Feeding Birds During Winter

If you feed birds, you're in good company. Birding is one of America's favorite pastimes. A 1997 report from the Kaytee Avian Foundation estimates that 43 percent of U.S. households or about 65 million people provide food for wild birds.

Wintertime - and the Living's Not Easy

In much of North America, winter is a difficult time for birds. Days are often windy and cold; nights are long and even colder. The lush, berry-laden vegetation of summer and fall has withered or been consumed, andmost insects have died or become dormant.

Finding food can be especially challenging for birds during days with extreme cold temperatures. Setting up a backyard bird feeder makes their lives easier and ours more enjoyable. To observe birds at your backyard feeder, you don't need to brave the elements - you can simply watch the show from the comfort of your own home.

Types of Bird Food

During the spring and summer months, the diet of most songbirds is composed mainly of insects and spiders. These creatures are highly nutritious, abundant, and, for the most part, easily captured. During fall and winter, however, nonmigratory songbirds must shift their diets to fruits and seeds to survive. This is the time of year when winter birdfeeding enthusiasts should roll out the welcome mat and set the table.

The question is, what to serve for dinner? The shelves of many supermarkets and specialty bird-feeding stores are stocked with bags, buckets, and cakes of many food types. You may find the task of selecting the best foods a bit overwhelming. One key to attracting a diversity of bird species is to provide a variety of food types, but that doesn't mean you need to purchase one of everything on the shelf.

Which Seed Types Should I Provide?

The seeds that attract the greatest number of species are black-oil sunflower. These seeds have a high meat-to-shell ratio, they are nutritious and high in fat, and their small size and thin shells make them easy for small birds to handle and crack. (Striped sunflower seeds are larger and have a thicker seed coat.) Several studies show that this high-energy food is the flock-pleasing favorite of the majority of birds that visit feeders. In fact, it is often wasteful to fill a feeder with a standard mix - a blend of sunflower, milo, millet, oats, wheat, flax, and buckwheat seeds - since your visitors may eat the prized sunflower seeds and leave the rest.

Keep in mind that birds' feeding habits vary based on weather patterns, geographic region, season, and even individual taste, so you may find exceptions to these guidelines. Dried, whole-kernel corn is a favorite food for jays, pigeons, doves, quail, and pheasants. It is perhaps the least expensive of all birdseeds. Cracked corn, however, is easier to eat for blackbirds, finches, and sparrows. You can often find cracked corn at your local feed and seed store.

"Millet" comes in red and white varieties, but most birds prefer white proso millet over red. "Nijer," or thistle seed, is a delicacy for small finches such as goldfinches, siskins, and redpolls. Because nijer seeds are small and expensive, it's best to offer them in a special nijer feeder, which has tiny ports that prevent the seeds from spilling out.

Safflower is another seed that many birds like - most notably, cardinals. As an added bonus, it has limited appeal to starlings and House Sparrows (non-native species), and squirrels. Peanuts are another readily available food that many backyard birds will eat. While sunflower seeds are favored by most feeder birds, some birds do prefer other seeds. For example, blackbirds like corn, and doves prefer corn, milo, and millet. Most groundfeeding bird species prefer white millet or red milo to black-oil sunflower seed, but many tree-feeding species prefer sunflower seed. Experiment to see what your birds like best!

Make it Yourself

As an alternative to commercial mixtures, which may have a high percentage of less appealing "filler seeds" such as red milo, you can create an attractive, low-cost mixture yourself.

Here's a good recipe:

Pour one 25-pound bag of black-oil sunflower seed, one 10-pound bag of white proso millet, and one 10-pound bag of cracked corn into a clean trash barrel. Mix it up with a broomstick, and be sure to replace the lid tightly. In fact, always store whatever seed you decide to provide in a tight, waterproof container. Metal containers work best to prevent rodents from gnawing their way into your food supply.

Leftovers: For the Birds?

You don't have to limit your offerings to commercial birdseed. Some people save the seeds from squash and melons. This is a great way to put the seeds from your Halloween pumpkins to good use. Some birds relish these seeds even more than black-oil sunflower. Spread them out on trays to air dry before placing them in your feeders or on the ground. If the seeds are sufficiently dry and free of mold, you can save them to use when winter comes. Smaller birds may have a tough time breaking open vegetable seeds, but if you run the seeds through a food processor first, they will be able to eat them with ease.

Some people throw out scraps of stale bread, cake, or doughnuts for their feathered visitors. There's nothing wrong with this, but be sure the food is not moldy or it may harm the birds. Another caveat: table scraps may attract less-welcome visitors such as European Starlings, House Sparrows, rats, or raccoons. Attracting nuisance species can be a real problem in urban and suburban areas, so be considerate of your neighbors before feeding leftovers.

