What's in your winter Bird feeder?

Hi, birdsters,

It's that time again to fill the backyard bird feeders, and I have been researching wild bird seed and which seeds exactly would be the very best bird seed for our winter birds and also be economical and no waste. Right now we are using black oil sunflower seeds, some safflower (since our squirrels and grackles don't like it) and also some thistle in our various feeders.

We have a pretty good range of feeder birds, but we want MORE! LOL So, tell us...

What is everyone is putting in their bird feeders this winter, and 'why'?

Are there certain birds you are trying to attract?

Certain birds you don't want coming to your feeder/yard?

Do you make a 'custom' bird seed mix'? Is any old mix fine?

Any thoughts? Ideas? Opinions?

Do you 'go organic' for your wild birds?

Please tell us your personal experience with what works or doesn't work with winter bird feeding for your region.

A winter cardinal photo from Wikipedia:

This message was edited Dec 16, 2006 6:55 PM

HI Judy,
I just put out a variety of seeds, and nuts, some shelled some not. A little ordinary birdseed, some mealworms, and different kinds of dried fruit like cherries and papaya. I used to get dried Marichino Cherries at Wild Bird Center, but she switched suppliers, and they don't carry them now. I need to find a new connection for those...They were the favorite of all the dried fruits.
I get few Jays, Cardinals, Finches, and lots of Sparrows come by all day long.

To see more unusual birds this time of year I go to the park about once or twice a week.

Saw this bluebird at the feeder yesterday and mostly eating the yew berries nearby. We have sunflower seeds in one and niger in the other there. Unfortunately, the screens are still up so the pic isn't clear.

The finches eat the niger. Most of the birds here eat sunflower seeds. We also have a mix with millet. But most of the birds prefer the pure niger or sunflower seeds best. The mourning doves and the juncos eat the seeds that spill on the ground. We have 6 feeders up now. We always take them down in early spring because there are bears in the neighborhood. They used to come here when the former owners lived here, but since we have no garbage outside and go to the dump frequently and take down the feeders, we haven't seen any bears in 5 years and they go to neighbors instead.

I have 2 feeders with black oil sunflower seed. These are filled year round. I just put up a suet feeder, but so far no takers. Its not been really cold here yet. We had 2 days with lows in the 20s then it went back up to lows in the 40s. This feeder is on a pulley system. Its about 20 ft up and 10-12 ft from the trees. The Squirrels haven't figured out how to get to it yet, and its been up 3 years now. They get plenty from the one out front though.

I was using thistle until the store ran out, the finches loved it and what they dropped the sparrows ate. Today I had to buy a suet mix and sunflower hearts (not cheap) until they get more thistle on the shelf.The grackles here seem to eat anything I put out. I don't mind feeding them but they run off the little birds, then the hawk comes and runs everybody off. Last spring I had a lot of unusual birds come into my yard but wouldn't go to the feeders so I started putting some in a large saucer on the ground, no problem after that, and no waste.

boojum, do you usually have bluebirds all the way up there in December? Debra

Interesting about your bluebird visiting. I wish I still had berries on some of my bushes, but they are long gone. At the County Naturalist Bird Count in our park last weekend (adjacent to our property), they counted some bluebirds, but I have not seen them in our yard. Will have to keep an eye out.

Is there such a thing as a competitive bird watcher? I am trying all kinds of feed in different feeders in hopes that on our Bird Club (Audubon) Winter Bird Count Day, December 30, I have all kinds of birds at our feeders! I have more nuts and fruits and coconut out there than in any of my Christmas cookies! LOL Haven't tried marascino cherries, though. Great idea! Maybe soaked in bourbon?

I have started putting a little white millet on a few garden stones near my hedges, hoping to lure some little sparrows (NOT HOSP) out. So far I have had fox sparrows, and some other tiny ones and the HOSP have not found it.

Pls. keep watching your feeders. I am interested in what is visiting these days.

I can only dream of bluebirds! There has been only 1 record for Newfoundland and I wasn't around to see it.

My feeders don't bring much diversity since the cursed house sparrows eat me out of house and home and have a tendency to drive off other birds. I do have a resident flock of Juncos, American Goldfinch and a pair of BC Chickadees. Once in a while I get Blue Jays or Northern Flicker and about once a week a Sharp-shinned Hawk breezes through the yard hoping for a unsuspecting bird....wish it would reduce my house sparrows by at least a half! 40 are too much and every day there seems to be an extra 1 or 2.

