Maryland Backyard Birds

Northern Cardinal

What birds can you expect to see in a Maryland backyard? While every property is different with its own mix of birds, many are pretty typical. These are the Maryland backyard birds commonly seen in our central Maryland yard.

Estimated reading time: 26 minutes

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My DIY Anti House Sparrow Halo

Wired Bird Feeder to Deter House Sparrows
Wired Bird Feeder to Deter House Sparrows

Get rid of House Sparrows with a DIY Anti House Sparrow Halo: This past winter brought a small flock of House Sparrows to my yard. This spring brought a little group of Eastern Bluebirds. House Sparrows compete with bluebirds for nest cavities. They kill bluebirds (eggs, nestlings and adults) in the nest and then build their own nest on top of them. So these non-native sparrows need to go. 

You can find all my attempts to get these sparrows to move on in my “Deterring House Sparrows” post. But read on if you’d like more information on one my experiments: a DIY anti-House Sparrow bird feeder halo. This halo was inspired by the “Magic Halo” that folks at the University of Nebraska devised. If you poke around online, you’ll find lots of people have made their own versions of this device. This is how I made mine.

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Finding Brown-Headed Nuthatches in Maryland

Brown-Headed Nuthatch we found near Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center's observation platform
Brown-Headed Nuthatch

Looking to find Brown-Headed Nuthatches in Maryland? This past weekend, Jim and I went out in search of one. Now, if you live in the southeastern US, you might be thinking, “Ho, hum. I see those all the time. What’s the big deal?” But here in central Maryland, it is not a nuthatch we see often. They don’t stop by our house and aren’t usually found in our local woods. So we had to go just a little further afield to find one.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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