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Cornell University : Cornell Cooperative Extension
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| Yates Association |
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Bird Feeding Revisited |
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November 21, 2001 Feeding birds is an entertaining enterprise as well as providing sustenance for our little fine feathered friends. Many hours of enjoyment may be had sitting by a window on a cold windy snowy day watching little balls of feathers scurrying to and fro the feeder. It's good therapy. Once in a while a new friend turns up and to find out who she or he is requires a visit to a bird identification book. Some people maintain a life-time list of observed birds. In fact, some bird identification books have such a check list included somewhere between the covers. Learning who they are is half the fun in feeding them. They quickly become friends. Only three things are required to attract wild birds: adequate cover, correct food being offered and feeder design. It isn't hard to attract wild birds provided one has a desirable location. Bird feeders located out in fields far away from protective habitat are not going to be productive. Birds travel in cover avoiding open areas that provide no protection from marauding hawks. When one observes a small bird up close, the bird will be seen moving its head in all directions in a constant searching motion. Small birds are always on the alert for danger. The slightest disturbance will set a whole flock in motion towards the nearest cover. Simple cover can be a row of trees or shrubs leading to the feeder location. If a decent habitat is nearby, birds will find the feeder in no time. Probably the first visitors will be Black Capped Chickadees. Other birds will follow once the chickadees home in on the feeder. A feeder in a suburban tract has a disadvantage unless trees and shrubs are well established throughout the tract or neighborhood. Fortunately, people love to garden and landscape and a new tract will soon have enough cover to attract roaming birds. Folks living out on the country near wood or brush lots should have no trouble establishing a wild bird feeding restaurant as long as cover is nearby and along the route necessary to travel to reach the feeder. Trees and shrubs can be specially located to provide good cover for a feeder. There are many books written on the subject including plant selection recommendations. If you can not locate one or have a question call the Master Gardeners for assistance. There
is no little controversy over the best kinds of song bird feed. It
boils down to whether one is buying or selling. Some sellers stock
shelves with seemingly all kinds of bird feed mixes provided by reputable
companies. The trouble is, research reveals that many of the song
birds we most wish to attract won't eat much of these brightly packaged
seed mixes. Many song birds are attracted to black oil sunflower seeds. In fact for many song birds it is the preferred feed. Stripped sunflower seeds are not as useful and should be avoided in preference to the black. Our black oil sun flower seed feeder attracts Nut Hatch, Chickadee, Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Purple Finch in large numbers, Blue Jay, Junco, Mourning Dove, many kinds of Song Sparrows and some other song birds. We never see the undesirable House Sparrows or Starlings around our feeders. You may hear that Gold Finches love thistle seed and that is true. However they also love black oil sunflower seed making the use of special thistle feeders unnecessary in my opinion. Black oil sunflower seeds are readily available at most stores that carry bird seed as well as directly from local farmers who grow and harvest them. A farm-bought fifty pound bag of black oil sunflower seed was selling for $11 last winter. They may be a bit higher now due to last summer's drought. You may find an advertisement in this newspaper for farmers who have these for sale. It is best to store them in a rodent free container such as a galvanized trash bin. They can be stored outdoors as long as they are kept dry. Once the birds find a path to your feeder do not be surprised to go though as much as a gallon of seed a day depending upon local habitat. There are two other kinds of feed to consider for your backyard song bird restaurant. The first is White Proso Millet. Millet attracts Field and Tree Sparrows, Juncos and Brown Towhee (we have not yet seen Brown Towhee at our feeders). We've seen these first three eat black oil sunflower seeds but our research for this article found that Millet was the preferred feed for these song birds. Some of these birds are ground feeders which may cause a problem with the local cat population. A short fence around a ground level feeder or a low level platform feeder may solve this problem. Suet, beef suet, is a by-product of butchering beef and is available at most grocery stores that sell meats. This