The departure of overwintering species and the end of migration means a little slow-down in most back yards in the Southeast but activity is bustling again as our year-round breeding residents get busy raising young. Species like Northern Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Blue Jay, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadee, and Mourning Dove are common breeding residents of most yards in our area. Providing food for them and safe places to raise young can lead to a dramatic increase in the density of birds and the amount of activity that you can observe.

Blue Jays and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, for instance, are always around but activity level varies throughout the year as the availability of natural food sources affects their need for supplementary nutrition from feeders. Once oak trees begin to produce acorns in the fall, it can be hard to find a Blue Jay at your feeders but find a healthy stand of oaks with a good crop of acorns and you'll find Blue Jays again.

You'll also find woodpeckers but, from late spring into summer when pairs of each are busy all day long shuttling meals to the nest or cavity, species like Blue Jay and Red-bellied Woodpecker will visit feeders constantly all day long. Sometimes, those super-busy periods only last a few weeks or so because young birds fledge and some species, like Blue Jay, disperse quickly. Other species, like Carolina Wren and Northern Cardinal, linger and family units build in number and make themselves conspicuously obvious by remaining closely associated in foraging flocks.

When you have a clean feeder with high quality foods like Nesting Super Blend, Tree Nutty blend, or Florida (Choice Plus) blend and accessory foods like Bark Butter and Bark Butter Bits, you make it more likely that your feeders will be among those that are constantly active during breeding season. Breeding species will nest in your yard because the investment is wise for them.

Take some time to look into the characters of plumage and coloration of bare parts like bill and legs of the species that spend breeding season in or near your yard. If you start with the Northern Cardinal and watch the video above very closely, you'll realize that close study of features like bill color and the distribution and extent of feather color can help you determine the age and sex of a bird. Study this video, for instance, with two main identification tactics in mind: First, is the bill gray or does it have some amount of gray in it? If so, the cardinal is definitely among this year's fledglings. Its takes up to three months for bill color to become the orange-red that you see in adults. Second, can you tell by the extent of red throughout the body whether the bird is male or female? Either way, when birds are young and in a highly dynamic phase of molt, the coloration throughout the body is very patchy and feather lengths are often inconsistent. Because of this, it's easy to tell one individual from another. As cardinals grow, this remains true even though it tends to be more difficult. In other species, it's exceedingly difficult.