I've got some suet cakes with fruit in them. they are supposed to appeal to the fruit eaters. but I expect it will be more popular in colder weather. this is really my first year with feeders, so I'll have no comparisons. I have thistle and safflower (same reason as Judy, the grackles and starlings are not supposed to be attracted to it). I do have sunflower, but I think I'll put it out in limited quantities. we haven't had squirrels around (it's a new development with no large trees).

I really miss the cardinals. haven't seen one since we moved here. like blue jays, too. in general, I would like to see more variety of birds. over the summer I was delighted with the hummers and goldfinches. we had robins and killdeer nesting, which was a lot of fun. a pair of mourning doves. I saw one bluebird. other than that...tons of HOSPs, some brown-headed cowbirds passing thru. we have some nice water birds...Canada geese year round, some Mallards, great blue heron, seagulls, migrating great egret and ring-necked ducks. there's a hawk but I haven't seen it get too close.

this is all new territory for me, so it's an experiment in progress. any suggestions appreciated. gram

Hi boojum,
I love your bluebirds! I have different birds that gather in my back yard every day now, and the screen was a problem for me too...I had to remove it.


(Below)This is 2 pics merged together, since then removed the screen & that small plant. In the pic up this thread dated 12-17 was taken without the screen.

I have to say Gram, that they haven't seemed to want any of the suets I have out. They gobbled them up all Spring & Summer, but still barely pecked on after about 3 weeks now.. For feeders I find they like the Niger and shelled Sunflower seeds, shelled nut bits, some millet, and dried fruit.

I am fortunate enough to have had a Wild Bird Center http://www.wildbird.com/content/home about a block away from me for the last 2 years. The owner and I made fast friends.. Their dried fruits are really good, yet I can go to a big supermarket dried fruits section and get many of them much cheaper. I look for the ones without preservatives in them...such as Sulphur Dioxide, etc. The Hummers love the nectar mix I get from the WBC though. I buy Patio Mix (shelled Millet, shelled Sunflower seed, & Niger), and Suet come Springtime. They love the Patio Mix all year round, and it doesn't plant little things in the yard like in-shell seed does.

Here's a sweet couple of Mourning Doves that hang out in the backyard.

Judy and all,
Permit me one more indulgence here...a picture of them flying away, just moments after the one above. I barely got only one of them in the frame..working on those action shots. lol. The flaring feathers are so magnificent at this angle.
:-D

We have two sunflower seed feeders that are very popular with the chickadees, and any spillage is cleaned up by juncos. A cake of suet attracts two kinds of small woodpecker (downy and hairy). For the goldfinches we have a thistle feeder. On a bird table every morning at sun-up I dump meat and potato scraps, stale bread, peanut halves, cracked corn, and left-over dry Science Diet cat food, all of which are eaten by crows and blue-jays. A lot of cracked corn was taken by the birds last winter, but not much of it is being eaten yet (although I saw a red squirrel tucking in yesterday). When the raccoons get hungry, I'm sure they'll be visiting the table for corn too. The sunflower seed feeders are squirrel-and-raccoon-proof.

I enjoy watching the crows cleverly carrying away food to bury under a tussock of grass for eating later. The crows also seem to be able to recognize me as their feeder and don't fly off when I encounter them in the yard. They were regular visitors at dawn until we went away for a long weekend, and now they don't trust us to provide a regular breakfast any more.

Last winter a lone flicker stayed around instead of migrating. No sign of him this year, though. The ponds and streams are not yet frozen, so the great blue herons are still around, but all the ducks and geese are long gone south.

I've got black oil sunflower seed in one feeder, niger in a thistle seed feeder at the edge of the patio as well as in a little window feeder, and peanut butter out now. I'll mix up some "all season suet" (PB, lard, some other things) soon also, and after reading this I might try putting out some dried fruit, although the way our birds chow down that could get expensive.

My father made our peanut butter feeder from the bottom of his Christmas tree one year... He clipped the branches off, leaving little stubs for perches, drilled half inch holes to hold the PB, and put a screw eye into the top so it could be hung. If I seriously overload it, I can get about a cup of PB on it... during cold weather, the birds will clean it out in a day or two, but mostly I refill once or twice a week.

Here's the PB feeder, open for business during a snowy day last year. Yes, those are juncos. Nobody told our juncos that they were only supposed to eat little seeds on the ground. They go for the suet, too, flapping madly to cling to the feeder as it spins around.... LOL

Deb, I love the action shot of the dove.

