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Best food for birds in winter


Top 10 Foods for Winter Bird Feeding

By Alisa Opar

February 07, 2010

   

By Alisa Opar

February 07, 2010

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Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Torindkflt

With weather forecasters calling for more extreme winter weather across much of the country this week, now is the time to administer a little TLC to your bird feeder. Remember to keep the feeder clean and clear of snow, give any seed feeders a shake before refilling them to dislodge compacted seed and dump out any old remnants, and, of course, fill ‘er up. Feeders can help birds through harsh winter conditions, like the ones building right now.

Looking for the best foods for winter bird feeding? Bill Thompson, III, over at Bird Watcher’s Digest offers his top 10 picks:

10. Black-oil sunflower seed. Thompson calls this seed the “hamburger” of the bird world: nearly every bird that stops by your feeder will eat it because its thin shell is easy to crack.

9. Peanuts. “Woodpeckers, jays, nuthatches, chickadees, and titmice will readily visit a feeder for this high-protein, high-energy food. Even cardinals and finches will eat peanuts,” Thompson writes. Be sure they’re de-shelled, dry-roasted, and unsalted.

8. Suet. You’ll likely be able to find this high-fat food at your supermarket (ask the butcher if you don’t spot it on display). Make your own suet feeder with a mesh onion bag, Thompson suggests.

7. Good mixed seed. There is such a thing as bad mixed seed, Thompson points out. “Bad mixed seed has lots of filler in it—junk seeds that most birds won't eat. Bad mixed seed can include dyed seed meant for pet birds, wheat, and some forms of red milo that only birds in the Desert Southwest seem to eat.” Good mixed seed, he says, “has a large amount of sunflower seed, cracked corn, white proso millet, and perhaps some peanut hearts.” Check for seed at specialty bird stores or a hardware store, or make your own mix.

6. Nyjer/thistle seed. “Although it can be expensive, Nyjer, or thistle, seed is eagerly consumed by all the small finches—goldfinches, house, purple, and Cassin's finches, pine siskins, and redpolls,” says Thompson. “You need to feed thistle in a thistle feeder of some kind--the two most commonly used types of thistle feeder are a tube feeder with small thistle-seed-sized holes, and a thistle sock. A thistle sock is a sock-shaped, fine-mesh, synthetic bag that is filled with thistle seed. Small finches can cling to this bag and pull seeds out through the bag's mesh. ”

5. Safflower. You can fill any sunflower seed feeder with safflower, which many birds eat. Thompson advises avoiding putting the seed on the ground in wet weather as it “can quickly become soggy and inedible.” Look for it in bulk at seed and feed stores.

4. Cracked corn. “Sparrows, blackbirds, jays, doves, quail, and squirrels are just a few of the creatures you can expect at your feeders if you feed cracked corn,” Thomson says. But watch out—it’s also a favorite of squirrels.

3. Mealworms. The thought of mealworms might give you the willies, but most feeder birds will gobble them up—except goldfinches, according to Thompson. He suggests keeping 1,000 mealworms in a tub of old-fashioned rolled oats, then doling them out in a shallow ceramic dish, which the worms can’t crawl out of because of the slippery sides.

2. Fruit. Grapes or sliced citrus, apple, or banana are a special treat that will draw many birds. “If you want to feed raisins, chop them up and soak them in warm water first to soften them up a bit,” suggests Thompson.

1. Homemade bird treats. For Thompson’s suggestions, click here.

Do you have a favorite recipe for homemade bird treats? 

Best 8 Bird Foods for the Winter Season

Feeding the birds in winter can be a rewarding way to enjoy birding in your backyard when the weather outside is less than ideal. If you offer the best winter bird foods, you will find a greater variety of birds visiting your feeders even on the coldest days. While you want to be sure to offer the foods that your specific backyard birds like best, these top foods are excellent choices for many common winter birds. All of these foods offer great nutrition, and their high caloric content will give birds plenty of energy to build fat reserves for frigid winter nights.

FEED THE BIRDS IN WINTER

Friends!

Colds are coming, and we traditionally begin to feed the birds, laying out food in feeders and hanging lard on trees. THE BOTANICAL GARDEN-INSTITUTE ACCEPTS BIRD FEED AND PROTEIN. We have a lot of feeders in the Arboretum, and in winter we regularly monitor their fullness. Well-fed birds survive the cold more easily and are more likely to survive until spring.

Feed the birds in winter!
Let from all over
They will flock to you like home,
Stakes on the porch.
Their food is poor.
A handful of grain is needed,
One handful - and they will not be afraid of winter.
How many of them die - do not count,
It's hard to see.
But in our heart there is
And the birds are warm.
Is it possible to forget:
Could fly away,
And they stayed for the winter
Along with people.
Train the birds in the cold
To your window,
So that without songs it was not necessary
We welcome spring!
Alexander Yashin
What can you feed the birds in winter

In winter, each type of bird eats a certain type of food. The species composition of visiting birds will also depend on what you pour into the feeder. The following are the main foods that can be used in winter top dressing:

1. GRAINS - MILLET, OATS, WHEAT

The favorite food of some birds are the seeds of various plants, especially cereals. Sprinkling millet or oats into the feeder will attract sparrows, goldfinches and other grain-eating birds. Birds in winter can be fed with wheat bran, hard oatmeal, poppy seeds, pearl barley. Some birds eat corn and watermelon seeds, which must be crushed beforehand. If you are interested in breeding useful birds in your garden, then in the fall prepare weed seeds - nettles, quinoa, burdock, thistles, and pour them into the feeder in winter. But keep in mind that this will be only an insignificant addition to the main feed. it is more correct to plant mountain ash, viburnum, hawthorn, buckthorn, bird cherry and other berry trees and shrubs on your feeding area.

