Bird Feeding

Feeding wild birds doesn’t have to be expensive but once you start you should not stop feeding during the winter, once the birds become used to your feeding stations.  You can stop feeding in the spring once insects and other fruits become available.  Birds will find a food source if you stop feeding them; however, spring is the time when birds are nesting and can use the food you supply. Most seed plants and berry bushes have not grown to be able to provide food for birds, so your food could be important for the birds. Calcium suet dough and water are beneficial this time of year in addition to the regular seed and seed blends you provide.  Most people, once they start feeding wild birds, don’t want to stop because they enjoy having the birds around to identify and learn about their behavior.  Attracting birds to your yard will also help you control insect pests around your home, yard, and garden.

Of course, the easiest thing to do is buy some mixed seed and hang up a commercial feeder.  However you will have more fun feeding different types of seeds, at different feeding stations, and will attract a larger variety of birds.

Food often becomes moldy in feeders during rainy seasons and this is not good for the birds. Putting food out daily insures that it is fresh, there is less waste, you will know if the birds need more or less, and can adjust the amount to just the right proportions that are needed on any particular day.

Planting seed producing flowers is a fun way to attract birds too.  Also collecting wild seed heads like grass seed, mulien, black-eyed susans, or wild sunflowers, and tying those in bundles to hang and dry to later be tied to a tree during the winter and will excite any hungry bird.

It’s important that when people feed the birds that they do what’s safe and healthy for the birds.  You can situate your feeders so they are near enough to trees, shrubs or places like wood piles or stone walls so the birds can fly into these areas to escape danger. You do not want to place the feeders too close to these areas because cats may hide in them.