Birdfeeders

Summer is a great time to feed birds, especially if you live in northern areas. If you only feed birds during the winter months, you will miss seeing all the birds who come north to breed and raise their families, then head south for the winter. We have a tube feeder hanging out in the open to be easily seen by birds flying over. We are often rewarded with visits by birds we never see during the winter months. The tube feeder is kept full of black oil sunflower seeds all year long. This offering attracts a large variety of birds and even the ground feeders hang around below the hanging tube feeder to pick up the seeds dropped from above.

Squirrels are becoming more of a problem at bird feeders now that their natural food supplies are pretty much exhausted. Most of the seeds and nuts produced during the summer have been stashed by squirrels or consumed by squirrels and other creatures. My new favorite squirrel proof bird feeder uses the squirrel’s weight to activate the motor which spins the bird feeder until it flies off. There are quite a few models that use the squirrel’s weight to throw them off. This type of squirrel proof bird feeder seems to not only have the best results, but is very entertaining as well!

At first, I worried that the mourning dove laying in our bird bath with one wing up in the air was hurt. Then I realized he was just sunning and cooling off! It looks so strange that if you haven’t seen it before, you very well may think the bird is injured. I have seen other mourning doves do this as well as some sparrows, but never while sitting in the bird bath! While sunning, a bird is trying to expose different parts of its body to as much sun as possible, so they often do this out in the open to avoid shadows. This is a frequent behavior on our large deck as well as in our raised beds, but never before in our bird bath.

Hot summer days can be as challenging for birds as they are for us. They have some natural adaptations to help cool them off. They pant, just as dogs do, they will seek shade and lower their activity level. If there is any breeze, you will see birds puff out their feathers and lift up their wings to get air to their hot skin. Although birds have their own ways to keep cool, a backyard bird bath will certainly draw birds to your yard on a hot day. Some birds will come only to drink, but many will come to either wade or really splash around. We have two bird baths, one large saucer type that is about 2″ deep that we have right on the ground. It is regularly visited by quail, doves, robins, grosbeaks, jays and other larger birds. The hanging bird bath has sloping sides to a center depth of 2 inches. This is used most often by finches, sparrows, orioles and any birds that love to splash around. On the hottest days, I try to fill it at least once during the day to keep the water cool, but this certainly isn’t necessary. If you can add a mister or dripper to your bird bath, the birds will be drawn like a magnet!

Peanut butter is a food that many birds love, especially chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches and jays. It is a very nutritious treat for it is high in fat content and therefore, calories. I have heard that some people are afraid to offer peanut butter for they think it will get stuck on a bird’s bill or in it’s throat and kill it. This is absolutely not true, but for anyone concerned about this, just mix some cornmeal in with the peanut butter and it will be crumbly instead of sticky. I do this, not from fear, but the crumbly peanut butter is easy to offer in a platform bird feeder. The bigger the variety of foods offered, the more species will be attracted, so I simply add the crumbly peanut butter to the variety of seeds already offered in our platform bird feeder.

There are many examples of how birds have learned new behaviors when it comes to bird feeders. Only a few years ago, Orioles did not approach bird feeders, but now they happily sip nectar from Oriole feeders. I have my own example of learned behavior. We have had a hanging platform feeder in our yard for years, but the local California quail who are regulars in our yard have never approached it. Early this summer, I put the platform feeder down on the deck and it became a favorite feeding station for the quail. Unfortunately, after a few weeks, the mice also found it, so I again hung it from the hook mounted on the deck railing where it had been for years. It only took a couple of weeks for the quail to discover where “their” platform feeder had moved to and now they are in it to feed daily.

To attract birds quickly to a small area, first scatter bits of white bread around and watch to see which species are in the area and bold enough to come in. This could take a few days, but it is worth it. Most birds are hesitant to feed on a high balcony, but usually even these can draw some brave birds. Once you have attracted some birds, add other foods that they like. A small platform bird feeder is excellent for offering a variety of foods that are highly visible. If even a platform feeder doesn’t attract many birds, but water is scarce in the area, add a large flat pan of water and see if that draws more birds in. If it does, then adding a bird bath would be a great idea.

It isn’t easy to outwit squirrels - we have to admit that they are quite clever animals! However, a single squirrel can empty a bird feeder in a very short time, so we are constantly working to keep them out of our feeders. There are many, many styles of squirrel proof feeders, all of which do a good job of keeping the squirrels out. It is really just a matter of which one appeals to each of us. Many are caged to allow small birds in but not squirrels. I prefer the battery operated ones that simply spin until the squirrel is thrown off. Actually, squirrels can be quite entertaining in their own right. Therefore, the other option is to provide the squirrels with their own squirrel feeders filled with the foods they actually prefer to bird seed, especially corn and peanuts. Using a combination of squirrel proof bird feeders and squirrel feeders can keep our bird feeders available to the birds.

We are really crazy about our platform feeders for they attract so many birds. By offering a wide variety of foods, we have been successful drawing many species to these feeders. Now there is a platform feeder available that attaches to a window with suction cups. We have a small window bird feeder that is used mostly by small finches, but I am looking forward to adding this window platform feeder.