is the preferred feed for woodpeckers. Do not use any metal containers to hold the suet. Reportedly, it can freeze to the woodpecker's exposed fleshy areas. I have not been able to confirm this comment but remember it from year's back. Nevertheless there is an inexpensive alternate holder. That is the plastic mesh bag that fruit or onions often come in from the supermarket. We keep a small supply of suet in the freezer. When needed, we pop it into the plastic mesh bag and hang it in a tree with a coat hanger. It has to be high enough and out of reach to discourage pets and wild animals. Woodpeckers love it. It is fun to watch a Chickadee or Nuthatch fly down to the feeder, pick up one sun flower seed and fly back to a nearby perch. Then using its beak like a can opener, it goes all around the seed until the top flies off. A quick grab and a swallow and the bird flies down to repeat the process. I admire the lil buggers because I have tried to open one seed, it is not an easy process and, while being a whole lot bigger, the bird unknowingly reduces me down to its size. There are a lot of preparations using suet and seed mixes that seem to work well for a combination of birds. If that is something you wish to do, fine. But be aware that simple seed presentation is easier, less time consuming, and works just as well. Feeders can become contaminated from time to time and should be cleaned with a household bleach solution a few times a year. All of the residue, shells and wet seed should be dumped out of the feeder when it is empty before refilling with fresh feed. The debris on the ground around the feeder should be raked and composted as weather permits to prevent diseases from developing and contaminating the feeder area. Feeders should have some sort of rain protection, be easy to fill, and be large enough for the population on hand. Squirrel deterrent feeders may be designed to discourage song birds as well. If it looks like a trap of some sort, the birds will think so too and shun it. Placing the feeder eight to ten feet away from the nearest tree limb may make the leap too far for the gray four legged robbers. It has to be high enough to avoid the squirrel from leaping up from the ground or climbing up a wooded post. If the post is made of wood then a piece of aluminum flashing wrapped around the upper part of the post will prevent the squirrel from getting a toe hold. Some song birds become aggressive and will chase other birds away from "their" food supply. If this becomes a problem, a second feeder located some distance away may allow the intimidated birds access to food. Water is as useful as feed for winter birds. The trick is to keep it fresh and unfrozen. If all the near by sources of water are frozen solid this might be something to think about. There are small heaters that poultry farmers use to keep the water dishes thawed in the hen house. One of these in a bird feeder should do the trick. Lastly, birds have the dismaying habit of trying to fly though glass windows. From outside, they may see the landscape reflection on the window and try to fly though it. Once I heard a large crash and found a small hawk had caught a titmouse when it tried to escape though our window reflection. Both hit the glass at the same time and were momentarily stunned. All kinds of thoughts go through you mind when you see a predator steal one of your friends to eat. Then we have to step back and remember that this is mother nature in action and to interfere, while that is our own nature, it is not what mother nature intended. But we can and should provide cover for an escape route for our friends. To do less would be a shame. As for the glass, a screen on the window would solve most problems with reflections, at least cushion the impact from a fast flying bird. Putting tape on the window to break up the reflection is not an option most of us would consider. There are plastic meshes one can install on frames in front of problem windows. A dead bird now and then may be found around the feeder. If it is only an occasional occurrence, consider it normal attrition and do not become alarmed with the discovery. One should expect to see an occasional dead bird around the feeder. All the articles the Master Gardeners provide here in this column are carefully researched. We've heard that some people are cutting them out saving them in one form or another. Many of them are still available on the Cooperative Extension web site http://www.cce.cornell.edu/yates/mgindex.htm We Master Gardeners welcome your calls for assistance and questions. Our research library is fairly extensive and if we can not find the answer there, we have the resources of the Cooperative Extension as well as Cornell University to fall back on. If you have a question for the Master Gardeners, call the Cooperative Extension at 315-536-5123. Leave your name, phone number, and a time we may call you back with the results of our research to your question. Cornell
Cooperative Extension Yates Association |
