can be an overlap of different species between summer and winter. There are some chickadees, jays, starlings, nuthatches, winter wrens and woodpeckers that will visit your feeders in winter. They will stake out different territories in your yard. If you are lucky, they will stay and nest.


Winter will bring a flow of birds into your yard in search of food but in spring and summer territorial behavior will limit the number that remains. Sometimes this will bring disappointment. You have been watching the birds singing, courting and collecting nest materials, but then you realize that they are building a nest and raising their young out of sight in someone else's yard.


Do not fret, sometimes, they may return in late summer with their families. Other times, they are replaced by other summer visitors such as hummingbirds, swallows or house wrens. If you make it a point to look daily, you will not be disappointed.


Between summer and winter the bird life in your yard is often supplemented by newly independent young birds who are searching for homes of their own. During this time all sorts of birds may turn up while migrating, making it a special worthwhile time to bird watch.


Rare visitors are no exception. The spring and fall migration could bring such a visitor, perhaps one that has been blown off course or strayed. Keep your eye out. If a strange bird appears, try to identify it before it is gone. You never know, such a rarity may make you a celebrity.