While snow and winter weather is still here in Ouray County, bears will soon be active and seeking food to quell their hunger after winter hibernation — more so if they have cubs to feed. Bird feeders are easy, high-calorie food sources and create opportunities for bears to habituate to people especially in riparian areas where people also live.
According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, about 80% of human-bear conflicts are initiated with a single bird feeder. After experiencing the ease of finding bird seed and suet, followed by remains from garbage cans and Dumpsters, bears may become a nuisance and end up being relocated or even euthanized.
The birds will not suffer if people take their bird feeders down now, said Tony Bonacquista, division wildlife manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Nucla office, who acknowledges people enjoy feeding them.
“But supplemental feeding of birds is not necessary,” said Bonacquista. “There is plenty of natural food available to them, and that’s the easiest way to reduce conflicts with bears.”
Local food for local birds
The Clark’s Nutcrackers, Stellar’s Jays and Western Scrub Jays have had a great winter in Ouray County and across the Uncompahgre Plateau. So have the Evening Grosbeaks, the Red-winged Crossbills and the Rosy Finches. These are all species that call Ouray County home year-round and they migrate to lower elevations when looking for their primary food source during the winter.
Fortunately, cone production in pines and spruces was abundant in 2023. The jays and nutcrackers benefitted from seeds of Ponderosa and Pinyon pines. Grosbeaks, crossbills and finches found their preferred seeds in spruces. Other year-round bird species are still finding dried fruits on shrubs and seeds from native grasses. Not one bird is going hungry!
Some birds are even helping to sustain our local forests. Jays and nutcrackers cache or hide thousands of seeds per winter, storing them away for spring. The Clark’s Nutcracker, for example, can harvest and store more than 70 seeds per trip in a little pouch under its tongue. The Clark’s Nutcracker will hide up to 30,000 seeds in hundreds of places during one winter. While they have incredible memories and can relocate most of their cached foods, their stockpiles are occasionally left to germinate and develop into saplings.
All of our birds, even the migrating songbirds and hummingbirds who make their way back to their local breeding grounds, find plenty of native food to nourish themselves. They — and the local winter birds — will forage and eat tree buds and sap, as well as grass seeds. As the weather warms, all of these birds will primarily feed on insects until fall.
Other reasons to bring feeders in now
There are at least three other good reasons to bring the bird feeders in now.
Small birds are always on the alert to predatory birds (and domestic house cats). Removing feeders from April through November helps to reduce the potential for predation as many hawk species (and cats) stalk bird feeders waiting for an easy meal to fly by.
Wet spring weather creates opportunity for bird seed to rot and deteriorate, which may contribute to avian eye diseases and other types of fungal outbreaks.
Spring’s sunny days and changing angle of the sun can also contribute to birds and collisions with windows. Removing feeders from locations near these windows can help reduce these accidents.
Ridgway resident Mary Menz is a Colorado Native Plant Master and advocates for native plants that support insects and pollinators, birds and other local fauna. She’s the author of “Wildflowers of Colorado’s Western Slope” and “Common Wildflowers of the San Juan Mountains.”
Ridgway resident Don Marsh is a birder and a board member of the Black Canyon Audubon Society and the Western Field Ornithologists, an organization of amateur and professional field ornithologists that promotes the study of birds throughout western North America.
