Hi Puzzlers,
Yesterday while sipping my morning cup of coffee, gazing, bleary eyed, out the window I noticed a couple of blue jays searching the ground for food. It got me thinking that it would be nice to have a bird feeder or two of my own so I could watch birds every morning! Ah, it’s little pleasures like this that make life grand. Then panic set in as I thought about making them dependent on me for food and what if I forgot to feed them!
Well, it turns out that birds find 80 percent of their food on their own and 20 percent from bird feeders, which increases their odds of surviving the winter. Some birds even store food. Crows, nuthatch, chickadee and jays, to name a few, have memorized where they store food (tree bark or under leaves…) and can even find it 6 months later. Birds also follow a daily route to gather food, so, if your feeder happens to be empty don’t worry, he will eat at the next feeder. But be sure to fill your feeder as soon as possible to ensure the birds keep your feeder on the route.
If you are looking to attract different species you will need to have different types of food in feeders hung at different levels. Black oil sunflower seeds attract several different types of birds including cardinals, woodpeckers, blue jays, goldfinches and chickadees. The goldfinch love Nyger even more than thistle, though it tends to be more expensive. Are you sick of squirrels and blue jays eating your sunflower seeds and scaring the other birds? Then try the smaller white safflower seeds.
Another must-have is suet. Suet is made of animal fat and other “yummy” bird treats that attract insect eating birds. Unlike us birds use massive amounts of energy (up to 10,000 calories a day) and any extra fat in their diet is good. Another great thing to keep in mind is that the birds that feed on Suet love to feed on the bugs found in your summer gardens. Don’t you just love a natural pesticide?
Also, please remember to provide fresh water for your visiting birds (unfrozen water is hard to find in the winter months) and to clean your bird feeder occasionally with a 10 percent solution of bleach. This will help reduce the spread of disease.
Happy Puzzling!
Yesterday while sipping my morning cup of coffee, gazing, bleary eyed, out the window I noticed a couple of blue jays searching the ground for food. It got me thinking that it would be nice to have a bird feeder or two of my own so I could watch birds every morning! Ah, it’s little pleasures like this that make life grand. Then panic set in as I thought about making them dependent on me for food and what if I forgot to feed them!
Well, it turns out that birds find 80 percent of their food on their own and 20 percent from bird feeders, which increases their odds of surviving the winter. Some birds even store food. Crows, nuthatch, chickadee and jays, to name a few, have memorized where they store food (tree bark or under leaves…) and can even find it 6 months later. Birds also follow a daily route to gather food, so, if your feeder happens to be empty don’t worry, he will eat at the next feeder. But be sure to fill your feeder as soon as possible to ensure the birds keep your feeder on the route.
If you are looking to attract different species you will need to have different types of food in feeders hung at different levels. Black oil sunflower seeds attract several different types of birds including cardinals, woodpeckers, blue jays, goldfinches and chickadees. The goldfinch love Nyger even more than thistle, though it tends to be more expensive. Are you sick of squirrels and blue jays eating your sunflower seeds and scaring the other birds? Then try the smaller white safflower seeds.
Another must-have is suet. Suet is made of animal fat and other “yummy” bird treats that attract insect eating birds. Unlike us birds use massive amounts of energy (up to 10,000 calories a day) and any extra fat in their diet is good. Another great thing to keep in mind is that the birds that feed on Suet love to feed on the bugs found in your summer gardens. Don’t you just love a natural pesticide?
Also, please remember to provide fresh water for your visiting birds (unfrozen water is hard to find in the winter months) and to clean your bird feeder occasionally with a 10 percent solution of bleach. This will help reduce the spread of disease.
Happy Puzzling!
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