Why Don’t Woodpeckers Get Headaches? And Other Bird Questions You Know You Want to Ask by Mike O’Connor

This fun book is a “best of” collection from Mike O’Connor’s newspaper column, “Ask the Bird Folks.” O’Connor opened up one of the first wild bird shops in the U.S. on Cape Cod in 1983. He received so many questions about birds over the years that he decided to put his answers in one place, this book. The questions and answers are arranged in eight categories, including “Bringing Birds to Your Yard,” “Bread and Water and Other Food Issues,” “Stuff … and What to Do With It” and “Information Nobody Should Be Without.” The entries are short, informative and instilled with the author’s unique sense of humor.

There are fascinating tidbits about the various bird species. For example, woodpeckers have very long, sticky tongues that wrap around the inside of their head that they can use to pull out juicy bugs hiding deep inside dead trees. They don’t get headaches because… well, you will have to read the book to find that out.

O’Connor recommends using only one type of seed per feeder, since otherwise birds will toss the kinds they don’t want onto the ground. I have almost always used a commercial mix or had fun making my own mix from two different types of seed. I have so many different kinds of birds coming to my feeders that I think it’s good to offer a variety of seeds (though I have noticed some birds shoveling food out of the feeder!). I would love to hear if others have had success offering mixes in their feeder. 

Check the WRL catalog for Why Don’t Woodpeckers Get Headaches?