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