How can I attract big eagle-size birds to my bird feeders? January 5, 2005
Question How can I attract big eagle-size birds to my bird feeders?
Answer Years ago a person could leave a tv on the public network station and Big Bird would show up every day about 4 o'clock. Nowadays it may be harder to find your way to Sesame Street.
Large birds may be more awe inspiring, but they are also hard to keep in a small area. In order to support their increased size, large birds have to eat more. Whether they eat meat or plants, they have to move around to find enough food to support their dietary demands. Their longer wings are designed for fast or long flights instead of posing for pictures.
Most large birds in North Carolina are meat eaters like the eagle, red-tail hawk, and osprey. Buzzards specialize in dead meat and can be attracked by dragging some road kill (deceased oppossums) into your yard. There are several large migratory birds like Canadian geese and tundra swans, but you have to be on their flight path to see them. The wild turkey is one of the few large birds that doesn't eat meat or migrate.
Tall trees like pines, poplars, or bald cypress may serve as nesting sites for large predatory birds. These meat eaters will also catch the small birds and squirrels that are feeding at your regular bird feeders.
There are many plants that can be designed into a landscape to accommodate smaller birds. Trees and shrubs with berries and nuts are the best place to start. There are tons of plants that fall into this category. Good examples would be oaks, dogwoods, serviceberries, hollies, blueberries, or blackgums.
Perennial and annual beds can also be sources of bird feed. Plants like goldenrod, sunflower, purple coneflower, and aster equally serve as natural bird feeders. Most small birds eat insects at some point in time (especially when raising babies). The same plants that provide seeds also provide insects. Even weeds like pokeweed, poison ivy, Virginia creeper and greenbrier are important to hungry birds.
Diversity and high quantity are the two most important attributes for plants to exhibit in a bird friendly landscape. People feed birds primarily during the winter to make up for the lack of diversity and quantity of food producing plants.
If you want to know more about encouraging birds or wildlife in your landscape, then call me at 910-893-7533, write me at PO Box 1089, Lillington, NC 27546 or email me at gary_pierce@ncsu.edu You can also find information on the web at http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/hortinternet/birds.html or http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/forest/wildlifepubs.htm
Buzzard is the correct term for a family of European hawks. In America, the term is often incorrectly used to describe vultures. This dates back to the arrival of the first English colonists. There are no vultures of any type in England, so these pioneers probably gave the common term "buzzard" to the soaring scavengers of the New World. Believe it or not, the turkey vulture is one of the only birds in North America with a sense of smell. I would think that rotten possums might taste better if I didn't have to smell them. Vultures are probably not the most desirable large birds to watch, at least while they are eating. | 
