Winter is a prime season for birdwatching at Coppertop. I keep the feeders well stocked, knowing that when nature’s food is scarcer during these chilly months, birds flock to the feeders. Hummingbirds are regular visitors even in winter, and they drain the homemade nectar each week. Suet is popular with many birds, and I often think I should invest in stock since the visitors can decimate a block of suet in 24 hours. I already purchase cases of suet, large bags of thistle seed, and keep close to 50 pounds of mixed seed on-hand in two enormous plastic bins. This is serious birding business with many exciting benefits for the keen observer.
List of 39 Birds Spotted in Coppertop Gardens
(in order of appearance; blue denotes link to photo)
January 2014-January 2016
Dark-eyed Junco
Steller’s Jay
Mallard Duck
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Varied Thrush
Spotted Towhee
Red-breasted Sapsucker
American Robin
Band-tailed Pigeon
Rufous Hummingbird
Mourning Dove
Bald Eagle
Song Sparrow
Evening Grosbeak
Black-headed Grosbeak
Common Raven
American Goldfinch
European Starling
Pileated Woodpecker
House Finch
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Western Tanager
Turkey Vulture
Anna’s Hummingbird
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Great Blue Heron
Pine Siskin
Cooper’s Hawk
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Brown-headed Cowbird
Gray Jay
Bufflehead Duck
After January 2016:
White-crowned Sparrow
California Quail
Violet-green Swallow
Hooded Merganser Duck
Canada Goose
Gardens at Coppertop -- March Picker 
March, you are so fortunate to have all those birds visit your garden. I get chickadees, nuthatches and juncos, a few finches and sparrows, and occasionally robins, downy woodpeckers and flickers. I left all my flowers and other plants with seeds in the ground so that the birds could peck at them to their heart’s content. I also have a squirrel-proof suet holder, My pride and joy are the Anna’s hummingbirds – I have a male and female, and possibly a third, but I have to see them all together to be certain. I hang two feeders (Hummzinger saucers work the best, I think), one in the front porch, preferred by the female, and one on the back deck, visited mostly by the male. I also have many tomato cages in the ground near the front porch because Mrs H likes to perch on them as she preens and stretches. She will spend many minutes sipping nectar at the feeder, whereas Mr H zips in and out like a miniature jet, never getting more than a slurp each time. And when he leaves, he rocks the feeder.
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Happy New Year, Sabine! Won’t it be wonderful if we’re able to view many more varieties of birds this year? Your description of the visiting hummingbirds is delightful. Hard to watch those birds without smiling, isn’t it? All the best to you in 2016.
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I put out a bird feeder a couple of weeks ago and it’s primarily become a squirrel feeder. Darn squirrel.
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I do still have hummers, too. They don’t seem to be drinking a lot of nectar, but they panic when I take it down to clean and refill.
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Happy New Year, LaNae! Good to see your smiling face in these comments. Something about watching the tiniest hummingbirds survive the winter cold encourages my soul. Maybe that means I feed them (attract them) for my benefit? Most of our many seed feeders are pretty squirrel proof since they’re on tall poles, but I also catch the brazen squirrels sitting in the tray feeders all the way up on the deck. Our beagle’s asleep on the job!
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