Birdfeeders

Thistle bird feeders really don’t hold thistle seed, but are used to offer nyjer. This is a tiny seed grown in Africa and sterilized before being shipped to the U.S. It is fairly expensive so it makes sense to only offer it from a bird feeder especially designed for this seed. Thistle bird feeders are usually designed in one of two styles in order to use the seed sparingly and not have it wasted by spillage. The first design looks like a regular tube bird feeder, but the ports are much smaller and often are designed for the birds to hang upside down to get to the seed. The other style is shaped like a regular tube feeder except the tube is made of a screening mesh so birds can hang on the screen and take seeds through the screen. Forget about thistle socks. Yes, they are cheap, but the rate of spillage is very high. Thistle only attracts a few birds such as finches, juncos, redpolls, pine siskins and indigo buntings, but these birds love this seed, especially finches! We have goldfinches at our thistle bird feeder all year long. During the colder months, there is constant use of this feeder, while during the summer when lots of natural food is available, the goldfinches only visit occasionally. House finches also love nyjer. If you find that a flock of house finches has taken over the feeder, try blocking some of the ports to discourage the flocks. We have house finches, but they seem to be sharing quite nicely with the goldfinches and we enjoy watching all of them either on the feeder or waiting on nearby branches for a turn. Any seed that falls to the ground gets cleaned up by juncos and pine siskins. One more big advantage of a thistle bird feeder is that squirrels don’t really care for nyjer! If squirrels are a problem for you, this is quite an advantage.

If you want to feed birds, but are reluctant because of the mess left under a sunflower seed feeder, there is a solution for you. Instead of seed, put out whole in the shell peanuts. Put a bunch of these in a hanging platform feeder and watch what happens. Soon you will have blue jays, titmice, chickadees and many others stopping by. They will stay for a moment, then take a peanut and fly off to a nearby branch to get to work on opening the shell. You can also add other nuts to the selection in the platform feeder. Try Brazil nuts, hickory nuts and acorns to see what your visitors like the most. Woodpeckers may also eat whole nuts, especially during the winter. One word of caution - be sure local squirrels cannot get to your hanging platform feeder, for they love peanuts and will clean you out in no time.

As the winter storms have moved across the country, we are all experiencing more birds visiting our hanging bird feeders. Of course we expect this and welcome all the activity. However, what about when our hanging bird feeders are under constant attack by starlings, Grackles and doves? These large birds can empty a hanging bird feeder in no time. I have had questions about how to keep them out. In my experience, the tube bird feeder that is most effective at keeping out these large birds as well as squirrels is the Squirrel Buster Plus made by Brome. By keeping them out and having seed ports designed to control seed flow, the cost of seed that is saved will more than pay for this bird feeder.

As so much of the country has been slammed with heavy snowfall, food becomes scarce for birds in these areas. The problem is twofold. Food is harder to find and the cold temperatures make birds need lots of food to stay warm. Bird feeders become very popular and welcomed during these times. We have already talked about the advantages of black-oil sunflower seeds, nyjer and suet, but there are many other things to feed birds that are good for them and not as expensive to provide. Peanuts are high in calories and fat and are enjoyed by many birds including titmice, chickadees, nuthatches and jays. The added benefit of peanuts is that they don’t freeze. Peanut butter is also loved and can be just smeared on a branch or stump. We all seem to have lots of fruit around during the holidays and many birds will love your leftovers. A platform feeder is perfect for offering chopped apples, pieces of orange, chopped grapes, banana slices and even melon rinds. Our platform feeder has many additional offerings such as rice, pasta, bread as well as leftover pieces of cake, donut, bagel, etc. When it’s cold, these foods don’t spoil as quickly as in the summer. Experiment with leftovers and see what your local birds will eat and these offerings supplement your seed offerings.

