Do you feed wild birds?

[Kathi OD]

I feed the birds and put out a bird bath. We do hummingbird feeders too. I love seeing all the different birds but I'm really getting tired of it. The hummingbird feeder attracts bees so I have to move it often. The seed is expensive and the grass under the feeders has been destroyed. What do you all think about only feeding the birds in the winter months and providing the bird bath (heated in the winter) throughout the year?

I really only feed the birds during the winter when it is harder for them to find food on their own.

We had a problem with squirrels emptying out our main birdfeeder. It only took them about 5 minutes to shovel the entire contents onto the ground!!

Then, I hung it from the outer limb of a fairly tall tree on a long, thin nylon cord. I had to throw the cord up over a limb with a stick and slide the knot all the way up. Now, the feeder is too far from the tree trunks for the squirrels to jump to, to high off the ground for them to reach, and they can't slide down the thin cord, either. I *think* I beat them!

I reach up with a hook on a pole and pull the feeder down to fill it....

The feeder tends to spin and sway in the breeze, but that doesn't seem to deter the birds a bit.

Also, a good, cheap place to get bird-feeding supplies, if you have one near you, is a farm supply store. We have a chain called Tractor Supply Company that has better-then-Walmart prices on bulk bird feed (good quality, too).

That's a whole lot of work to keep your feeders from the squirrels!

Never even thought about trying Tractor Supply. There is one not too far from us.

 

[ZuZugal]

We have a "Wild Birds Unlimited" store very close to our home so we buy all of our feed there. We have a thistle feeder for the finches, a seed-tube feeder which we put a "mix" in, and also a cage-type feeder for yet another mix. I also buy safflower seed for the cardinals and bluejays. I put suet out in the winter because it is a high fat food, and i buy mixes with peanuts in the winter for protein. It is amazing how even the smallest bird will eat the peanut pieces.

We love to watch the birds every day, especially now with the snow and ice...i have been taken tons of pictures. It is going to be -2 here tonight, so i am hoping by our feeding the birds we might have something to do with them surviving another day of the terrible winter!

 

[jackemail]

I get mine at Target. I've tried several kinds, and evidently have gourmet birds. THEY prefer the KayTee Birders Blend.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I do but I don't have a favorite kind of food. Every time I do it I find myself humming Mary Poppins' "Feed the birds" love that song, one of my favorites.

 

[crazyme5kids]

no - but our neighbor does and it drives the neighborhood crazy. our neighborhood is a designated bird sanctuary.....so we have lots of them around already....white egrets, spoonbills, wild parrots, seagulls etc will cover her roof and yard when she feeds them. I have no idea what she feeds them....

I would love living in an area like you do! Then again, I'm probably one of the few people around that love seagulls (crows too). I think they are so fun to watch.

 

[Kathi OD]

I get mine at Target. I've tried several kinds, and evidently have gourmet birds. THEY prefer the KayTee Birders Blend.

LOL! That's what I give "my" birds. They really go for the Fruit and Nut Blend.

 

[disneyhand]

I buy wild bird seed at Costco and thistle at Walmart.

I make the hummingbirds drink with water and sugar.

I spend way too much money on it, but I enjoy them so much!

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

we feed um suet. Just bought a two sized feeder from walmart for around $5. the birds seem pretty happy. We feed year- round but in the summer they tend to get stale cereal and leftovers We also feed Chippy the squiruirl (sp)

 

[phinz]

We used to feed the birds until we wound up with a chipmunk infestation. It took forever to thin that herd, and they were incredibly destructive up to that point. Now we don't feed any of the outside animals.

 

[Kycha]

I buy just a basic wild bird food blend at Walmart. The bigger birds(cardinals, blue jays) pick out the sunflower seeds and the smaller birds get the rest. We only feed in the winter and usually only when there is snow on the ground.

These birds are such a treat to watch and they are so comical too. There were 5 Carolina wrens that kept getting in our screened in porch. Couldn't figure out how or why they were doing it. Well, it turns out we have a hole in the screen. And they were coming in because we had an unintended smorgasbord for them. We get bombarded with wasps in the fall and for some reason they love the one corner of our screened porch. So, come Sept/Oct it is a killing fields out there. When I swept the dead wasps off the porch some fell between the wooden plank floor and got stuck. The wrens discovered them and had a feast.

So, we decided to leave the screen door open so the wrens wouldn't hurt themselves trying to find the hole in the screen to escape. Well, that has just encouraged more birds to come onto the porch. The titmouse's absolutely love our cat's food. They will sit on the railing and sing for me to bring out the cat food. I'll put a half cup into the dish. They fly onto the porch, hop into the dish and fly out with one piece of cat food at a time. They can wipe out a half cup of cat food in 30 minutes time.