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From: stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com (Dick St.Peters)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Hand-feeding wild birds
Message-ID: <14182@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Date: 25 Nov 90 23:22:06 GMT
Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com
Reply-To: stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com (Dick St.Peters)
Distribution: rec.birds
Organization: GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 16
Disclaimer: GE would charge for its opinions.  These are mine.

Since chickadees seem to be much in the news, what (if any) other bird
species, particularly Eastern US species, can be hand fed in the wild
by a patient person?

In the summer, I spend so much time sitting on our dock on Lake George
hand-feeding chickadees that when I arrive they come begging within
seconds.  If I tire of feeding them, they'll land on my hand and peck
at the cookie I'm eating.  Several other species come around and will
take seeds from the dock surface within a few feet of me, but so far
only chickadees will eat out of my hand.

(I also hand-feed chipmunks, grey squirrels, and one feisty red
squirrel that sometimes can't tell a finger from a peanut.)
--
Dick St.Peters, GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY
stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com	uunet!dawn.crd.ge.com!stpeters