Nighttime Niches--Part 1

I love to watch birds. Furthermore, I feel that feeding them and providing good habitat helps them thrive and reproduce—along with providing me with many watching opportunities. We've planted a wide variety of shrubs and flowers that offer them nesting sites, as well as attract the kinds of bugs they love to eat. It is a thrill to watch mom and dad feed and encourage their newly-fledged kids to fly.

As dusk comes on each night, the last song is heard, the last visit to the feeder is made; then our songbirds fly off to sleep the night away. Quiet settles in, until the various nocturnal birds—owls and whippoorwills—take up night duty and fill the woods with their calls.

I know that diurnal birds find a place to sleep—a place that needs to be as safe from predators as possible. But where? I've never seen a cardinal or a chickadee asleep at night. I don't go around with a flashlight trying to spot them snoozing, but I've often wondered where they go to doze. When parents are brooding chicks, I'm sure they constantly cover their babies to protect them, so at least one parent passes the night on the nest; but how about the rest of the year, when babies are not a concern?

Once the nesting season is over, birds will usually abandon the nest, since it is no longer needed, but it also is coated with droppings and scattered feathers, that attract predators and parasites; so it makes sense to stay away from it. So again, I wonder, where do they camp out at night?

A little research gave me some general answers. I have yet to actually spot one of our birds sleeping the night away, safe in its niche; but now I know where some of them might be found. Songbirds find various kinds of perches for sleep. Their main objective is to avoid nighttime predators—owls, raccoons, and other nocturnal carnivores—and to preserve body heat; so they survive to sing and find bugs (or my sunflower seeds) the next day. Some will seek various kinds of cavities or nooks where a large predator will not be able to get at them. Some may sleep in a location where an approaching predator must make noise or create disturbing vibrations that alert them of danger. (Say, on a flimsy branch that supports them securely, but a perch that a larger critter will shake.) They may also cluster in large flocks—giving them safety in numbers, while a few sentries on the edges stay awake through the night.

More on bird snoozing next time...