Blue Spruce Park Chickadees:
Feeding Chickadees Out of My Hand
near Indiana, Pennsylvania
Some tips when hand-feeding the birds
1) Hold your hand still! Especially do not move your hand or body when the birds land! If you move or jerk your hand, then that will scare that bird, and that bird may not come back to you. Be prepared mentally for the possible shock of feeling the feet of a bird landing on your hand. It is a neat experience to have the wild birds land on your bare hand. You can feel the difference in the feet of the different individuals and species when they land. For example, some birds land gently on the palm of your hand, while others will hang on vertically with their claws. The birds will come to your hand whether you have gloves on or not. In the winter, I wear gloves - not because the birds prefer that, but because my hands get cold and I can stay out longer with gloves. On really cold days, I wear heated gloves. The birds come either way.
2) Research shows that birds recognize individual people - especially their faces. So, if you are a person the birds do not already recognize, then they will often first swoop near your hand - fly very close to your hand - to see what your reaction is. Don't move your hand! They may do this several times - to include gently touching your hand as they fly by. If you don't move, then they will come back to land on your hand. After they know who you are - and are safe, then they will land on your hand.
3) Hold out your hand with the seeds very near a branch or twig, rather than standing in the middle of the trail. The birds recognize individual people, and the birds prefer to land on a twig to check out new people more carefully before flying to your hand. (After they know you well, then they will accost you no matter how far away from the trees you are, even if you are moving along the trail or out in the open.) Research studies show that the birds identify individual people by their faces. My wearing different clothes does not seem to matter one way or the other to the birds.
4) When I go to Blue Spruce Park to feed the birds out of my hand, I take a combination of Black Oil Sunflower Seeds and "Peanut Splits." A "peanut split" is half of a peanut, where the peanut has been taken out of its shell/hull and split into the two halves. My observations indicate that White-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, most Black-capped Chickadees, and Downy Woodpeckers prefer to eat a "peanut split" from my hand, rather than choosing a Black Oil Sunflower Seed. The first three bird species do, however, also eat the sunflower seeds out of my hand.
Be aware that, basically, the bird species that come to your hand in Blue Spruce Park will just ignore smaller seeds (often found in commercial bird seed mixes), and I don't even offer them.
ClickTap image or here for larger photo.
The photo above was taken by Cheri Widzowski and
shows a chickadee picking up two peanut splits at the same time.
Link to Cheri Widzowski Photography.
5) Although not essential, you can let the birds know that you are there to feed them by shaking the seeds that you have brought in a plastic container. The sound of the shaking seeds will attract them to come to see you - just as the musical sounds from an Ice Cream Truck in the summer attract children and their parents to come out of their houses to buy ice cream. Over time, the birds have been conditioned to this sound of the shaking seeds.
6) Hold your elbow close to and touching the side of your body with only your forearm reaching out. If you are standing next to twigs where the birds can land, this arrangement works out the best for both birds and people. Holding your arm straight out away from your body will just ensure that your arm gets tired quickly. I see uninitiated people holding up one tired arm by supporting that arm straight out with their other hand, and they get tired much faster.
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