Many people restrict their bird feeding to the winter months and stop feeding during summer. But there are many reasons to continue feeding the birds all year long. Do you feed the birds in summer?  If you do, please post below and tell us about your summer feeding experiences!

One of the great reasons to feed birds in summer is to invite into your yard all the colorful migratory birds that have returned to us after the long winter. Grosbeaks, orioles, tanagers, mockingbirds, catbirds, and bluebirds are just a few of the summer birds that you can attract to your yard to enjoy their amazing colors and beautiful songs.

And although food is more plentiful in summer, it’s still possible that birds aren’t getting all the nutrition they need. Land development, stormy wet weather, droughts and any number of other circumstances can limit the availability of food for birds.  And an adequate food supply is especially important for nesting birds. Not only do they have to feed themselves, but also their constantly hungry babies. And many birds raise several broods each summer.

Here are a some bird feeding tips that will help you attract summer birds and provide them with the added nutrition that birds might need:

Offer a variety of foods besides bird seed. You can attract many fruit and insect eating birds with chunks of apple and banana for cardinals, robins, mockingbirds and others, oranges and grape jelly for orioles, and nectar for hummingbirds. Insect eating birds will be attracted to live, canned or roasted mealworms, or a snack of live or dried waxworms or fly larvae.

Offer suet. Suet is an excellent high-energy food for busy parent birds and it’s easily digestible for nestlings and fledglings. Parent birds will frequently bring their newly fledged babies to your suet feeders and teach them to eat on their own—a delightful thing to watch! And many insect eating birds will be attracted to suet—especially catbirds. But suet can tend to melt and get sticky in very hot weather. Use a no-melt suet, which has a slightly drier consistency and less fat than other suets. No-melt  or “all season” will be stated on the package. And Duncraft’s Can you guess what bird this is? Answer below!“Delight” suets and suet pellents are also no-melt.

If you are using uncovered tube feeders, consider investing in a weather baffle. Weather baffles are great for keeping rain and moisture from seeping into your feeders. Weather baffles can also shade your suet and nectar feeders from hot sun.

Check your feeders, seed and suet often, especially after a bout of rainy weather. No bird feeders are completely water proof, and water in your feeders can cause seed to sprout and seed and suet to go moldy—very unhealthy for your Eastern Bluebirdbirds. If you detect mold or sprouting seeds, empty and thoroughly clean your feeders before refilling.

Nyjer seed can be particularly susceptable to damp conditions.  It may look fine in the tube, but Nyjer can become hard and caked up if it’s exposed to moisture.  Frequently shake your Nyjer tubes and stockings to make sure the seed is still flowing.  Many times when your finches stop feeding, it’s because the Nyjer seed has gotten caked together into a hard mass.

Be sure to give your birds water!  Birds get most of their water from the insects they eat in summer and also from berries, but they still enjoy a drink now and then.  And birds bathe frequently in usmmer to help remove parasites, clean their skin and remove oil and dirt from their feathers to keep them in top-flight condition.

Enjoy your summer birds–and be sure to post below with any special summer feeding advice you might have and why you enjoy feeding the birds all summer!

Article originally posted on Duncraft

Now that nesting season is upon us, it’s not unusual for our Customer Service ladies to get phone calls from customers saying that they have found a baby bird on the ground, and asking what they can do about it.  Here are some answers that might help.

If you have found a baby bird on the ground, try to resist the temptation to “rescue” it.  It’s almost impossible for the average person to provide the proper care and diet for baby birds.  They require live insect foods and need to be fed about every 20 minutes. Sadly, baby birds seldom survive when people attempt to take them in and feed and care for them.  In most cases the best thing to do when you find a baby bird out of the nest is to simply leave the bird alone. If the baby is feathered and hopping on the ground, or perched on a low branch, you can be sure the parents are close by, watching over it and feeding it.  It’s normal for some baby birds to leave the nest before they are fully ready to fly.  The sooner you leave the area, the sooner the parents will be able to come back and tend to it.  However, if you have unrestrained outdoor dogs or cats, put them inside immediately and keep them inside until the baby bird is gone.

Rarely, you may find a live baby bird on the ground that has no feathers and is obviously not going to survive without your intervention.  Look for the nest and if possible, place the baby back in it and then leave the area.  The parent birds will not abandon the baby because you have touched it.  Birds have a very poor sense of smell and they won’t be able to detect your human scent.  If you can see the nest, but cannot get to it for some reason, an acceptable solution would be to nail a small, open container as near to the nest as possible. Line it with dried grasses and put the baby in it for the parents to find.  They will hear and recognize the baby’s chirps.  Or, if a nest has blown down with eggs or babies in it, you can nail a small basket to the tree where the nest was and put the remainder of the nest with the eggs and the babies in that.  Watch from a distance to see if the parents come back.

