In the Garden
Ralph Purkhiser, Purdue University Master Gardener
With the snow cover the last two weeks, food from natural sources has been more difficult for birds to find. That has brought them to my feeding station outside my picture window in large numbers. Filling the feeders has become a daily task.
I offer a variety of food in a variety of feeders in order to attract a variety of birds. I have to say I have been successful in this effort. I do not claim to be an expert, although I have access to a great ornithologist (bird doctor) who has taught me a lot about birds. However, over many years of feeding and watching birds outside my window, I have learned many things that I will share with you.
If I could offer only one type of bird food, it would be black oil sunflower seeds. Most of the bird species that frequent feeders will eat sunflower seeds. Hulled seeds are their preferred form, but they are rather expensive, so I do not buy them. A few years ago, the situation in Ukraine resulted in rising prices for the black-oil sunflower seeds, but I am happy to report that the prices are back down, and one may purchase a 40-pound bag of seed for less than seventeen dollars at some of the area farm stores. I put black-oil sunflower seed in a hopper feeder, in a few tube feeders, and, as I indicated last week, in the acrylic feeders that are attached to the outside of the picture window. Some birds eat the whole seed, while others hull them. Those hulls are the only drawback, but I just pick them up and add them to the mulch in some flower beds.
I also have a couple of feeders which I fill with a premium seed mixture. Some of the less-expensive mixes contain a lot of cracked corn and milo. While there are birds that will eat these, they are often just dropped on the ground as birds search for the more-desirable seeds in the mix.
I also offer suet cakes. This is the preferred food for woodpeckers and several other birds. I offer these in wire feeders, hanging them in areas that are not easily accessible to squirrels, raccoons and other animals. I have not noticed any great difference in the number or species of birds when I use the less-expensive brands. However, if you plan to continue offering suet cakes in the summer, you should switch to the dough cakes that will not become rancid in the heat. I also sometimes make my own suet cakes by rendering animal fat and mixing it with peanut butter, corn meal and some seeds. I sometimes pour it into pretty teacups and tie on ribbons to suspend them from tree branches.
Jays and some other birds are very fond of peanuts. While some birdwatchers do not like to attract jays, I have found them to be useful in driving off cats and other predators. By offering them peanuts, they tend to still allow the smaller birds to eat at the feeders, especially the feeders that are less-accessible to large birds. I use peanuts in the shell, but many birds will eat shelled and broken peanuts. I put peanuts on platform feeders, but I have to be careful to keep them away from the raccoons and squirrels.
I sometimes put out peanut butter for the birds, especially for woodpeckers. I put peanut butter in some small logs that I have found that have holes in them. I hang these in trees. I have also smeared pinecones with peanut butter and rolled them in birdseed and offered them on platform feeders.
Perhaps the most expensive bird food that I offer is dried mealworms. I do this because they are the best way to attract eastern bluebirds. I have also learned that one may purchase mealworms in the poultry section at farm stores for much lower prices than the ones in the wild bird feed sections. I put the mealworms in hanging platform feeders.
I sometimes just spread cracked corn and other seed on the ground. Doves and some other birds rarely eat from feeders, but they clean up the seed that other birds drop. Birds will also eat fruits and berries and will eat bread and other human food. However, bread does not offer much in the way of nutrition, so I do not recommend feeding it to the birds.
This is far from a complete bird-feeding primer, but it will be enough to get you started. Watching the birds has brought me countless hours of entertainment for a relatively low cost.