The past week has been really hot here in southeast Texas, with highs getting pretty close to the 100F mark. We've been avoiding the heat and enjoying our air-conditioning but our birds have been suffering.
It has been toughest for the young birds, the ones born this spring and early summer. The juvenile Blue Jays have coped by puffing up their feathers to provide insulation from the heat but they haven't looked or sounded too happy about it.
Our young male and female Northern Cardinals have been looking stressed, too.
Their parents haven't looked like they're handling the heat much better.
Our White-winged Doves think that fanning out their wings and tails is the answer.
At least one of our Blue Jays has been trying out the same technique.
One odd thing about this is that our backyard is so small that the birds are never more than a few yards from a birdbath, which we keep full. The birds know it's there because lots of them come and drink from it. However, only one bird - a Blue Jay - seems to have taken full advantage of during the current heatwave.
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2 comments:
Those birds looked really stressed. Have you thought about adding a mister? Hummingbirds love it and it cools off the area around it. You could set it up to mist into a tree to serve more birds.
There's a birdbath a few feet away plus I use misting in our front yard. But the birds seem to prefer to stay dry.
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