If you want a fun learning experience, watch the birds at your feeders. Notice the different types of beaks and how their shapes dictate a bird’s dining habits — particularly the way it consumes black oil sunflower seeds, a highly preferred food among feeder birds.
Black oil sunflower seeds attract a variety of birds — cardinals, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, house finches, pine siskins, blue jays and downy and hairy woodpeckers. The seeds are high in essential nutrients, especially important for birds during winter. They also have thin shells, making them easier to crack open and access the tasty, nutritious kernels inside.
Chickadees and titmice, however, have tiny beaks and are unable to crack open a sunflower seed with their beaks alone. Instead, they grab a single seed with their beak and carry the morsel to a nearby tree limb. There, they hold the seed between their feet and use their sharp beaks as a chisel to split open the husk and reach the “nutmeat” inside. They couldn’t do this very well right at the feeder.
Blue jays use a similar technique, even though their beaks are much longer. The shapes of their beaks, however, render their jaws unable to crush sunflower seeds. Therefore, blue jays also use their feet to grip a seed while hammering it with their beak to break it open.
Downy and hairy woodpeckers are unable to hold a sunflower seed between their peculiar feet. Instead, they snatch a seed from a feeder and fly to a nearby spot where they wedge the tidbit into a crevice — such as in tree bark — to pound on it until it cracks. Nuthatches will do the same.
On the other hand, cardinals, house finches, goldfinches and the like have stout, conical-shaped beaks that allow them to shell seeds with their jaws and eat seed after seed while perched at a feeder — which explains why they usually spend more time at a feeder than most other birds.
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: One of the year’s best meteor showers, the Geminid, will peak this weekend at about 50 meteors per hour — after dark in the northeastern sky.
The moon will be full on Sunday. Venus is in the west at sunset and sets three hours later. Mars shines brightly in the east at sunset and will appear near the moon on Tuesday. Jupiter rises in the east at sunset and will appear near the moon on Dec. 12. Saturn is in the west at sunset.
Charles Seabrook can be reached at charles.seabrook@yahoo.com.
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