Do you feed wild birds?

[EsmeraldaX]

Just wondering.

I know there are some people who love to feed wild birds, and others who are very much against it.

*(A guy at my job really gave me a hard time about the fact that I feed wild birds from my porch and yard with a few birdfeeders...so I'm hoping this thread won't turn into a nasty debate)*

I love birds, I love watching them, and I love hearing their songs. They make me happy.

Do you feed wild birds? If so, what types of birds do you tend to attract?

I mostly get bluejays and little brown birds, sparrows I think. Sometimes we get the occasional robin.

 

[mudnuri]

Yup we do!

Each year, in a big rhododendrom (???) outside of DD1's bedroom window a blue jay momma has her babies in a big nest that stays year after year. It's high enough that the cat cant get it, and protected enough that other birds cant. It's such a sign on summer for us!

We get blue jays, cardinals, oriels, humming birds, etc... very short bird season, but these little buggers have a long way to fly every winter, so we feed up!

Brandy

 

[orvilleair]

Summer: Goldfinch feeder with thistle seed does wonders with Goldfinches. Used to have a hummingbird feeder but the bees liked it too.
Winter: Simple feeder with striped/oil sunflower mix. Also a suet feeder to attract woodpeckers, but I haven't had much luck with it. Get sparrows, nuthatches, grackles, blue jays and cardinals.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Awwww. The baby blue jays must be darling.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Yes, all year. We feed regular mixed seed fro a wide variety, plus thistle for the finches. We also put out pressed corn logs for the squirrels, fun to watch them, plus they need to eat too.

 

[mommytotwo]

We have lots of birds, and seeds always fall on the bottom of the cages, so the wild birds are always around eatting those seeds.

 

[DisMN]

Yes, minimal feeding but yes, we feed them.

The last few years have been interesting because we seem to be seeing some new varieties of birds locally. Our newspaper sent a photographer over last fall to see if he could get some photos of the newbie-birdies.
That was cool.....

we also feed the squirrels a little bit. There's an albino in the area and we love watching him (or her perhaps?) come around to eat.

 

[bumcat]

Yes been feeding them for years. We also put out corn logs for the squirrels. Sometimes the squirrel takes a mild scolding from a mama bird when he gets too close to a birds nest.

We have cardinals, blue jays, hummingbirds and a really interesting woodpecker and about a 1/2 million doves!
A few other types but I don't know what they are.

 

[buckylarue]

Yup; we get tons of sparrows, a good number of chickadees, a few cardinals and blue jays, plus the squirrels and (new this year) chipmunks! Our feeder is just outside our living room window, and the cats love to lay in the window and watch all their wildlife come and go...

 

[SalandJeff]

We have a couple of feeders that my dh fills every day and we enjoy watching them. We are in a residential area and only have 1/2 acre of land with woods in back of us. We get every kind of bird...sparrows, woodpeckers, bluejays, crows, blackbirds, orioles, robins, cardinals, doves, finches, as well as chipmunks and squirrels on the ground (he always sprinkles some food around on the ground). We also have had geese, and we have a pair of ducks that come every year... when the above ground pool cover is on and some water accumulates, they swim around like it is their own private lake! This summer our biggest surprise was a pair of wild turkeys with a bunch of babies. They have come back a couple of times and in a very short time, the babies are almost as big as the parents!

 

[Pooh67_68]

My uncle feeds the birds and squirrels all year round. Have to feed the squirrels or they eat the bird food.

 

[CRB#33]

Yes.

We get the same as mentioned above except orioles and chipmunks.

However, I have some wild bunnies that love the seed that falls to the ground!

 

[Virgo10]

Yes! We have lots of indoor cats. The back wall of my livingroom is a huge window and the cats love to line up there and watch the birds, squirrels and chipmuck eat the seeds. We call it Cat TV.

We've had Cardinals, Cat Birds, Hummingbirds, Carolina Wrens, Gold Finches, Cow Birds, Orioles, Robins, Titmice, blue jays, chicadees, nut hatches, one Scarlett Tananger (I had never seen one of those before this summer) and even a Hawk on occasion. The other birds weren't too happy about that! We also had a plague of sparrows this summer and the more common blue jays, starlings and mourning doves.

None of my neighbors mind that I feed the birds because they all have feeders as well. Here's my favorite picture from this past summer of the birds in my backyard.

Roberta

 

[chyam]

I feed the birds also and almost everything else that comes along........as attested by all the cats that have been adopted into this house! (all indoors now) We also feed the squirrels, they have become so tame that I have even had them in my lawn chair with me! I have also attracted several feral pet birds, I now have a nanday conure that flew into my tree, a parakeet and a cockatiel.........My mother used to say that it was painted on my roof "if you are cold and hungry stop here!" there have been other pet birds that I have not been able to catch but I think 3 birds is enough anyways! I have a lot of blue jays, doves, mockinbirds,cardinals and a wood pecker.
This home is an animal sanctuary, at one time I had 9 cats, 4 dogs 3 birds, a prairie dog and a man............guess who's gone?
He was no Prince Charming anyways!

 

[CyranoJones]

I feed the birds also and almost everything else that comes along

Yeah, that would be me as well, lol.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

I have a birdbath, but no feeder.

I do,however,toss pieces of bread to the bunnies that come visit me and my neighbors. My next door neighbor has a veggie garden that's more for the rabbits than it is for eating. We were over there last night and one of them came up and made hisself right at home under the grape arbor and took a nap. I wish I'd had my camera. It was so cute.

TOV

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Virgo10 , that's a great photo!

We feed squirrels too. We have a few who come up and we give them corn and bread. They're cute.

They come right up to the living room window and Monty likes watching them. They seem to enjoy taunting Monty because they will come right up to the glass and just stare at him. He is usually brave for a while and then gets scared of them and hides.

Our bird feeders are on the back porch though, so the birds can have some privacy and quiet from Monty Dog.

 

[buddy&wooz]

I have a feeder right outside my home office window, but even better we have a large holly tree and a juniper cypress both full of berries the birds love, so we have 4 pair of cardinals based here plus plenty of other birds.

I'm curious, I never heard you shouldn't feed birds. Is that because you may forget to refill the feeder or is it something else?

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Originally posted by buddy&wooz
I'm curious, I never heard you shouldn't feed birds. Is that because you may forget to refill the feeder or is it something else?

Well, this guy at my work who was screaming at me for it is a bit of a nutcase so take this with a grain of salt - he said that I should not feed birds because it was unnatural and they would not fly south for the winter because they'd grow to dependent on people and end up dying and it would be all my fault or something. I don't know. I tuned him out after the first few sentences.

 

[minniepumpernickel]

Yes, I put up a really cute bird feeder. I've had blue jays, cardinals, yellow finches, and even a woodpecker. Once you start feeding them don't abruptly stop, because they get dependent on the food especially in cold weather.