birds at my feeder

**rosey7415** · 01-08-2011, 11:26 AM

we have always fed the birds in the summer. we sit on our patio and watch them. my mother just loves this and besides seed in the feeders she is always looking for bread, crackers, etc.to break up and throw out there as well. they are very well fed here we have generic birds that live in our birdhouses....sparrows, i think. occasionally we get a woodpecker...a cardinal...a yellow one....but rarely. we are just happy about feeding the birds....lol....any birds.

well, this winter i decided to put out some bird suet. i am amazed at the birds that we have been getting to our feeder!!! so far i have seen at least 5 kinds of birds that i never seen before. i am totally illiterate to what kind of birds they are. i am going to remedy that by searching online to learn something about them and to be able to identify them. what a fun new different project for me.

i heard that picking the right kind of seeds attract different types of birds. can anyone help me? or are there any wild bird lovers out there in fv land? any one else want to share in thier experiences? i'd love to hear from you......

**madhen** · 01-08-2011, 11:56 AM

I keep the basics out all year round. Grey stripe sunflower, black oil sunflower, nyjer thistle, and hummingbird nectar. I do put out suet blocks, but I'm not good at remembering, because the birds will ignore them for weeks, then suddenly finish them off, so I forget to check the feeders.

I live out in the country, so I get a little bit of everything, including game birds. I throw out chicken food for them.

If you want to really attract birds, have water out for them. I dug out a little in-ground bird bath, and I get EVERYTHING at that thing!! In the summer, they'll all come in as soon as dawn hits, then throughout the day, they'll use it as a bird bath. Nothing funnier than watching crows flapping their huge wings and throwing water all over the place, then sitting, dripping wet, on the fenceline to dry off.

I used to put out oriole nectar, but the orioles usually seem to prefer my hummingbird feeders, for some reason, so I don't bother anymore.

**madhen** · 01-08-2011, 11:58 AM

If you want to have fun, go to www.nwf.org and read about their backyard habitat program. I got my property certified a few years back.

They basically say that the essentials are water, food, and cover/nesting sites, if you want to attract and keep birds coming.

**Darlene** · 01-08-2011, 01:20 PM

We feed them black oil sunflower seed and suet.
Suet lovers are woodpeckers, nuthatches, titmice, chickadees...
We also get cardinals, juncos, sparrows, morning doves, flickers...
maybe some of thesenames will make it easier for you to look them up. Enjoy, we love feeding our birds year round.

**Quiltin'Mom** · 01-08-2011, 08:23 PM

Originally Posted by madhen

I used to put out oriole nectar, but the orioles usually seem to prefer my hummingbird feeders, for some reason, so I don't bother anymore.

Orioles around here love oranges. Just cut an orange in half and put it out for them. They love them. They also love grape jelly.

They return to our neck of the woods around Mother's Day each year and my In-laws get several pairs of them that keep coming back.

**madhen** · 01-08-2011, 08:39 PM

I've tried both oranges and grape jelly, but I have so much natural produce around, they tend to ignore what I put out. They learned, a few years back, to "pop" the fake yellow flowers out of the hummer feeders, allowing them access through a much larger hole to get to the nectar. It took me forever to figure out why I kept finding the stupid plastic flowers on the ground!! The acorn woodpeckers do the same thing. I didn't even know they LIKED nectar until I saw one pop a flower off, then take a nice deep drink!

**KatieInLa2** · 01-09-2011, 02:05 AM

I keep bird feeders out too. I fill them with sunflower seeds, shelled peanuts and sometime safflower seeds. I have eastern bluebirds that I keep nest boxes out and mealworms to attact them. WhatBird | identify birds | bird identification guide | north america is a good site to identify the birds you see.

**wjcalderon** · 01-09-2011, 08:11 AM

I put out sunflower seeds in the fall & winter.
I have seen:
goldfinches - lots & lots of them
cardinals
sparrows
doves
chickadees
juncos
titmice

In the spring & summer, I hang hummingbird feeders.
I have 4 feeders - each one holds a quart of nectar - for a while last summer, I had to refill them every day.

