How to Attract Wild Birds to Your Backyard
Posted: Thursday, January 21, 2010
by Chris H
the Outdoor Nature Resource.com
Bird watching , bird identification and feeding wild birds is a huge and continually growing fascination with so many folks. You too can be successful in your efforts to attract wild birds to your neck of the woods.
Certainly having attractive landscaping, or at the very least nearby trees in which wild birds can perch and seek refuge, is a big help. But...the right bird feeder and proper seed mix is the ultimate goal. Even if you have only a balcony area to place a bird feeder, the right choice of feeder and seed will attract birds to feed. So let's start with the basics...
Bird feeder choices. They are MANY. Cage feeders. Tube type feeders. Dome style feeders. Squirrel proof feeders. Window feeders. Hummingbird and Oriole feeders.
And what type of seed to offer your feathered friends? That depends on the types of birds you want to attract. We will deal with the seed (s) that are most accepted by the vast majority of wild birds that you can expect to your feeding station.
1. Bird Feeder Choice
If you are new to feeding wild birds, consider starting with either a tube type or cage feeder. Either will accommodate the seed mix that we recommend offering. The advantage to a cage feeder is that most cage feeders are squirrel proof, or at the very lest, squirrel resistant. If you want to keep pesky and diligent squirrels away from your tube feeder, you will need some type of squirrel guard or baffle.
2. Bird Seed Choice
For year round use, we recommend a combination of black/oil sunflower and safflower with an approximate ratio of 5 to 1 respectively. Over many, many years, our experience has proven this mix to be extremely popular with most all song birds. Cardinals, Chickadees, Titmice, Nuthatches, Blue Jays, all the Sparrow family and finches, including House Finches and Goldfinches (these guys don't eat just thistle/nyjer seed), Doves and many others will appreciate this menu offering.
3. Where to place your feeder...
A squirrel proof/squirrel resistant feeder (cage type feeder) can be placed most anywhere accessible by your feathered friends...hanging from a tree limb or a shepherd hook, and will not require any special protection. A tube type feeder can also be placed most anywhere, but, if you prefer to keep squirrels away, will require appropriate squirrel protection/squirrel proofing.
So consider starting with a cage style feeder and experiment. Mostly...enjoy. And be patient. If you or your neighbors haven't offered food before in your area, it may take some time...days, maybe a week or more before you begin to see any activity. But once you do...you will be hooked.
We encourage anyone who has not actively fed birds before to jump in...enjoy and relish in the wonderful feeling you will experience when you see birds flocking to the new feeder that you have placed outside for them. Winter is an especially important time of year to continue to be a dedicated bird feeder. Food sources are more scarce. So once you start...please stay at it. The birds you attract will be very happy that you did.
Support Staff - the Outdoor Nature Resource.com
Wild Bird Feeders from the Outdoor Nature Resource.com
This Article has been viewed 182 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (7 total)Great advice and great article. Thank you for sharing this informative piece. Welcome to Searchwarp. All the best to you and yours, ~Nenita~Nenita...thanks for your kind comments. I am just getting started here. New website is up and running and I am furiously taking what hope are all the right steps to move my project along.I will read more of your many articles as I find time. My plate is FULL.Thank you again.ChrisGood luck to you.
Thanks for the information. My wife is into bird watching, as you may have read in my article "Nuts Over Blackhawk Slide".
Great advice. I too enjoy bird watching and just started my own bird feeders this past summer. Welcome to Searchwarp.Polly...I am glad you liked this. I have enjoyed bird watching forever. Good luck with your new feeders. And please try the the mix I mentioned. It really does work. Have fun!
Great advice and good post. I love bird watching....I am looking for your another articles. Thanks!!!!!!Emma...Glad you liked the article and most of all...bird watching. I hope to post many more articles. Continue to enjoy our feathered friends.
Good hints and it is so much fun to see who will come and visit, isn't it?Marijo...Yes it is! Just keep your feeders full and you will have a great variety of wild birds continue to visit...especially using the right feeders and bird food.well, we try but at 8600 feet in the Rockies we are a bit limited - but saw a Clark's Nutcracker for the first time!Wow...8,600'. My brother lives just outside Denver...certainly not at the elevation you are. Ever considered meat suet during the winter particularly? and some hearty suet cakes too? I will try to post something in the near future that may be of interest to you where you live.They inhale the suet - even the black birds and crows get after it if there isn't much "road kill" BUT we have the most incredible humming birds in the summer along with those electric blue birds - we have build houses and they and some swallows nest and have babies in our yard.You are incredible lucky...blue birds and swallows...seldom seen here in NW Ohio. Purple Martins used to be prolific many, many years ago. No longer. Aren't those hummers a joy? We always have wrens here and listen for the babies every year. Stay warm!
I love birds and feed them one and all they give me so much comfort knowing they too live in comfort knowing their apart of my family. I live in Ohio and enjoy Blue Jays, Cardinals, and many others I'm not sure about. Also in the summer fences and hummingbirds. :)Katie..I am so glad that you enjoyed this article! Keep feeding. I don't think that one can ever be disappointed as these wonderful creatures continue to show their loyalty be returning to the feeders and houses we provide. Check out Peterson Field Guides to help with identification. They are THE all time source. Good luck...and here's to your continued enjoyment.Chris
Great article Chris! I am in Texas and we get all kinds here from the mockingbirds, cardinals and blue jays to the predators like hawks of all kinds, and even a crested caracara. Along with many passing through on their migration we only see briefly.Cheryl...Texas...such a fantastic locale to see birds I have never had the pleasure to view. As I mentioned to Katie above...Peterson Field Guides are a terrific resource. You sound like you know your birds, but these guides will only help to enhance your love of wild birds. I just posted another article if you care to look. Thank you for your kind comments.Chris HYes, I love their field guides! I keep several different types of feeders just outside my patio door just beyond the patio and have binoculars and a guide book nearby in case I see something new come visit I need to identify. We have had a LOT of woodpeckers this winter!
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.