Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Black-headed grosbeak with sunl ower seed
Finding the feeder is easier than we might think. Somewhere between one
in i ve and one in three families in Europe, North America, and Australia feed
birds. Feeders are packed into densely settled parts of cities, even though per
capita feeding rates are greatest in the countryside. Thistle and sunl ower
seeds are common of erings, but where hummingbirds hang out, such as on
the West Coast of the United States, more than half the people who feed birds
also provide nectar. In the dry Southwest deserts, more than 90 percent of feed-
ers of er true urban oases with plenty of water and food.
An estimate of the amount of food people provide to birds is staggering.
A typical participant in Cornell University's FeederWatch program dishes
out more than three hundred pounds of seed and twenty pounds of suet each
winter. Across the United States, one-half-million to nearly one-and-a-quarter-
