As more homeowners strive to take a greener approach to living, make their homes an oasis in the midst of busy lives, and find more economical types of entertainment, a growing number are discovering backyard birding.
Attracting Backyard Songbirds
Unlike traditional 'bird watching', where the would-be watcher goes tromping into the woods with a pair of binoculars, backyard 'watching' means bringing the birds to you. Binoculars are optional.
To attract the most interesting, colorful, or sweet-singing 'entertainers', you have to first know what birds live in your area. Small, photo-packed field guides to local birds are available in any book store and are a great place to start. Many also include handy tips on how to attract different birds to the feeder.
Choosing Backyard Bird Food
According to the Audubon Society, more than 100 types of North American birds depend on home feeders as a supplement to their diets. Because different species favor different types of foods, and feed in different ways, using a variety of feeders and seed is the best way to get the widest variety of birds.
If space and time allow for just one type of bird feeder, a tube-style feeder is probably the best choice. These vertical cylinders feature perches that will accommodate many types of small birds and feeding holes large enough for several kinds of seeds.
Hulled sunflower seeds are preferred by the largest number of birds. Using a sunflower seed blend in a tube feeder is likely to attract chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, grosbeaks and gold or purple finches.
Suet Attracts Woodpeckers, Cardinals
To attract those same birds as well as woodpeckers, juncos, cardinals and sometimes wrens and warblers, consider using suet. Suet is a blend of animal fat with things like peanut butter, grains and seeds and is favored by insect-eating birds. It can be found in any bird store or garden center, but it is also simple to make at home. A suet block can be hung in a simple mesh bag or fed from a special suet feeder.
Animal fat-based suet should not be fed once temperatures get above 80 degrees, however, since the fat in it can become rancid. Peanut butter is a good summer substitute.
Feeding Large and Small Birds
A larger version of the sunflower-seed tube feeder is the hopper feeder, a bird feeder that can hold several pounds of seed and dispenses it when the weight of a hopping bird on the rim bird opens the seed ports.
Using a wild bird food mix with sunflower seeds in such a feeder will attract small birds as well as larger varieties such as blue jays, grackles, red-winged black birds and cardinals. Millet, a popular component of wild bird seed blends is favored by ground feeding birds. In a ground feeder - or when it gets kicked out of a hanging one - you'll enjoy a show on the ground from quails, doves, juncos, sparrows, cowbirds and black birds.
Nyjer or thistle seeds are tiny and pricey but are beloved by delicate beauties like gold-, purple- and house- finches, redpolls and pine siskins. Thistle can be fed in a feeder designed for this purpose or from any dispenser with tiny holes.
'People' Foods Birds Love
Fruit loving birds, such as robins, orioles, blue birds, waxwings and mocking birds rarely eat from feeders. To attract these birds, the Audubon Society suggests soaking raisin or currants in water overnight and dispensing them from a table or deck feeder. For orioles, the method is even simpler: skewer a sliced orange half, cut-side up, near your other feeders.
All bird feeders should be hung from a pole about five feet off the ground. Providing a water supply and adequate plant cover nearby will help ensure a steady stream of enthusiastic diners. And, of course, keep the cat away.
Alex Strauss - Journalist Alex Strauss has written extensively for radio, television, magazines and the web for more than 20 years. During her career in ...
