Bird Feeders--Using Them to Attract Birds to Your Yard

There is no sweeter sound to be heard in a garden then that of chirping birds enjoying the environment. During the winter months, when a person is closed inside the house, nothing brightens up a day as watching birds enjoying a meal at your bird feeder. And this sentiment is shared by over 70 million people in the United States and Canada.

By providing food and shelter to these feathered creatures, these considerate humans are playing an important role in helping birds survive at a time when the bird population is taking a beating.

By knowing what plants satisfy birds, it becomes quite easy to attract them into a yard. Grosbeaks and cedar waxwings look for an assortment of berries. Goldfinches like their thistle, chickadees look for sunflowers, hummingbirds search for nectar and blue jays, of course, like to pick through compost piles. Birds, will, of course, hang out anywhere where they can find a good habitat and an assortment of feeders.

1. Other birds prefer the cover of dense shrubs.

Also, important to keep in mind is that birds need access to water year-round for preening their feathers to ensure good insulation and drinking. An outdoor water fountain, bird bath or pond can be an attractive garden accent and, at the same time, an important habitat feature.

Another consideration that must be made is in the styles of feeders. An assortment of several types will provide you with more of an assortment of feathered visitors. For instance, chickadees will eat from almost any feeder, including the palm of your hand. Other types of birds will, only, eat from a specific type of perch, feeding port or roof. The more of a variety of feeders provided guarantees a wider variety of visitors.

Feeders come in three primary types: platform, suet and elevated perching feeders. Platform feeders, which are, generally, situated at or a little above ground level, will attract a variety of ground-feeding birds such as cardinals and sparrows. Suet is a rendered beef-fat that attracts insect-eating birds such as nuthatches, chickadees and woodpeckers. Perching feeders, usually, have one or more seed ports with a perch. They are, usually, hung 5 to 6 feet off the ground. These types of feeders serve the culinary needs of finches, chickadees, blue jays and grosbeaks. Most perching feeders are designed to hold various seed mixtures. Thistle seed, the preferred food of finches, has a fine texture and, consequently, requires a feeder designed, specifically, for that seed.

If providing more than one feeder in your yard, separating them will encourage more birds to feed at the same time.

There is much pleasure to be found for the price of a feeder and a few pounds of bird feed. Either way, this activity can become a life-saver for a lot of feathery friends and a source of joy for the caretaker. We carry a large selection of bird houses, bird feeders, indoor/outdoor water fountains and garden statuary to beautify your home and environs. There is something for every taste and every pocket. Come check us out.

Squirrel Proofing Bird Feeders - Techniques to Birdproof Feeders

There are really 2 basic approaches to keeping squirrels out of your bird feeder. The first is to simply try to block them from getting to the feeder. There are two common types of feeders that do that.

Baffled Bird Feeder - By simply restricting access to the the food in the feeder, you frustrate them and they move off. The advantage to using a baffle is that it more or less separates the squirrel proof barrier from the feeder itself, so that the bird have free access to the bird seed, and any size bird can still use the feeder. This is often the more aesthetic approach. This is often done by pole mounting the feeder, and putting the baffle on the pole. Other types use a hanging arrangement and the baffle forms a roof over the feeder.

The disadvantage of this approach is that squirrels can leap large distances, and are incredibly agile climbers, so that they will often find a way to land on the actual feeder and bypass the baffling. With the top mounted feeder you may also find a squirrel smart enough to climb down and cause the feeder to swing, and while they may not gain access to the feeder itself they can cause the bird food to spill to the ground, where they can get all the food they want.

Caged Bird Feeders - Another very common solution is to use a caged feeder. These are easy to spot, the construction includes some type of cage around the actual feeder area. It's a fairly open mesh, and in fact a tube style caged feeder looks similar to an electronic bug zapper with the open mesh surrounding the tube.

Caged feeders are better at keeping the squirrels out of the feeder, but they can still get to it and scare off the birds that are trying to use the feeder. This is often the case when you are trying to attract smaller birds.

The second approach to getting rid of squirrels in your bird feeder is to move them out. The much more effective types of squirrel proof feeders are those that cause the squirrel to fall off or be thrown from the feeder. There are two types of those feeders as well, weight activated feeders and the battery powered or electronic motorized feeders. While this won't harm the squirrels they are fun to watch in action.