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Bird Feeding at English Gardens
Bird Feeding Tips & Tricks
Backyard birdwatching provides a peaceful escape and a chance to reconnect with nature amidst life’s busy pace. Feeding wild birds is an enjoyable activity for all ages and, with a little planning, you can attract a variety of birds to your yard year-round.
Young children are drawn naturally to the activities involved in feeding wild birds and adults enjoy the relaxation and peacefulness afforded by watching birds. Backyard bird feeding is an easy hobby to start. It can be as simple as mounting a single feeder outside a window and filling it with a good-quality birdseed mix or a single-type feeder designed to attract a specific bird.
Providing food, water, and shelter year-round helps birds survive the winter, benefits the environment and supplements wild birds’ natural diet of weed seeds and harmful insects. Here are some tips for attracting birds to your yard.
Food & Feeders
The wider the selection of ingredients, the wider the varieties of birds you will find in your yard! Use blends of bird feed that include fruits or dried mealworms to offer a well-rounded meal. This gives them the nutrients to power through the winter. Suet cakes and logs are also great choices rich in protein.
- Keep feeders cleaned and filled to ensure birds can count on your yard for food all year. Clean the feeders and the surrounding area at least once a month.
- Move feeders periodically to help prevent buildup of waste on the ground.
- Keep the feeder area clear of snow and ice during the winter. Stamp down the snow underneath feeders to help groundfeeding birds like doves and cardinals.
- Squirrels don’t typically go after blends with safflower seeds, but the downside is that it only attracts a limited variety of birds. If you have trouble with squirrels, use a blend with hot pepper like Cole’s Blazing Hot Blend or use your favorite bird feed and add a liquid chili seed sauce like Cole’s Flaming Squirrel Sauce. Birds are more attracted to hot pepper, but can’t taste the heat. Squirrels and other mammals will stay away.
Shelter
Make your garden bird friendly by providing shelter from the elements and predators. Many natural bird habits are lost to residential and commercial development. Planting appropriate trees and shrubs, as well as setting up a bird houses and habitats, will help keep birds coming to your yard all year.
- Shrubs, such as hollies, junipers and red twig dogwoods make great shelters and perches for birds and have winter interest in the garden. They’re also deer resistant.
- Add some ornamental grasses and hold off trimming them down until the late winter or early spring before the new growth occurs. This gives birds a place to hide and keep warm at ground level.
- Bird houses provide safe shelter for birds and hours of enjoyment watching them. Put up a birdhouse or two around your yard in a protected location.
- Give birds options. Some birds will build a nest, while others, such as bluebirds, chickadees and woodpeckers, will use birdhouses. Ask an associate at English Gardens for help in finding the perfect birdhouse.
Water
Water is an important part of a bird’s diet. Be sure your birds have access to a constant supply of fresh, clean water.
- Birds need water to bathe and drink. Use a bird bath or fountain to accommodate your feathered friends and keep them coming back for more. Add a stone or some other object that sticks out of the water for birds to perch. Birds won’t go to a water source if they can’t tell the depth of the water.
- Bugs like mosquitoes will breed in standing water. In the spring, summer and early fall, use a bird friendly Mosquito Dunk or Water Wiggler to keep bugs from breeding. The Water Wigglers create ripples in the water surface and the moving water will attract more birds.
- Keeping a dish of water or thawed bird bath in the winter is very important to keep the birds hydrated. Try a bird bath with a built-in heater or add a bird bath heater to keep the water from freezing.
- Bathing is also a daily bird routine and helps to keep their feathers in good condition which aids them with body insulation during those cold winter nights. Bathing is good for the birds, and is entertaining to watch!
- Consider adding a heating element to your bird bath during the winter to keep the water from freezing. Scrub birdbaths with a brush and replace the water every three to five days.