wild birds

[kitten76]

Although we live in the city we have many wild birds in our back yard. great learning for the kiddos.we have woodpeckers, 2 different species of humming birds that have a nest, doves, a mamma and daddy cardinal who feed their young and we have watched them teach their young how to fly on our back porch every spring, finches, blue jays and several other species. there is one species that is so small that we can never spot him, he has an interesting call that my daughter loves to mimmick. we recently have had a hawk visit our back yard. I was wondering how I could safely attract him so the kiddos can see him from afar? I was surprised at how close he came to the back window! he was less than 5 ft away from me!

[Mygala]

Hawks are predators, and the best way to pull them in is to provide food for them. What kind of food depends on what kind of hawk it is...

Accipiters, like Goshawks, Cooper's Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawk's will come to your bird feeder and poach the birds off that. ...Heck, it's one of the main reasons I have so many bird feeders in my yard, I know it attracts hawks as well as the the passerines. Just be sure you don't get your feeders too close to any large windows. Accipiters are very 'energetic' in their tactics. They have been known to chase birds right into windows. This happens more often than you'd think.

If you are dealing with a Buteo of some kind, Redtail, Red-shoulder, Broadwing, etc, ...they won't be as interested in the birds at the feeder. It's easiest to provide some mammalian prey. Rats and mice are favorite prey of theirs. I don't seriously think most people are going to do this, but... you asked.

bob

[Vanilla_Rat]

Oh how interesting!!!

Living in the city,I don't get to see many different kinds of birds very often,unless I go out to a pond or nature park or the woods.

We have alot of rock doves (pigeons),gulls,starlings,crows and things like that tho!

The only thing I can think of to get the birds closer so your kids and you can view them,is feeders.

[kitten76]

we have the feeders and there are pleany of rodents , we live near a lake and we keep the rodents out of our house with our cat, so he has plenty of options as far as food goes, i just wish he would come around a bit more so the kids could see him. we always watch the birds from behind the sliding glass doors, i dont want the kids to think it is ok to approach wild animals and i dont want the animals to get too used to humans.. thank you for ya'alls input.