When natural food supplies decrease and temperatures drop, birds will be much more interested in your bird feeders. Now is the time to stock up on the foods most birds like best. Birds are most attracted to foods that offer the greatest nutrition and most calories to give birds plenty of energy to build fat reserves to survive cold winter nights. Of course, the first and most basic offering is black oil sunflower seeds. They will attract the widest range of birds and are easily offered in hopper bird feeders, platform feeders or tube bird feeders. So many birds love these That we have them in a platform feeder and also in a large tube feeder and both are busy most of the day during cold weather. If you want to avoid the mess of empty shells below the bird feeders, you can use sunflower chips but they are more expensive. Suet offers the highest calorie content and during the winter doesn’t have melting issues. In our yard, it is not as popular as seed, but many people find it to be a great draw. In areas that have lots of snow, suet is quite popular. All finches love nyjer seed and our thistle (nyjer) feeder is always busy with many birds in nearby shrubs waiting to get to it. Nyjer is another oily seed that offers a high fat content. These are the basics for a successful winter feed station.

These tiny birds beat their wings an average of 25 times per second, so it is obvious that they use a lot of energy just flying. Even though the nectar they eat is high calorie, they need to eat as many as 2,000 times a day! Even when resting, the hummingbird uses a lot of energy. This is because it needs to keep its flying muscles at a high temperature to be ready for instant take-off. Our hummingbird feeders offer some simple fuel for these fascinating birds and are even more useful if they have perches for the hummers to land on and rest a little. During the day, a hummer’s heart beats 500-1200 times a second, but during the night, a hummingbird ruffles its feathers and allows it’s body to cool. It’s heartbeat slows down so much that it is almost undetectable. The bird is basically hibernating at this point, but it does it every night! The more I learn about these amazing birds, the more I enjoy watching them at our hummingbird feeders.

Hummingbirds are the only family of birds that can truly hover in still air for any length of time. This is a necessary skill in order to hang in front of a flower and drink the nectar from it. Any of us who have hummingbird feeders have seen this skill close up. How do they do this? Well, their wings are very different from other birds. They have paddle-shaped wings that are basically like hands that swivel at the shoulder. When they beat them, the tip of each wing follows a figure-eight pattern, lying on its side. As it goes forward and down it creates lift. As it comes up and goes back, the wing twists 180 degrees so it again creates a downward push. If the lift produced on each loop of the figure-eight is equal, the hummingbird will remain stationary in the air. Changing the angle of the twist will move the bird forward, backward, etc. Amazingly, the average hummingbird does this 25 times a second! This takes a lot of energy, so no wonder our hummingbird feeders are so popular!

I have really enjoyed keeping some basic records of sightings in our yard. When I started, I simply wrote on the calendar when summer arrivals appeared and when they vanished in the fall. This is helpful so you know when to put out the oriole bird feeders and hummingbird feeders if they are not year around residents. In our area, orioles arrive in March, raise their young and are gone by mid September. There is no reason to leave the oriole bird feeders up the rest of the time. However, we have some hummingbirds all year long, so we never take all these feeders down. Because our winter population is much smaller than our summer population, we take down all but one hummingbird feeder during the winter. Over the years, we have noticed and recorded much more information about the birds visiting our yard, so now we prefer to keep a notebook which is organized by month. However you decide to record your observations, it is really interesting to compare notes from year to year and from season to season.

A bird needs much more dexterity to land on a perch than to land on the ground. Maybe that’s why perching birds are smaller than other birds. It is quite difficult for a large bird to slow down without stalling and this is necessary to land on the perch of a hanging tube feeder. As a bird comes close to the perch, it has to reduce its speed to zero at the exact moment it arrives at the perch. This requires very accurate control. If the bird slows down too quickly, it will miss the perch. If it doesn’t slow down enough, it will overfly the perch. Watching birds come and go from our hanging tube feeders, I never see a miss, except in the spring when the chicks are just learning how to manuver and take advantage of the food provided in hanging tube feeders. When I think about the precision needed to land on these small perches, it is easy to understand why birds spend so much time preening their feathers. In order to take off and land accurately, feathers must always be kept in the best condition possible.

There are a couple of things that people who live in very cold areas often worry about. They are often afraid to leave out a tube bird feeder during very cold weather if it has metal perches. The fear is that a bird’s feet will stick to the metal. This is not a concern because birds have no sweat glands in their feet. With them producing no moisture, sticking to metal is impossible. Also, a bird’s feet can tolerate cold weather for they have special arteries and veins to keep their feet warm. The other fear concerns bird baths. Some people are afraid to use a bird bath heater fearing birds will bathe and freeze to death with wet feathers. Birds are smarter than that! They know to drink but not bathe when it is cold. Since thawed water is hard to find during very cold weather, a heated bird bath is quite appreciated.