June, I'm a ways south of you, but it's funny. the great blue heron are gone, but the Canada geese linger this year. there must have been 50 of them in my back yard today. we back up to a small man-made lake that was close to frozen over last week, but thawed pretty quickly when it warmed up again. they won't stay the whole winter because the lake will likely freeze in January. I've never had them this late before.

critter, what a neat recycling of a Christmas tree. I love it!

gram

Thx Gram! ..And Critter that suet feeder is the bomb! I'm going to make one for my birdages too.

:>

Critter-- I love the Christmas tree peanut butter feeder, too. Critter, I think you should post that idea on a separate thread on the Garden Talk forum (or some forum that gets more attention than this one from general gardeners)...Everybody would love it, and looking at that, it makes no sense to buy those expensive suet feeders. I was thinking of making a suet feeder from a limb of a tree, but I like the way yours has all the perches. So cute.

We use the safflower seed in our feeders (instead of black oil SF) and it seems to deter the HOSPs, too. The instructions said when switching from Black Oil Sunflower to Safflower to reduce the proportions each time you refill till you're at all Safflower and the nice birds will become accustomed to it. Even with part black oil and part safflower the 'nasties' seem to stay away pretty much here.

I read somewhere on the 'net (I have become obsessed with bird feeding!) that, of course, the woodpeckers love the suet, but that all you have to do is go to the grocer and beg for (or pay for) suet and have them grind it twice, then put it into a suet feeder (no smelly rendering on the stove). You can mix this with some currants or raisins and other tidbits for the bird gourmands if you want. I have some of this suet out in my tray feeders today and will watch for woodpeckers. I have lots of suet and 'bird pudding' recipes recorded in my DG journal and I am testing them for which works best for what birds. http://davesgarden.com/journal/d/t/tabasco/4274/

We buy the safflower, b.o. sunflower, thistle, and peanut pieces at the feed store for very good prices (compared to Kroger or the pet stores) but I have yet to find a source for cheap dried fruit in bulk. I looked all over the internet and couldn't find much. Does anyone have any leads on this?

I have quite a few feeders out:

*5 thistle seed bags (goldfinches and in the summer indigo buntings)
*2 suet feeders (woodpeckers, nuthatches, grackles, starlings) In summer the grackles & starlings get so out of control wit these that I take them down for a few months. I tried the suet from the grocery store, but it ended up attracting coyotes so I quit putting it out. I sometimes make my own suet. The majority of birds seem to prefer suet with peanuts in it - either home made or store bought.
*2 ground tray feeders that contain black oil sunflower seeds and peanuts in the shell. My intention was to feed the squirrels, but they also attract chipmunks, cardinals, blue jays, BC chickadees, juncos, goldfinches, mourning doves and once in a while crows. Every night the possums clean up what is left, and we even have an occasional deer eating from them!
*1 tube with mixed finch food (goldfinches, sparrows, and in summer indigo buntings). My birds prefer Kaytee brand. If I get cheaper stuff they don't eat it. Spoiled brats!
*2 tubes with black oil sunflower seeds (BC chickadees, goldfinches, juncos, squirrels, chipmunks). One is low to the ground and it attracts possums too.
*1 tree mounted feeder for the squirrels (they need to open a cover to get at the seed - has black oil sunflower seed & peanuts)
*1 feeder with sunflower hearts & pcs. (goldfinches, juncos, BC chickadees, cardinals)
*1 peanut butter "log" similar to critterologists. I just used a branch from a maple tree and drilled 1-1/4" holes into it. Mine doesn't have perches, but that doesn't seem to stop anything from eating at it. (woodpeckers, nuthatches, squirrels and grackles)
Mourning doves, sparrows, red wing blackbirds, grackles, starlings and possums keep fallen seed cleaned up.
But I think the biggest thing that attracts so many birds and squirrels is the fact that I have heated birdbaths out in the winter.

goldfinch-- lots of feeders! And lots of activity! Do you get any regular Pileated Woodpeckers at your suet?

I have had a heated bird bath for two years and have seen maybe 6 birds in it/near it in that time. I wonder what's wrong with it...it's green plastic (from the Wild Bird store) and sitting low on the ground....

We have only had one Pileated woodpecker. We're actually just outside of the city limits and there aren't a whole lot of trees around. I think the Pileateds like a little more cover.

