Amelia's Backyard Birds
By Bob McGinness, Island Nature & Garden
Photos courtesy of the National Bird-Feeding Society
(www.birdfeeding.org)

Away from the beach, away from the shopping, the golf, and the fishing, one of the pleasures of Amelia Island is enjoying the diversity of birds that visit our backyards. Commonly called feeder birds, they are an important part of the environment here on Amelia Island encouraged by the wealth of shrubbery and trees around our waterways and homes.
Beginning in late winter and continuing through summer, the birds that inhabit our backyards all year long begin courtship rituals and nesting. The male northern cardinal feeds the female in ritual courtship and then searches for places to make their nests. The titmice and Carolina chickadees, which sometimes have seemed to disappear from the area during the winter suddenly reappear out of the woodlands. The Carolina wrens begin building nests everywhere in a frenzy of activity.

The northern cardinal is a year-round resident of Amelia Island.
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The cardinal nests in thickets and shrubs and has multiple broods each season. The offspring show up throughout spring and summer. Although they look like a cardinal in size and shape, they appear more motley and dirty-red with bad feathers and distinctive black beaks. The male cardinal leads the children to feeders and feeds them seeds.
Although a year-round resident, the tufted titmouse seems to return to the yard in the spring and remain through the fall. They nest in tree cavities and can be attracted to a birdhouse to raise their family.
Another resident that can be attracted to a backyard birdhouse in the spring is the Carolina chickadee. After they breed, they can be seen and heard in the evening in small family groups, flitting from feeder to feeder and then taking off to explore a neighbor's yard.
Not normally found in areas as developed as Amelia Island, bluebirds nest on the island near golf courses and other spacious fields. They are attracted to backyards with nesting boxes and feeders that provide mealworms.
The king and queen of the spring nesting season is undoubtedly the Carolina wren. Each male sings a great variety of songs, singing one song repeatedly before switching to a different song. Males in adjoining territories match songs. Male and female wrens sing duets. They build multiple nests before deciding on a particular one. Normally nesting in tree cavities in residential neighborhoods, they will build a nest anywhere there seems to be a cavity available: mailboxes, watering cans, old shoes and coats, in parts of boats and trailers and automobiles. Leaving a garage door open in the springtime is an invitation to a nest and the responsibilities of opening the door each morning to let the wrens out. Male and female watch after the young, the male taking responsibility for feeding while the female makes another nest. They often have three broods in a year - which means a lot of nest building!

The Carolina wren will build a nest just about anywhere,
including mailboxes, watering cans, old shoes, boats and automobiles.
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Spring migrations bring birds that winter further south and take up residence here for the summer. Many just pass through on their journey further north.
The first migrant to our backyards is the hummingbird. In northeast Florida, the only hummingbird is the ruby-throated hummingbird. The male has a ruby red throat and green upper parts while the female has a soft white throat and breast area. In early April, we see the ruby-throated hummingbirds passing through on their way to the rest of North America. Shortly after that, more hummingbirds arrive and will stay here all summer long.
Hummingbirds like backyards with appropriate flowering plants and with
feeders filled with fresh hummingbird food.
Arriving about the same time as the hummingbirds is the prince of spring migration - the painted bunting. In early April the male painted bunting will arrive followed a few days or weeks later by the females. The painted buntings inhabit our coastal regions in the summer only. They migrate as far north as coastal North Carolina. The male is a beautiful gaudy finch with a red breast and underbelly and a blue head with wings that range from yellow to iridescent green. Although not as gaudy, the female is one of the few truly green birds in North America with its color close to the iridescent green of the male's wings. The painted buntings feed on white millet seed in backyard feeders.
The painted bunting nests in brush and shrubs and is very skittish both at feeders and in shrubbery. Locally, tourists can see the bird at the feeder area near the fishing pier at Fort Clinch State Park.
The painted bunting leaves the area in mid-October with the male leaving first and the females leaving about two weeks later.

The ruby-throated hummingbird likes backyards with appropriate
flowering plants and, of course, feeders filled with humingbird food!
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A winter migrant to the island is the American goldfinch, arriving just about the same time that the painted bunting leaves. The goldfinch spends the winter without its golden summer plumage looking rather like a brown sparrow with a golden spot under its wing. Like many of our seasonal guests, it spends the winter resting. It likes finch feeders filled with thistle seed. In the spring, just after changing to its golden coat, it leaves to travel north, just about the same week that the painted bunting arrives again.
During the summer, fall and winter, flocks of blackbirds invade our feeders: fish crows, grackles, red-winged black birds, and the brown-headed cowbirds. They all seem to thrive on any of the food that we put out. Blue Jays love peanuts and sunflower meats, as do the woodpeckers. Red-bellied woodpeckers, especially populous on Amelia Island, feed their young with sunflower meats from feeders.
The northern mockingbird (the state bird of Florida), while not normally a feeder bird, can be attracted to the backyard with slices of fruit.
The requirements for a bird-friendly backyard habitat are food, water, and cover, with a place to reproduce and raise young. Among the neighborhoods of Amelia Island, many developments have left trees and shrubs intact. This provides the vital ingredient for shelter and cover.
Many homeowners desire a more natural environment for their yard than is provided by a lawn. On the south end of the island the developments of Summer Beach and Amelia Island Plantation have left trees and shrubs in place among homes, condos, and golf courses.
State parks on the north and south ends of the island provide natural refuge for both migrating and year round resident birds.
The city of Fernandina Beach has just recently purchased the Egan's Creek Greenway, 238 acres of environmentally sensitive land along Egan's Creek between Atlantic Avenue and Sadler Road. The greenway provides large tracts of woodlands, shrubbery, and water that encourage native plants and animals, including our backyard birds.
Natural areas like these, and efforts among developers, city, and state will preserve the habitat necessary so we can continue to enjoy Amelia Island's backyard birds.