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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Bring in the birds

Tips to generate more activity to your feeders

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 11/22/16

It appears that winter is finally settling in, which for many of us means the bird-feeding season is now in full swing. I don’t know about you, but for me, all the activity around our feeders makes …

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Bring in the birds

Tips to generate more activity to your feeders

Posted

It appears that winter is finally settling in, which for many of us means the bird-feeding season is now in full swing. I don’t know about you, but for me, all the activity around our feeders makes winter a whole lot more entertaining.

We draw in hundreds of birds every day, and it can be a feeding frenzy at times, which is what helps to keep it lively and interesting.

I hear regularly from folks who say they’ve put out feeders and don’t seem to attract very much, so I figure now is a good time to offer a few tips on how to really attract a large number and variety of birds. Whether you’re out in the country, the deep woods, or in town, you should have no trouble bringing in a large number of birds if you follow a few rules.

‰ Forget about offering “wild bird seed.” You’ll find these pre-packaged mixes labeled as wild bird seed all the time in stores. They’re cheap, but they’re a bad buy at half the price. These mixes are typically full of seeds like millet and milo that very few, if any birds, in the North Country will eat. You can fill a dozen feeders with such mixes and you’ll still be wondering where all the birds have gone. Your feeders will sit sad and lonely, while your neighbors’ feeder is a hub of activity. That’s because your neighbor knows what birds really like.

‰ Feed sunflower seeds. If you’re going to offer just one thing to the birds, make it sunflower seeds. For most of the birds that tend to visit feeders in our area, this is their favorite offering. With just sunflower seeds, you can attract pine and evening grosbeaks, black-capped chickadees, goldfinches, purple finches, blue jays, red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatches, pine siskins and redpolls— and that’s enough to keep things pretty busy around your house.

The only real question is whether to feed striped or black oil. Some people swear by the striped seeds, which are more expensive, but I stick with the black oil seeds, because they’ll attract a wider variety of birds and they have a higher fat content, which helps the birds more when its cold. The striped seeds have a significantly thicker shell, which makes it harder for smaller birds, like siskins, goldfinches, and redpolls to break through. It also means you’re paying for more shell than seed than you do with the thinner-shelled oil seeds.

‰ If you want to offer one other thing to entice a wider variety of birds, opt for suet. It’s a little spendy these days, since stores have figured out that bird enthusiasts will pay good money for the stuff. But a four-dollar package of suet should last you ten days to two weeks, so unless you’re really on a tight budget, it’s not going to break the bank. Suet is essentially pure fat so it’s a great way for birds to obtain quick, heat-generating calories. Suet will bring in the woodpeckers— everything from hairy and downy woodpeckers to pileated woodpeckers— which normally aren’t particularly attracted to sunflower seeds. If you’re near a black spruce swamp, suet will also attract boreal chickadees. Gray jays will also visit for suet, and many of your other birds, like chickadees and nuthatches, will appreciate the suet as well. I limit my suet feeding to the winter months, since bears will destroy a suet feeder in ten seconds flat. You might also attract a pine marten with your suet feeder, and, if so, it may require some reinforcement to keep them from running off with large chunks of expensive suet.

If you’re a deer hunter, like me, save the deer suet and fat scraps if you do the butchering yourself. The birds like deer fat just fine. I even save the rib cages after we’ve cut as much meat off as possible and wire them up in a tree. Birds of all kinds will spend weeks picking the fat and remaining meat scraps off of those.

‰ Thistle or niger seed: You’ll pay a buck a pound for this small black seed, but if you like plenty of goldfinches, this is the ticket. You can mix this seed in with your sunflower seed or, better yet, buy a thistle sock or a tubular thistle feeder, designed just for small finches, and hang it under your eaves, so you can watch them close-up.

‰ Cracked corn, etc.: I started feeding cracked corn years ago, mostly as a diversion for the blue jays, which can cart huge amounts of sunflower seeds away in the fall. But many sparrows and juncos like it as well, although most of them have moved south by now.

You can also feed other things, that certain birds really like. My gray jays will come to my hand for bread scraps, as will boreal chickadees in years when they show up at the feeders. Peanuts are another attraction, although you can spend a lot of money in a hurry feeding these expensive treats. If money is no object, have at it.

‰ Provide different feeding opportunities: You can offer the best foods in the world, but if you let more aggressive birds dominate your feeders, you’ll lose some of your favorites. In the morning, when I’ve put out the day’s offerings, our biggest feeders can be dominated by blue jays, and they’ll quickly discourage birds like chickadees, goldfinches, nuthatches, and timid pine grosbeaks. Don’t get mad at your blue jays, they’re great birds, too, and they’re just doing what they do. Instead, put up feeders designed for small birds and put them far enough away from the other feeders that the bigger birds won’t intimidate them. I stick a bunch of smaller feeders right under the eaves of our house, and the blue jays leave them for the smaller birds.

If blue jays are scaring away your pine grosbeaks, look for another spot to put out sunflower seeds. We have a large rock outside one of our windows and I toss some sunflower seeds up there and the pine grosbeaks love it, while the blue jays keep busy at the main feeders. Pine grosbeaks are also happy feeding on the ground, so toss some sunflower seeds on the ground where you’ll be able to watch them. You’ll lose seeds to the squirrels, but they need to eat, too. And sometimes, the red squirrels are as entertaining as the birds!

Enjoy the season…