Bird Watcher Supply Company

Happy Labor Day weekend! We still have some gorgeous Fall garden flags, along with UGA (Go Dawgs!) and other college flags in stock. Be advised that our Buford and Roswell stores will be closed on Sundays during the Fall months starting this weekend, but all of our stores will be open Monday, Labor Day. Come see us! 🍁🏈🍃

– In some species of birds, males and females have VERY different appearances. Take the Summer Tanager, for instance. Male Summer Tanagers are easy to spot with their strawberry-red plumage, but the females look very different with their yellow hue. Regardless, both males and females tend to hang out in the tops of trees, catching their favorite food—bees and wasps. They catch these bugs in flight and then beat them against a branch to kill them. Then, they rub the victim against the branch to remove the stinger before eating it. They’ll eat the larvae of these insects, too, getting rid of the adults first and then tearing open the nest to get to the grubs. Even though their favorite foods are bees and wasps, they may also forage on native berry bushes and fruits in your yard. Summer Tanagers will be leaving Georgia this month and next. They migrate mostly at night, and most will cross the Gulf of Mexico to reach their wintering grounds in Central and South America.

Y’all follow Christina Edwards if you don’t already. She’s our favorite local meteorologist (and she’s a bird watcher, too!) 🌞

Want to take your birding skills to the next level? A few members of our staff and several customers have become Georgia Master Birders and highly recommend this program! 🐦

Registration is now open for our popular Birds Georgia Master Birder Program. This fall, we will offer three cohorts, two in Atlanta and an additional cohort in Camden County offered in partnership with Camden County Audubon. The course will run from October 15 to November 23.

​Orientation and class sessions will be held virtually via Zoom webinars. Field trips will meet on Saturday mornings at 8:00 AM.

Course content includes classification and identification of birds, birding apps and equipment, bird songs and calls, anatomy and physiology, bird ecology, bird behavior, flight and migration, and bird conservation.

Learn more or sign up today at https://ow.ly/IrGM50T3SRI

A New Study Reveals Migration Isn't a Solo Affair--It's the Social Event of the Season Migrants face myriad challenges. That's why certain songbird species choose to travel (and possibly even work) together, according to research drawing on a trove of bird banding records.

A few visitors to the deck flowers today 🧡

Some changes are coming...please click the link to read our latest newsletter. Thank you for all your support! https://www.snapretail.com/retailer/TemplateRenderer.aspx/Consumer/2424981

The excitement about the 2024 Great Georgia Pollinator Census is un-bee-lievable! On August 23rd and 24th, residents across Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida will be counting all of the pollinators that they can find in
their environment. Learn more about the different types of pollinators and how you can join in the count at https://GSePC.org

We are back with another season of 🎉

Most birds in the United States begin their fall migration in August. Peak migration period is typically mid-August to mid-October. However, some species may migrate earlier or later in both spring and fall.

Tonight there are 203 MILLION birds predicted to migrate across the states!

Don't forget to turn off or dim the lights at night so birds can use the starry night sky to navigate! 💡

Have you seen any birds on the move?


📷BirdCast map forecasting 203 million birds predicted to migrate across the continental U.S. on the night of August 19, 2024. Courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Colorado State University.

Don’t we all just want to hide from Monday sometimes?

One more week—get ready for football season! 🐾❤️🏈 College merchandise varies by store location, but all five stores should have Athens and Unique Stone Bulldogs, along with garden flags, mats and more. Go Dawgs!

– Carolina Chickadees are common across the state. Sporting a black cap and bib separated by stark white cheeks, the Carolina Chickadee has a soft gray back, wings, and tail. They’re often mistakenly identified as Black-capped Chickadees, which are not found in Georgia. Carolina Chickadees are most easily distinguished from other chickadees by their distinctive four-note whistle. During the colder months, Carolina Chickadees eat about half plants and half animals. The rest of the year, about 80 to 90 percent of their diet is insects and spiders, which they search for on leaves and tree bark, often hanging upside down. Chickadees readily visit backyard feeders flying in quickly to snag a seed and then returning to the tree to wedge seeds against a branch to eat them.