High-Energy Foods

You can also attract insect-eating birds such as chickadees, woodpeckers, and nuthatches to your yard by offering peanut butter or suet (beef fat). Birds that live in cold climates especially appreciate these high-energy foods. Some people worry that birds will choke on sticky peanut butter. There's no evidence that they do, but you can completely eliminate any risk by mixing peanut butter with corn meal or oatmeal.

The plain beef suet available at most supermarket meat departments is an excellent high-energy food. Suet can quickly become rancid in warm weather, but some commercial suet cakes and doughs can be used year-round. Offer the suet in a plastic mesh bag (the kind onions come in) or, to guard against raccoons, in a wire basket. Premade suet cakes are also available in most stores that sell bird-feeding supplies. These cakes often contain a mix of birdseeds. The cakes are great to have on hand in case your local supermarket is out of suet.

Fruity Favorites

Birds such as robins, thrushes, bluebirds, and waxwings don't usually show up at feeders because seeds are not a major component of their diet. But you can still tempt them to dinner with an offering of fruit. Soften dried raisins and currents by soaking them in water, then offer them at your feeding station. Mockingbirds, catbirds, tanagers, and orioles will also find sliced fresh fruit attractive. You can offer fruit on a platform feeder or simply on a plate on the ground.

Water and More Water

Unfrozen water can be as hard for birds to find in winter as food. Birds need water not only to drink, but also to bathe in - clean feathers provide the best insulation. A dependable supply of fresh water will even attract to your yard birds that wouldn't ordinarily come to your feeders.

A shallow, easy-to-clean birdbath is best - an upside-down garbage can lid or large frying pan will work fine. To emulate a natural puddle, simply dig a shallow hole in the ground and line it with plastic before filling it with water. In colder climates, an immersion - style water heater will keep your birdbath unfrozen in the winter. Clean your birdbath often and keep it filled with fresh water.

Types of Feeders

The ideal bird feeder is sturdy enough to withstand winter weather, tight enough to keep seeds dry, large enough that you don't have to refill it constantly, and easy to assemble and keep clean. For these reasons, plastic or metal feeders or wooden feeders made with types of weather-resistant types of wood such as cedar or mahongany work best.

In general, seed-feeders fall into three categories: tray feeders, hopper feeders, and tube feeders. Tray feeders are typically placed close to the ground and attract ground-feeding birds such as juncos, sparrows, and towhees. Tray feeders also work well when mounted on deck railings, stumps, or posts. Hopper feeders are very common and are often hung from trees, decks, and poles. These feeders are especially good for larger species such as cardinals, jays, and grosbeaks. Tube feeders are typically suspended from trees and posts. They are excellent for finches, titmice, and chickadees.

Feeder Placement

Place your feeder in an area free of disturbances where it is easy to see and convenient to refill. Your feeder should be close to natural shelters (cover) such as trees or shrubs...and if you have a cat, high enough so the cat can't reach the feeder!

Large evergreen shrubs and trees are ideal, providing maximum cover from winter winds and predators. If trees and shrubs are too close, however, they can also provide good jumping-off places for squirrels that may be eyeing the seeds, and cats that may be eyeing the birds. A distance of about 10 feet seems to be a happy compromise.

You can provide resting and escape cover for ground-dwelling birds, such as Song Sparrows, by placing large, loosely stacked brush piles near your feeders.

Feeder Maintenance

Clean your feeders about once every two weeks or at least once a month, more often during times of heavy use. Scrub them with soap and water, then dip them into a solution of one part bleach and nine parts water. Rinse them well and allow them to dry thoroughly before refilling them with birdseed.

Another important maintenance activity is to periodically rake up birdseed hulls beneath your feeders. Decomposing hulls may harbor bacteria that could spread bird diseases to your feathered guests and may kill your lawn or flowers.

Bird-Feeding Concerns

Poorly maintained feeders may contribute to the spread of infectious diseases among birds. The feeders themselves can sometimes pose hazards too. Here are some helpful hints for successful bird feeding:

• Avoid overcrowding at feeders by placing numerous feeders several feet apart.


• Keep your feeding area and feeders clean.


• Keep food and food-storage containers dry and free of mold and fungus.


• Check your feeders for safety. Sharp edges can scratch birds and make them susceptible to infection.

People wonder whether bird feeding causes birds to change their migratory behavior. The clue that most birds use to migrate is the change in day length rather than the availability on the ground around the feeder to make your feeding site more obvious.

If the seed in the feeder is blowing out or getting wet, there is a good chance that your birds are getting the same treatment. Your feeder may simply be too exposed. Moving it to a calmer, more sheltered spot may increase visitation.

In newly developed housing areas, birds may not feel sufficiently protected because trees and shrubs may be small or few in number. Remember too that bird populations fluctuate naturally from year to year, so if you notice a scarcity of feeder birds this year, you may be surprised by an abundance of birds the next year.

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