This is bird note. Putting up a backyard feeder is a simple way to attract birds to your home all year long.

But why do birds come to bird feeders?

A big tube of black oil sunflower seeds hanging in the middle of a January snowscape isn't the most natural thing.

So how do birds know to eat from it? First off, birds are adaptable.

Suit cakes played no part in the evolution of birds, yet as soon as you hang one up,

the neighborhood chickadees, woodpeckers, and

nut hatches find it quickly.

Those evening gross beaks at your feeder probably never ate Sunflower seeds in nature.

Sunflowers grow in open plains while Grossbeaks live in forests.

But when they're presented with a new type of food, birds incorporated into their diet with no hesitation.

Second, many birds have a substantial capacity to learn.

They learn by their own actions and those of the other birds they see.

As some birds discover the feeder and become regular visitors, other birds witness, and join in.

Of course, many kinds of birds don't come to feeders.

No one has developed a fly-catcher feeder and fly catchers get along just fine.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein.

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