My birdbaths are from Fleet Farm. I have them mounted on 4x4's about 3 feet off the ground. They are beige. I wouldn't think the color would make any difference. They are really close to the house. One of them is right outside our large living room window. Only about a foot away. There are always birds either drinking or bathing. In fact (and everybody thinks I'm nuts!) I even made wooden stairs from the ground up to the birdbath so the squirrels, chipmunks, possums, etc. can climb up for a drink. We can be in our house and sit about 2' from where they are. The main problem is the mess they make on the window from splashing around. I just can't keep that window clean. If I could I would be able to get some good pictures!

goldfinch--how deep is the water? I have read as little as 1 inch of water recommended. Mine has maybe 3" at the deepest point but has a gradual slope...

Last year we had at least one pair of Pileateds who visited the suet feeders like clockwork, even my plastic window feeder. Now we have one junior sized pileated who comes occasionally. I want my other two back (Mama and Papa?), too!

About the grackles--I think the southwestern grackles must be cuter than ours up here (Common). Ours look sinister and they intimidate most of the other birds. I probably would learn to love them if I knew them as babies, though! Likewise the starlings, and even to some extent the mourning doves (not sinister looking, of course), although my DH loves the doves and has names for them (Myra & Myron Mourningdove--of course I think we have about a million doves.)

I miss all the woodpeckers we had in the city. Our feeder pole was on the top deck, about 2 stories up, and our property backed up to a wooded area with lots of pines. We had downeys, yellow bellies, red-heads, pileated, and flickers. Along with lots of other birds. Surprisingly, now that we are in the country, we don't have as much of a variety. We do have a couple of pileateds that come around on a regular basis, but I think because we have mostly hardwoods on our property we don't have as nice a variety of birds as we did in town. I'm going to experiment with different food this year and see what I can attract. Oh yeah - and lots of doves. They get fat on the corn from the deer feeders!

Debra

Tabasco, my birdbath shape and water depth sound the same as yours. In the summer I use some with a flat bottom and the water is about 1" deep. The finches actually prefer those. But they're not heated so I don't use them now.

I wish we had more Pileateds. You're very lucky to have those! Maybe junior will mate and bring his(?) family next year.

I'm not fond of grackles or starlings. When they show up they just mob everything. I've tried using the suet feeders where birds have to hang on the bottom to feed and the starlings actually hover and eat the suet that way. They don't scare off most of the birds but they eat everything up so fast. We have a lot of mourning doves too but they're so docile that I don't mind them. What I do get a kick out of is when crows come and try to eat from the ground feeders and the squirrels attack them!

The only critter we've ever named was a possum that lived under our porch for several winters. We named her Gertrude. She was a sweetie!

I thought we'd get a wide variety of birds in Albuquerque, NM but it's mostly an assortment of sparrows, finches, robins, mourning doves and an occasional thrasher or blue jay. The most interesting, but very rarely seen, are quail, red shafted flickers or a woodpecker. We do get an occasional red tailed hawk but discourage them from preying on the other birds. And occasionally a roadrunner will pop over the wall and hang out in the yard. They are just delightful to watch. We live across from the Sandia Mt. foothills and probably many other species hang out there. Our neighborhood is probably too developed and too close to traffic for most.

We have a 6-perch pole feeder in our upper yard and feed a year-round wild bird mix of white millet, milo, corn and a high percentage of black sunflower seeds. We tried suet blocks, but had no takers at all for them. I did have a box feeder hanging from our oak tree and tried to keep it filled with things that might attract new birds. Alas, the doves took it over and I finally took it down.

In Spring I'd like to attract more finches closer to the house and will try mounting a special feeder for them, far away from the pole feeder. I tried hanging a special seed filled sock from the Wild Bird Center but every bird in the neighborhood came and in one day the sock was in shreds.

Our bird bath is the most popular place in town. It's just an ordinary plastic one on a stand, and the entire rim is always packed with thirsty birds. They also bathe in it, especially the robins. We don't have an electrical outlet nearby for a heated one, so in winter I run out with pitchers of hot water to keep it defrosted.

I love reading about all your bird experiences.

I'll try to snap a couple of photos the next time I refill the PB feeder, so I can write a clearer "how to," and then I'll post it before everybody starts taking down their Christmas Trees... Dad will be pleased his design is being admired! :-)

June_NM, I find that tube feeders work good for thistle seed for finches too. But they seem to prefer the very small diameter ones. I think they like to be able to see around them for predators. I failed to mention earlier that the thistle seed attracts any kind of finches - we also have house and purple finches at ours.