**rosey7415** · 01-09-2011, 02:52 PM

thank you all for the help......especially the names so i can look them up

**Trishagirl** · 01-09-2011, 03:11 PM

I enjoy watching and feeding the birds also. I feed them BOSS see Black Oil Sunflower Seed & Thistle seed for the finches. Homemade Suet for the woodies and nuthatches. Yesterday I had some bluebirds in my ornimental pear tree eating the pears! What a beautiful sight that was! I took a pic will get it loaded soon.
I also have a Hummingbird feeder in the summertime. I also have a peanut feeder but I haven't bought any peanuts lately they've been so expensive. I make my own nectar for them. 3 cups of water to 1 cup of reg white sugar and boil for 5 min and let cool.

**gottadance** · 01-11-2011, 02:37 PM

I love birdwatching - I am a volunteer with the National Wildlife Federation and I teach people how to create wildlife habitat. Once you start to learn more about what birds like and eat, it gets really exciting. I have some grasses the sparrows and juncos just love in fall/winter. Hummingbirds love hyssop. I planted Giant Purple Hyssop and it's my #1 hummingbird plant. Then in fall, goldfinches and juncos love the hyssop seeds.

I had about 30 cedar waxwings on my silky dogwood bushes (waxwings love berries) this fall. I have found that if you want to attract birds, putting in native plants (plants indigenous to your state) is the best. I've had 82 species of birds in my yard - most recently a cuckoo. And yes - water all seasons is great. I actually have a pond I put in, but in the winter I have birdbath with a heater and the birds love it. One time I had a juvenile Cooper's Hawk take a bath in my pond - now that was amazing!

If anyone wants to ask me specific questions, ask away! One tip: If you want to attract the "good" birds (native - not house sparrows or starlings which are aggressive and not native and will kill other native birds), don't throw out people food. Only put out seed and use specialized feeders.

**Texasgirl** · 01-11-2011, 04:48 PM

I keep the bird feeders filled around here.
Also have a suet feeder that I try to remember to buy the suet for it.
I love to watch the different birds at the feeders.
At night rabbits come out and eat what was spilled on the ground.
I should just make my own like I have done a couple of times.
Just to darn lazy I guess.

**Pemberleyan** · 01-11-2011, 08:58 PM

I enjoy feeding the birds. Right now I'm only feeding black sunflower seed. I made a suet cake out of animal shortening, peanut butter and sunflower seed, but they're not touching it! I've got a few dozen American goldfinches, several "purple" finches (which are really rose-colored), a few cardinals, at least one tufted titmouse, and a few sparrows, doves, and juncos.

You'd probably enjoy one of the "upside-down" feeders. They're made for finches to hang upside down. They can easily do this and it keeps other birds from eating their seed. Finches love black thistle seed, aka black gold, because of its expense.

I live deep in the woods and I've had to cut back because of raccoons and rats. I bring the feeders in every night or they will be emptied overnight.

**gottadance** · 01-13-2011, 02:20 PM

One of the keys to keeping critters off of feeders is to put them on a post somewhere open - where critters can't jump onto them from roofs, trees, etc. or to put a metal baffle on them at about 3.5 feet. Plastic ones break and can be chewed, but metal - no go.

I have my feeders out and had a raccoon problem - I had a feeder hanging from my roof gutter. I bought a flat circular metal baffle and hung the feeder on these long, skinny metal things (you can get them from Home Depot, etc.) that have screw holes on the end - then I just screwed eye hooks into the end. When the feeder was on a chain, the raccoons would lift it up to the roof - baffle and all. But now that it's on these metal things, they can't.

On my post feeder I have the baffle about 3.5 feet off the ground in the middle of the yard - no way for anything to jump onto them. It's been great. I've truly baffled the squirrels, chipmunks and raccoons.