Do you feed wild birds year round?

Yes. In the summer we especially love feeding the hummingbirds. In the winter its the juncos and chickadees and titmice that we keep fed during the snows.

I feed wild birds year-round. Winter is probably my favorite season for backyard birding because of the diversity of birds that visit my feeders. In fact, as I'm typing this I'm watching some Carolina Chickadees enjoying a seed bell on my back deck.

Lisa

Titmice???? That's a bird?? Funny name for a bird.

I've just recently started to feed the birds. I don't know a THING about wild birds or what we have locally but I do feed them. I have a suit (how do you spell that?) feeder and a regular seed feeder (the kind that looks like an enclosed gazebo)that I have in the front yard.

There are a lot of hungry birds around here (or else they're too lazy to find food out in the wild). I'm re-filling the seeder about every other day. The suit feeder is double sided so it takes a few more days to eat both sides.

Silly me, since my living room faces the backyard I can't watch the front yard feeders! However, if I put them in the backyard so I can watch the birds........my two cats can also watch them!! I don't think that's very nice to tease the cats and frighten the birds.

The Titmice are lovely little birds, similar to the Chickadee. They are very active and sociable little critters.

I live in a migratory zone, but, have never seen the titmice here. I feed the wild birds year round. In the winter, I make pine cone peanut butter seed feeders. Just spread peanut butter on the pine cone and sprinkle with wild bird seed. I then hang it up on my patio where I can watch the birds when I am here working on my computer.

I also make peanut butter and seed open face sandwiches for the birds. Those I have to nail to the patio railing so the wind won't blow them away. Peanut butter helps the birds produce more oil under their feathers and that keeps them warmer during the winter.

Sandra, suet feeders are wonderful for the birds. I have a recipe to make a suet/seed feeder and I cannot find it. I will have to look for that.

I feed the birds all year long, and get different ones in different seasons. Today is the local Audubon Christmas Bird Count. I spent the morning birding along the river through town, got many mallards and Canada geese, not a whole lot more. Now I'm counting the birds at my feeders; Titmice, chickadees, Cardinals, White- and Red-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpecker, goldfinches, juncos, blue jay, Carolina wren,and house sparrows so far. When it gets dark I will go to the compilation meeting/potluck dinner, where we will all submit our lists for this count area and send them off to Audubon. A Christmas tradition among birders that has been going on for over 100 years!

I enjoy feeding the birds and have done so for many years. One year I did a weekly winter count for Cornell. We have bluejays, titmice, Carolina chickadees, cardinals, juncos, wrens, nuthatches, some sparrows, house finches, thrushes (not too often), downy woodpeckers, once in a blue moon we have pileated woodpeckers. These are my back yard regulars; if I put a feeder up in the front yard, I sometimes get some different visitors that do not stop in the back yard. Isn't that funny?

Phyllis

What is a peanut butter sandwich for a bird???
I have heard that peanut butter is good for them. The only pine cones I've seen are the ones at Joann' craft store that smell like cinnamon. I don't think the little birdies will line that!

I was sitting in the dining room this afternoon, watching TV across in the living room and working on crafts. My cat, Cleopatra, came tearing into the dining room and up to the patio doors like a crazed animal. There were some little birds on the backyard grass. Cleo was going wild jumping up on the glass and trying to scratch! Good grief, I thought she was going to terrorize the little birdies....I don't think they noticed. Maybe I'll try putting up a feeder in the backyard now. It'd be nice to see them while I'm at the dining table crafting!

You guys sure seem to know your birds!

I just know I have Birds in the yard! Almost all the birds are fairly small, round and brownish. I do have an occasional bigger, black colored birds. I think they look like crows. Maybe after I've had the feeder out for a while I will attract other birds.

I need to go buy some more suet. They seem to be eating through it pretty well. I have to fill the seed feeder every day now!! I really have to get some more bags of seeds. And I've checked the ground around the feeder, they aren't tossing out seeds they don't like. That happened once several years ago. I got tired of spending good money on seeds just to have half of it rotting (or rooting) on the ground!

A lot of birds like peanut butter, especially woodpeckers and nuthatches. You can smear gobs of it on any handy tree trunk and they will find it, although some clever people drill large holes in a piece of wood, fill the holes with peanut butter, and hang it up. (I don't give my birds peanut butter, I'd eat it all myself!)
Sandra, you must have bought better quality seeds lately. Avoid the cheap stuff that is full of millet seeds,most of them don't like millet.

Claybird

Yes, I did buy quality seed - I got it at the Wild Birds store. I, at some point, realized the "junk" that you can buy in the big box stores and your local stores is most likely the cheapest seeds one can get. I got some kind of a quality mix with lots of black sunflower seeds and then some smaller seeds. I need to get to Corvallis, next town over, and buy some more! These darn birds are eating me out of house & home!

I don't like peanut butter (allergy) so I don't have it in the house. But, if the birds like it, I think I might try putting some out for them. My allergy is not so bad that I can't butter a branch with it.

Sounds like good seed. I like to add a small bag of songbird mix to the black oil sunflower seed. I put out suet but the birds haven't found it yet. I'll try the peanut butter too.

Angie,

Songbird mix? Is that what it's called? I can look for some of that and ask the "experts" at the store too.

If it's not raining tomorrow, I may try to put some peanut butter out for the birdies! This morning when I stood out on the front porch there were a bunch of black-colored birds out front. I think they scared off the smaller brown birds.

It's raining here today.

My birdseed is in a metal can (kid's toy can or something-recycled) and so I mix the 20# of sunflower seeds with the small bag of a songbird mix.

Did the black birds have a red spot on the underside of their wings? They may be red winged black birds and often pass through as a large group and then move on. I have black birds too - crows..... LOL

Angie

I haven't seen those black birds close up. I just see them as they fly away when I open the door.

I went to the store today and bought another 20 pound bag of the Supreme bird seed mix. Those darn birds are going through seed very fast! I also have to put out 2 more blocks of suet. I need to go get some more of that too! (The Wild Bird store is too expensive for the suet.)

Here's a question....Since I'm helping all these cute birdies find a good meal in the middle of winter (it's going down to 30 degrees tonight), why do they have to poop all over my walkway, car, driveway, all around and on the bird feeder, etc? What kind of "thank you" is that???

Like a cat that leaves a dead mouse or creature on the doorstep as a gift, think of all that a bird leaves you as a thank you (I guess). Watching birds is fun.

About the suet, I go to Ollie's and buy my suet there. Ollie's is like a salvage barn. I find the bird stores are too expensive for everything.

I feed my birds all year round..I love my birds...huggies, Linda

I feed the birds that nest in the eaves of our house. It would be lovely to have some hummingbird feeders but they need to be placed carefully or they'll end up being cat feeders (lots of neighborhood cats).

When we walk at Disneyland, I always want to feed the birds but it isn't healthy to feed them popcorn and french fries so I try to remember to bring birdseed. But I kept forgetting. One day, I finally brought the seed. SO happy!

Some small sparrows hopped towards me as I sat waiting for the train and I eagerly tossed some to them. They hop, hop, hopped closer. Pecked. Hop, hop, hopped away. Those chubby little sparrows were used to popcorn and french fries. They did not want the bird seed. My daughter thought it was hilarious.

I was disappointed but mostly sad that these birds were accustomed to an unnatural diet and that would affect their health and longevity!

I feed mine visitors all year round too.

On a local radio show the naturalist stressed that birds can be fed all year round. This is how they teach the fledglings to get a meal in tough times. He also said that feeder seed made up about 15% or their food source.