We too have red tailed hawks and a few other kinds. I can always tell when they're in the neighborhood by the amount of seed that gets eaten. If the hawk is around, the feeders are still full in the evening.

How cool to have roadrunners! They have to be great to watch. Do they come to eat or just to visit?

Thanks for the information about feeder diameter, Goldfinch. Prices are a bit high at our Wild Bird Center and I'd hate to buy the wrong kind. Is there a difference between thistle seed and niger seed? And what would be a good time of year to put up a feeder for finches?

The roadrunners are so unique and quite beautiful. They don't eat anything in our yard. They just run back and forth on the back wall, or amble watchfully around on the ground. I was amazed to see one fly from the wall into our neighbor's tree. More of a big clumsy jump than graceful flight, but I didn't know they could do even that. They seem rather fearless and I once saw one walking down the middle of our street. My favorites are the quail and I wish they came more often. Always a pair, always so charming and regal as they walk around admiring the flowers. Our biggest predators are neighbors' cats. Fortunately I can see the yard from the kitchen and from my office window and can shoo them away quickly (and loudly!).

June, your mentioning you like quail reminded me that I had taken a picture of a quail. This lady was walking about the hardware store with a quail in her hand and I happen to have my camera with me so I took a picture. She told me it was her pet.

June_NM, thistle and niger are the same seed. I feed birds year round, so I can't really say what the best time of year to put up feeders would be. We have finches all year.

I didn't realize roadrunners could fly - guess I never thought about it. They must be quite a site to see running on the wall! How tall are they?

Oh my goodness, betterbloom. I had no idea one could tame a quail. I'm not too keen on keeping wildlife as pets, but that sure is a beautiful quail.

Goldfinch -- Roadrunners have a long tail which they bob up and down. Overall they are about two feet long. They eat insects, reptiles, small birds and mammals. We have a lot of very small lizards here and that's probably what they're watching for.

Yes, those feeders at the Wild Bird Center/Unlimited/etc. stores can be way pricey. We purchase our finch feeders at Home Depot, Lowes, or discount houses (sorry to give them a plug, but their feeders are more reasonable). We buy feed at the feed store (much less).

I read somewhere that finches were almost as unwanted as house sparrows at feeders and this surprised me...I suppose they can be piggish with the thistle/niger at the tube feeders. The house finches really aren't too interestingly colored....I have trouble telling the differences between finch varieties--except the gold finch in summer, that is...

The quail is so interesting looking. I have never seen one up close and your picture is the next best thing! How weird to have one as a pet and take it to the hardware store!

I mixed up a batch of "pileated woodpecker suet" (experimental recipe) this afternoon--used ground up suet, peanut butter, a little melted lard, some peanut hearts, chopped old raisons, and some chopped blackberries I found in the freezer. (Wish I had some insects to add.) Mixed it up and slathered it on three old ash trees---we'll see if it works.

Also baking cookies this afternoon and my kids are concerned that I will confuse the doughs!

I never thought to look at Lowe's for bird feeders and will do so after Christmas. Tackling their parking lot and checkout lines right now isn't appealing.

LOL Judy...

oooh, love the roadrunner! the quail are beautiful. someone had a thread earlier in the season about quail nesting in their shed. what a treat!

I have to get my feeders filled and out. I've been so busy with holiday stuff. and I think I'm a little afraid nobody will come. I've hardly seen any birds around. except the Canada geese. there's been a flock of around 100. well, maybe the saying is true...if you feed them, they will come.

does anybody think they would eat sweetened coconut? I have some leftover from baking that is getting a little stale. I don't want to give them anything that wouldn't be good for them. and I don't want to encourage rodents.

(I love that baby Roadrunner too...;-) thx!

This is what I found on dried coconut Gram~

Deb, I was afraid of that..thanks. glad I asked..I'll toss it out.

What's the downside of dried coconut? I see it in the commercial fruit 'n nut mix that I'm using....mmmm....

I didn't see why Judy.. It only had a strong warning on an autobaun site I wasn't able to open it to get more information. What I got was from the search page. I am guessing that it would be difficult to digest.. even if it is shreaded. Some dried foods have sulphites too. If your mix is for birds it might be alright, I don't know for sure.
What Gram had was sweetened too, and refined sugar or added salt can definatly harm birds.

Thanks for the roadrunner pic! Very cool.

Grampapa, do you live on a lake or pond to have that many geese around?