- So now you have your feeder station all set up, and you got all kinds of creatures coming to visit it.

You might be wondering, now what?

Well, first know that there's nothing else that you really need to do.

Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

But if you watch long enough, your mind might fill up with more questions like what kinds of birds are these?

Why are some birds larger or more colorful than others?

Why do woodpeckers only have two toes in the front instead of three like these other birds I've seen?

Asking questions and exploring their answers is all a part of the fun.

You can learn more about birds by first identifying them.

What I like to do first is give the birds its own name, like Big Beaked Acrobat or White-faced Ninja.

This makes identification more personal and fun and will help you remember.

Then you can use a field guide like this one.

This was the first book that I ever purchased for myself.

I was 11 years old.

I loved birds.

And you can start flipping through the pages and try to find your bird in it.

The more and more you flip through the pages, the better you'll get to know your field guide and the faster you'll be able to identify birds in the future.

Now let's take a good close look at common birds that you might find right here at your bird feeders in the Midwest.

Here coming into our feeder is a northern cardinal, the state bird of Ohio and many other states in the United States.

They're quite common and also very loud for their size.

The boys are red, which helps them attract and defend their mates and habitats.

And here's a girl now.

She has the same body type as the boy, even with that bright orange beak, but she is brown in color, which helps her to hide in the nest when she is incubating her young.

A chickadee just snuck in and took a seed.

Did you see that?

Here is a Carolina wren, always with that tail up, and I love that black eyebrow.

There's that quick chickadee again, two of them.

Sometimes birds are just not good at sharing.

Oh, here's one of my favorites, the nuthatch.

Look at how strong he is as he explores every nook and cranny of this feeding table.

They behave just like woodpeckers.

Speaking of woodpeckers, here's one of our smallest, the downy woodpecker.

They love this suet.

He's thinking about it.

I wonder if he sees me looking at him through this window.

See the tip of the tail?

There is a downy woodpecker on the other side of this.

Oh, and this red-bellied woodpecker just scared him away.

What a treat.

I hope you get woodpeckers at your feeder.

You never know until you try.

He's looking at me.

Sometimes feeding the birds means that you feed other animals too.

Squirrels love bird food.

Due to climate change, where our birds migrate to continues to shift.

We know this because scientists explore data collected through thousands of bird feeding stations, just like this one, all across North America.

But the data could always be better.

The more feeding stations that we have collecting the information, the stronger the scientists' research is gonna be.

You can help by keeping track of what bird species you find at your feeder by participating in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Project FeederWatch or the Great Backyard Bird Count.

Check 'em out at the links below to learn how to help.

Thanks and take care, and happy birding.