World 12_05_18

Feeding Birds The Foods They Like
Many gardeners, and even nongardeners,
enjoy feeding and
watching birds, particularly
during the winter. I often
thin of all these birds strulin to find
food and water to survive bitter cold
outside, while we are warm inside out
homes. Knowing a few basics on types of
bird seeds, and preferences by birds, will
help you to attract more species, and to
provide them with the most energy to
stay warm.
Dr. Leonard Perry, Horticulture Professor Emeritus
University of Vermont
Unless you have a landscape rich with weeds, perennials,
and shrubs that produce abundant seeds, you’ll need to
supplement a bird’s diet with bird seeds you purchase. Even
if you have a landscape of such plants, they either won’t
rovide sufficient seeds all winter or may be covered with
snow if they’re perennials or low shrubs. If you’re thinking
of adding more landscape plants this coming season, consider
at least some that will provide either bird food (berries and
seeds) or habitat (evergreens). A favorite large shrub for summer
fruit is the shad or serviceberry; winterberry is a favorite
for fall fruit.
To keep the most bird species around your home, you
should sulement with the secific foods that each secies
prefers, and serve the bird food in the appropriate types of
feeders for various species. Make sure the feeders can be
cleaned regularly and easily, such as with removable bases.
Also make sure they are appropriate to the species you have,
or want to attract. Cardinals, for instance, need larger perches
on tube or hopper feeders than chickadees.
Nuthatches and woodpeckers like to cling, so a wire mesh
feeder is best for them. If you have a wire mesh feeder, make
sure the openings are large enough for the birds to access
the seeds you’re providing. I’ve tried some decorative mesh
feeders shaped like snowmen or scarecrows, only to have the
mesh oenings too small for birds to obtain the sunower
seeds.
Some mesh tube feeders are just for shelled peanuts—a favorite
of woodpeckers, bluejays, nuthatches, and chickadees.
They also can be taken over by crows and crackles when
these are passing by. You may need to put them out of reach
of squirrel access, hanging away from objects they can climb,
or using ole bafes. f using a eanut feeder other than in
winter, when animals are not hibernating, you may need
bring them in at night to prevent raccoons and perhaps bears
from ravaging peanut feeders.
f shelled eanuts get wet they can harbor aatoins,
which can make birds sick, so make sure to either keep them
dry, use the feed up in a day or two if it gets wet, or replenish
and clean feeders well and often. Peanuts in the shell, placed
on a platform feeder or just a deck, don’t spoil as readily and
are attractive to blue jays as well as squirrels.
To attract the most number of bird species, and if you
just want one tye of food, sunower seeds are the food of
choice. ou can find black oil the kind use, stried, or the
out-of-shell hearts. If you don’t want larger birds— such as
crackles, blue jays, blackbirds, and starlings— to take over
the feeders and eat pounds of seeds a day, serve the seeds
in feeders such as tube ones with perches for smaller birds.
Other eclusion feeders have weight mechanisms that
close the openings when larger birds or squirrels step on
them. As with the peanut feeders, you may need to “squirrel
roof feeders holding sunower seeds.
f you don’t want the mess of all the sent sunower shells
on the ground, or on a deck or patio, you may want to feed
the more eensive sunower hearts out of their shells. Without
the shell protection these can quickly spoil with bacteria
that will make birds sick, so only put out what they can eat in
a day or two.
One means to discourage squirrels, and perhaps starlings,
is to rovide safower seeds. his has a thick shell which is
hard for some birds to open, yet is favored by cardinals and
some grosbeaks, chickadees, native sparrows, and doves. For
these seeds, use a tray or hopper feeder (with wide perch)
that some of these birds need.
Nyjer seeds are a common one for small birds, often sold
as niger or thistle. It’s not really a thistle, though, as these
have become invasive in North America. Nyjer seeds are
small, oily and rich and from a daisy-like plant, imported
from overseas. Since they are heat sterilized, they won’t
germinate and sread. oldfinches, indigo buntings, ine
siskins, and redpolls like nyger seeds served either in mesh
socks or tube feeders with a fine mesh or small oenings.
You’ll see dried corn for sale, particularly cracked corn.
Dried corn cob pieces, placed on a post with spikes (which
you can buy or make quite simply), attract blue jays. Loose
dried corn is attractive to larger birds such as quail, turkeys,
ducks, and pheasants, as well as songbirds such as grosbeaks,
cardinals, and blue jays. However, it attracts less desirable
birds also such as cowbirds, geese, and starlings, as well as
bears, raccoons, and deer.
Another problem is that corn can spoil quickly when
wet, harboring aatoins which can be quite toic even
at low levels. So avoid buying corn or storing it in plastic
bags where it may stay damp, change it daily during rainy
weather, and rake up old corn so it won’t be eaten. Don’t use
corn for planting which has red dye as a marker for fungicide
treatment. And don’t provide buttered or popped corn, which
can spoil quickly.
Less common seeds include milo or sorghum (more for
western birds), and white millet (more for ground feeders).
here are many other seeds used as fillers, articularly in the
less eensive seed mies. hese include golden millet, red
millet, and a which are avoided by most birds. So they are
just a waste of money and, if not being eaten, will spoil. This,
in turn, can breed harmful fungus and bacteria. If you’re
trying to save money, stock up on seeds such as black oil
sunower when they’re on sale. any hardware and garden
stores have sales in the fall; some stores offer reduced prices
more often.
ou may find filler seeds in suet cakes, as well as eanuts,
corn, and even fruit bits and insects. Since the birds are most
interested in the animal fat which provides high energy and
is easily digested, the rest of the fillers aren’t really needed.
Since the peanuts and corn can spoil, buy suet from reputable
dealers, keep it refrigerated when storing, and put outside
only when temperatures are below freezing to keep it from
becoming rancid.
Another food source that some feed birds is mealworms,
which are not worms at all but rather the larvae of the darkling
beetle. They are attractive to bluebirds, particularly when
raising their young, as well as many other birds—so much
so that this food may be affordable only if fed in narrow tube
feeders with holes for small birds. Although when alive these
insects are more attractive to birds, dried ones in bags are
fine and often what you find in stores.
If you are lucky and have many birds, especially during
summer when the young begin feeding too, or when large
numbers are ocking and assing by, you may want to invest
in a larger feeder or two. While smaller ones may contain a
quart or two of seeds, larger ones may hold 4 quarts or more
and so not need filling every day.
In addition to providing food, birds need water so consider
adding a heated bird bath if you don’t have one already. You
can find such with heating elements built in, or a heating element
you can merely add to your summer bird bath. As with
the feeders, make sure you keep bird baths cleaned regularly.
You can learn more about feeding birds from books, or
websites such as those of various bird seed manufacturers,
the magazine Birds and Blooms (www.birdsandblooms.com),
or the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (www.allaboutbirds.org).
Distribution of this release is made possible by University
of Vermont and Green Works—the Vermont Nursery and
Landscape Association.
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page 34 The WORLD December 5, 2018