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Invite feathered friends for a free meal

1/6/2012 9:03:32 AM by Administrator Account

The Wild Life by Todd McLeish

The dead of winter is often the most difficult time to observe wildlife, as most species are doing their best to avoid the cold and remain well-hidden. But winter is considered by many to be the best time to observe birds in southern New England, and it is definitely the best time to attract birds to your yard with a well-stocked birdfeeder.

While there are more varieties of birds around in spring and summer, most of those species eat insects and are not likely to come to a birdfeeder. But almost all of the winter birds in our area are seedeaters who just can’t resist a free meal. Black-capped chickadees and tufted titmice will likely be the first to find a new feeder, and their activity will quickly attract white-breasted nuthatches, American goldfinches, dark-eyed juncos and other species. Everyone’s favorite, the northern cardinal, won’t be far behind.

If you are just starting out, your best bet will be to provide the birds with sunflower seed, the seed that will attract the greatest variety of birds to your yard. It can be offered in almost any feeder available at the local hardware store, from tube-shaped feeders to large hoppers or platform feeders. The only downside to providing sunflower seed is that the birds crack open the outer husk and only consume the inner seed, so the husks will be left behind and may occasionally need to be raked up. But the benefit of attracting a wide diversity of colorful birds certainly makes up for that tiny chore.

To move your bird feeding station up a notch, consider adding suet to the menu. That will bring three or four varieties of woodpeckers to your yard – downy and hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers, and perhaps even the massive pileated woodpecker – as well as Carolina wrens and other species. Suet is essentially beef fat, which can be purchased from the butcher at the grocery store. But it is easier to buy “suet cakes,” which can be purchased anywhere you buy bird seed and are much easier to handle. Suet cakes are made by melting beef fat and forming them into squares that fit into small baskets made for feeding suet to the birds.

There are plenty of other bird feeding options such as offering thistle (sometimes called nyjer) seed to attract finches or scattering cracked corn
on the ground for doves and sparrows. But sunflower seed and suet are the ideal first steps for those interested in luring wildlife to their yard. Give it a try. You won’t regret it. And neither will the birds.

Todd McLeish is a science writer at the University of Rhode Island and a lifelong birdwatcher. Contact him at tmcleish@uri.edu.

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