Native plants are particularly critical for Carolina Chickadees during breeding season. A single pair of breeding chickadees must find 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars to rear one clutch of young, according to Doug Tallamy, a professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware. Even though seeds are a nutritious winter staple, insects are best for feeding growing fledglings. Photo by Minnie Lucas, Audubon Photography Awards.

It’s now the middle of August and the magical migration time has begun!

Some good tips to keep bees off your hummingbird feeders 🐝

7 Ways to Keep Bees Off Hummingbird Feeders (2024) In this post, you will learn 7 strategies to keep BEES away from hummingbird feeders! The good news is that most of the tips are FREE.

It's Almost Time to Dim the Lights for Migrating Birds!

The fall migration period officially begins on August 15, and we encourage you to reduce or eliminate outdoor lighting through November 15 to help our migrating birds find safe passage across Georgia.

Birds Georgia sends Light Out Alerts on evenings of peak migration to those who have registered via our website.

For more information on steps you can take to reduce bird-building collisions and to sign up to receive lights out alerts on nights of peak migration, visit https://ow.ly/MZrI50STLup

Today is the last day of our Hummingbird Sale—save 20% on hummingbird feeders, accessories, nectar, gifts, home and garden and more, along with 15% off Cole’s Wild Bird Products. Come see us—we are open until 5pm.

We are having a HOOT at our Roswell store today! Come see Puck and Fiona from HawkTalk, Inc. until 4pm and shop our Hummingbird Sale.

Want to hold a real live OWL? Monteen with HawkTalk, Inc. and her assistant, Libby, will be coming to our ROSWELL store tomorrow, Saturday August 10th with Fiona and Puck! For a $10 mouse money donation, you can slip on a glove and hold either owl ($20 to hold both.) We will be happy to take lots of photos with your phone or camera. There will be a sign up sheet when you arrive, so sign up, relax and shop our Hummer Sale, and we will let you know when it’s your turn. They will be there noon until 4pm. The address is 900 Mansell Rd. (near the intersection of Hwy 9, in the Mansell Oaks Shopping Center.) We hope to see you there! 🦉❤️🦉

Donation payments accepted:
Venmo -
CashApp - $EliaMcCord
Paypal - [email protected]
Cash (exact amount appreciated)

Our Hummingbird Sale continues through Sunday, August 11th! Come shop with us and save on Cole’s Wild Bird Products and everything hummingbird. 🌺

🌿Unique Stone just arrived! We restocked some favorites and added the following new pieces:

Our Hummingbird Sale starts today--save on all things hummingbird and Cole's Wild Bird Products! Click our newsletter link below for details and coupons: https://www.snapretail.com/retailer/TemplateRenderer.aspx/Consumer/2422885

Our thoughts are with folks in Florida, South and Coastal Georgia and the Carolinas as Debby dumps huge amounts of rain as she slowly moves through. And those chasing storm birds (we know there’s always a few hardcore birders out there 😉), please be careful! ⛈️🦩

If you love owls, stop by our Roswell store at 900 Mansell Road from 12-4pm on Saturday 8/10. Monteen with HawkTalk, Inc. will be coming with Fiona (Tawny Owl) and Puck, her new Northern White-faced Owl. They are non-native owl ambassadors that you can hold with a $10 donation. The money goes towards their care and also for the native birds of prey that she rehabs.

Georgia’s state bird, the Brown Thrasher is often seen in or around dense shrubbery. Thanks to it’s heavy, slightly downcurved bill and yellow eyes, Brown Thrashers have an “angry birds” look, but they are prolific singers with one of the largest song repertoires of any North American songbird—larger even than the Northern Mockingbirds extensive list.

Brown Thrashers are the only thrasher species found east of Texas. They are known to visit backyard seed and suet feeders, especially if dense shrubbery is nearby. Generally, they prefer to pick up fallen seed/suet pieces off the ground, but they will also land on feeders.

They are very fond of berries, so planting native berry-producing shrubs, like serviceberry, blueberry, and beautyberry, is a good way to attract them to your yard. Photo by Peter Waksmundzki, Audubon Photography Awards.

Welcome August! 🌻