Mother Nature is done with its colorful foliage show and even though the weather has been good recently, winter will arrive soon. Many of us like feeding the birds in winter as it can be very entertaining and it does help the birds facing extreme weather conditions.
If you haven’t had a bird feeder around your home and are interested in trying it, here are some tips that may help you enjoy this popular pastime.
To start, you need to provide the proper type of feeder. Some birds such as cardinals and juncos prefer an open type feeder. Others such as finches and chickadees like a tube-type feeder with holes and perches along the sides. Many birds, including those just referenced, will use a “house” type feeder where the seed is protected inside a box with troughs around the bottom outside edges for the seed to fall in to. The problem with these is that some birds — think blue jays and starlings — scatter seeds everywhere as they dig through the troughs. Then these seeds may get buried in the snow, get wet and spoil; and of course they may attract mice and rats.
Seed scatter occurs with tube-type feeders too, but nowhere near as much. Generally juncos and cardinals will clean up the small amount. Tube feeders, with their short perches by the feeder holes, also make it hard for blue jays, starlings and house sparrows to get at the seed.
What to feed the birds? Well, don’t throw bread outside — not only does it have no nutritional value, it also attracts undesirable species such as starlings and house sparrows. To attract the bird species that most people enjoy seeing you can’t beat black-oil sunflower seeds. Cardinals, chickadees, finches, juncos, grosbeaks, nuthatches and even woodpeckers love them. I buy mine in 50-pound bags (the cheapest way to buy them). Smaller size bags are easier to handle but of course they’re much more expensive. Most of the “birdseed mixes” sold are usually not the best type of feed because most of them contain a lot of useless fillers which the birds don’t really like. Mixes also attract undesirable birds. I store sunflower seeds in a metal garbage can with a heavy weight placed on top of the lid to keep raccoons and squirrels from getting to it. Keeping the can outdoors in the general area of the feeder makes refilling easier.
Where you put your feeder is also important. It should be hung close to your house, preferably near a window that you can look out of easily, and placed where squirrels cannot get to it. Squirrels can leap up to eight feet from a building or tree branch onto a feeder — and they will clean it out quickly, tell all their friends about it and actually chew it up. If there are free-roaming cats in the neighborhood you must also guard against them, as they will prey on the birds.
Probably the best set-up is a metal pole about six feet high with a cross bar at the top and a metal cone guard about four feet above the ground to discourage squirrels and cats. Your feeders and bags of suet can be hung along the cross bar, too. Do not hang a feeder from a tree branch unless you have a cone guard above it and there are not any other branches that a squirrel can leap from. I put a heavy wire hook on the feeder to hang it from that cross bar and use a pole with a hook on the end to put up and take down the feeder.
To attract woodpeckers, chickadees and nuthatches, try hanging a simple mesh bag (like those that a frozen turkey or chicken comes in) filled with suet from the meat market. There are also “suet cakes” you can buy, and small metal cages to place them in for hanging from a tree branch or by the feeder.
If you are new to this popular hobby you would be wise to get a bird identification book such as the one put out by Roger Tory Peterson to help you identify the various birds that show up.
After the holidays you can use your Christmas tree, or one that someone has thrown out, for cover for birds when flying predators such as hawks hone in on your feeder. Just use a metal stake to hold up the tree near the feeder, and remember to keep it back far enough that squirrels or cats can’t use it as a launch pad.
If you get a lot of blue jays at your feeder they will dominate it and spill a lot of seeds on the ground. You can beat this by placing a cage made from 2-inch chicken wire around the feeder. The smaller birds can go through the cage but the blue jays usually won’t.