If you have watched the nest or baby bird for several hours and there has been no sign of the parents, it would be best to call a wildlife rehabilitator for advice.  Your local SPCA or Fish and Game Department will help you find one.  Don’t move the baby bird or eggs until you have heard from the rehabilitator. They may prefer to retrieve the baby themselves or have special instructions for you.  Rehabilitators are licensed to do this work and are specially trained on how to take care of injured or abandoned birds and animals.

Article originally posted on Duncraft

On cold and blustery winter days, it’s sometimes hard to believe that birds and other creatures can survive out there in the elements. We see birds flitting around our bird feeders, but what are they doing the rest of the time? Are they finding other food besides the bird seed from our feeders? Where do they roost at night and how do they keep warm? Most importantly, what can we do to help them?

Our backyard birds spend their winter days eating continuously. They have to, or they won’t have enough calories to burn to keep them warm during the night. Along with eating high fat foods such as suet cakes and sunflower seeds at our bird feeders, birds are adept at finding and taking advantage of natural food stores. For instance, chickadees eat conifer seeds, berries that remain on bushes, even scavenge fat from animal carcasses in the woods. Woodpeckers will forage for nuts, berries and seek out galls in trees that contain the larvae of insects or excavate the bark of trees for hidden insects and sap.

To make it easier for birds to forage wild foods and keep warm in winter, there are a number of things we can do around our yards to help out. First, don’t be so intent on cleaning up your garden in fall. Let your vegetables such as broccoli, carrots and parsley go to seed; they provide a good food source. Also flowers, such as sunflowers, coneflowers, thistles and milkweeds provide seeds during the winter if you don’t cut them back. Ornamental grasses are a good source of seeds in winter as well. Try keeping a section of your lawn un-mowed and let it go to seed. On days when the snow melts and the grass is revealed, the seeds will provide a bit of nourishment. Even weeds, such as goldenrod, will be helpful to birds if allowed to flourish and aren’t mowed down. And there are many bushes and shrubs that keep their berries long into the winter. Some, such as bittersweet are actually more palatable to birds after they’ve frozen and thawed. This way, they don’t get eaten up in the fall, but become valuable and sought-after in the dead of winter.

Shelter, particularly dense brush, gives birds a respite from cold, blowing winds during the day and a place to roost at night. If your lawn is a broad expanse of snow, it won’t help the birds. Try creating a brush pile in a corner of the yard rather than disposing of fallen leaves and dead branches. Start with a bed of raked up leaves and pine needles and then put your larger tree branches down. Then heap smaller branches on top, ending with cornstalks, grasses and other light vegetation. When the first snow falls, it will supply insulation over the pile. Birds will scratch through the leaves at the bottom for seeds and insect eggs without fear of exposure to predators and they can roost safely from owls and night time predators up inside the branches.

Article originally posted on Duncraft

Contrary to popular belief, not all of our winged companions fly south for the winter. Some of them hang around all year long. This means that they might use a little extra help finding food and water during the colder months of the year.

Most of the birds that stick around for winter will be seedeaters. (Think about it, fruit and insects are not very abundant during the cold months). So, a good choice for food is black oil sunflower seed, or even better, safflower seeds (squirrels and grackles don’t like it!). The best place to put your feeder for the winter? Wherever you can see it from the warmth and comfort of your favorite room in the house! Position various feeders at different heights to attract a wider variety of birds. Also, try to place the feeder somewhere that it has some shield from gusty winter winds.

Providing water in the winter will make your backyard especially attractive to birds. In winter it is particularly hard to come by water in liquid form. By keeping a heater in your birdbath, you will provide your birds with a much-needed place to drink and bathe. Birds bathe to keep their feathers in good condition. In the winter, birds fluff up their feathers to act as insulation to keep themselves warm.

Be patient, it may take several weeks before you see any birds at your winter feeders. So long as you have clean, full feeders, chances are the birds will find them. Another tip is to avoid filling feeders with mixed birdseed from your local grocery store. These mixed bags often contain filler seed that birds won’t even eat. The filler seed will end up making a mess on the ground under your feeder, and your birds will go elsewhere to find better food.

An important thing to know is that in the fall, many birds are noting where they can find food and water. This means that what you are doing in October/November in your backyard may determine how many visitors you get once winter actually hits. Just remember, your birds appreciate what you do for them all year long, but even more so in the winter months.

Article originally posted on Duncraft