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Summer Askin started feeding birds just a few years ago, when he was in college.
几年前萨摩·阿斯金开始饲养鸟类，当时他还在上大学。
I just taking this class, ornithology, the study of birds, and I was just super into it.
我们当时学习了鸟类学，我从此爱上了它。
And originally I got one feeder, and I put it all the way up in this tree.
最初我只有一个喂食器，我把它放在树上，
I probably climbed like thirty feet, so I could hang it right outside my window,
我爬了大概三十英尺高，才能把它挂在窗外，
and I got some cool stuff, and I just wanted to keep going with it to see what else I can get.
我还收获了一些好玩的东西，我想继续做下去，看看还能收获什么。
He got lots of birds, downy woodpeckers, northern cardinals, mourning doves, house sparrows and many others, and watching them was a learning experience.
他收获了许多飞禽，比如啄木鸟、北美红雀、哀鸽、麻雀等等，并且把观察它们当成一种学习经历。
You learn about the different types of, just how each species is designed differently
你会了解不同种类的鸟，每个种类的特征各不相同，
like the way their toes are shaped, so they can grip things differently.
就像它们的爪子形状各异，抓东西的方式也不同。
Askin uses different shaped feeders to make it more adventurous for birds.
阿斯金用不同形状的喂食器，这对它们来说还真不容易。
Most birds like a small sparrow can't exactly stand on the side of a tree like a woodpecker can,
比如麻雀等多数飞禽没法像啄木鸟一样站在树上，
you know, cause it gets its toes in there and it just climbs up.
因为它们的爪子放在树上，却只能向上爬。
Askin spends about a hundred dollars a month buying birds' seed.
阿斯金每个月花费大约100美元购买鸟食。
Wild Birds Unlimited is one of the stores catering to bird feeders.
“野鸟无限”是专门售卖鸟食的商店。
Michael Zuiker, who is run this business for 26 years, says some 53 million Americans enjoy the hobby.
迈克尔·泽维克称大约有5300万美国人有这一爱好，泽维克在这一行业已经有26年的时间。
Gardening is the first, backyard bird feeding is second, and they pretty much blend into each other.
园艺第一，饲养鸟类排名第二，两者差不多可以相互融合。
It's a 100% food, so there's no cleanup in the backyard. We sell 200 bags or about two tons of this every week.
这是纯正的鸟食，你无须清理后院，我们每星期卖200包鸟食，大约2吨。
There's a lot of reasons why people feed, but I think one of the most important reasons is a very very peaceful emotional experience.
人们喂鸟的原因有很多，但我认为最最重要的原因是它能够带给人们平静。
Paul Starzynski agrees. He picked up the hobby after he retired a few years ago.
保罗·斯塔辛斯基也同意这个说法，几年前他退休之后就开始有了这个爱好。
If you sit quietly, you can, they come real close and you know they don't, you don't bother them and you can watch them,
如果你静静地坐着，它们就会靠近你，如果你不打扰它们，你就可以观察它们，
you can even see the little seed in there and their beak before they swallow it. It's kind of fun.
在它们吞咽之前，你还可以看到鸟食和它们的喙，这是一种乐趣。
Other customers take bird-watching to another level by counting the birds they see.
其他顾客则把鸟类观察带到另一个层次，他们会数鸟的数量。
That data then gets put into the eBird account, which is a computer database, and very quickly you can find out what the species are doing.
这些数据会被存入计算机数据库的eBird账户，然后很快你就会发现这些物种的动向。
How healthy they are? Which birds are migrating? Which birds are not doing very well.
它们的健康状况如何，哪些鸟在迁徙，哪些鸟类表现不佳。
In exchange for a bit of seed or suet, feathered visitors bring color and beauty, and song to millions of American backyards.
为了换取一些食物或者是板油，“羽毛客人”给数百万美国民众带来了奇幻的颜色和美丽的景致，和一首首好听的歌曲。
For writer Faiza Elmasry，I'm Faith Lapidus, VOA News.
编辑伊扎·马斯利，我是记者菲斯·拉皮德斯，VOA新闻。