2. SUNFLOWER SEEDS

The most versatile food for wintering birds. It can be eaten by both granivorous birds and tits, nuthatches, woodpeckers. The large amount of vegetable fats inside sunflower seeds makes them an important source of energy in cold winter conditions. If there is monotonous food in the feeder, sunflower tits will look for additional protein animal food.

3. SALO, MEAT

These products can also be used for winter bird feeding. They are very fond of tits, nuthatches and some other species of birds. But it is worth remembering that only unsalted lard or meat can be offered to birds. As a rule, pieces of bacon are strung on twine, which is hung on tree branches. Top dressing from fat or meat should be placed in such a way that it does not go to crows, magpies, jackdaws, as well as cats and dogs.

You can put a small piece of butter in the feeder. On especially frosty days, this product will help the birds survive.

4. DRIED ROWAN AND HAWTHORN, ROSE HIP, VELLOW

Berries of mountain ash and hawthorn attract the most beautiful winter birds - bullfinches and waxwings, mountain ash.

Dried berries and fruits. Make a bunch of dried fruits and berries. Using a needle, put pieces of dried apples, pears, plums, apricots on a strong thread, form a lump and hang near the feeder. You can offer the birds the pulp of a pumpkin. Cut through "windows and doors" in it, so that the birds can get inside. They themselves will choose what to try - seeds or pulp. Tie a small pumpkin by the tail with a strong rope and hang it from a thick branch.

Apples that start to spoil should also not be thrown away. Cut the apple in half, put it in a feeder or hang it on a wire.

5. MAPLE AND ASH SEEDS

The seeds of these trees are also called lionfish. Most of them fall from the trees and become inaccessible to birds. Lionfish are harvested in autumn and hung on feeders. Bullfinches, waxwings and some other visitors to bird canteens like to eat them.

6. FOREST NUTS, CONES, ACORNS

Cones are the main food of crossbills and woodpeckers in winter.

Jays have been stocking acorns since autumn, hiding them in secluded places. In winter, hidden food is a good help. Having prepared cones, nuts and acorns since autumn, you can attract not only woodpeckers and jays, but also squirrels to your feeder.

7. CALCIUM SUPPLEMENT

During the nesting period (not necessarily in winter), garden guests still need to be fed foods that contain calcium. You can put pre-boiled, ground eggshells or pieces of chalk to the feeder.

WHAT NOT TO FEED BIRDS

  1. It is strictly forbidden to feed birds with fried, salty (salted fat or meat), sour foods.

  2. You can not give fresh white and especially rye bread, these products cause fermentation in the goiter of the bird.

  3. It is also impossible to feed birds with citrus fruits, banana peels, peanuts, spicy foods, pieces of pies and whites, chips, potatoes.

Publication date: 11/15/2022

How to properly feed birds in winter: 5 tips from a birdwatcher than good.

So how do you feed the birds the right way?

One of my favorite books as a child was Vitaly Bianchi's Forest Newspaper. Every January I remember a quote from the January - “the month of severe hunger” - issue: “Who is full, the cold is not terrible for him. For animals and birds, it's all about satiety. A good dinner warms from the inside, the blood is hot, warmth spreads through all the veins. Fat under the skin is the best lining for a warm woolen or downy coat. It will pass through the wool, it will pass through the feather, and no frost will break through the fat under the skin. If there was plenty of food, winter would not be terrible. And where to get it in winter - food?

Probably, there are many of us who loved Bianchi in childhood - at least in January calls to feed the birds begin to appear actively in social networks. “Share bread with the birds, help them survive the frost,” write people I know and don’t know. And here I begin to regret that after Bianchi, no one really engaged in the popularization of the study of nature in our country - because bread will do more harm to birds than good. But how does the average person know this?

Birdwatching is one of the most popular hobbies in the UK and the USA. In bookstores you can find an endless number of bird guides, photo albums about birds and all kinds of reference books. And hardware stores (and even ordinary supermarkets) sell dozens of varieties of feeders and food for wild birds. In our country, birdwatchers are rare eccentrics, you have to make feeders with your own hands, feed the birds with bread and millet, and there is practically no popular literature about birds. So I decided to compile a small compilation of bird feeding tips from various sources (National Geographic Birdwatcher’s Bible, The Ultimate Bird Feeder Handbook and RSPB’s Birdfeeder Guide)

Photo from the site https://4lapy.ru/

1. Why can't you feed birds with bread? It is very difficult for birds to digest, plus bread has too much protein and fat, it fills the stomach, but does not provide enough energy.

2. What else can you not feed the birds? Nothing salty. It is not necessary to feed spoiled (rancid, etc.) cereals to the birds. No need to treat the birds with cookies, buns, potato chips.

3. What to feed? Sunflower seeds (raw, unsalted), crushed peanuts, raw unsalted lard, oats, millet. wheat. I managed to find one domestic brand of wild bird food, it can be bought in the online store at the Zoological Museum and Obi stores. You can put slices of apples in the feeder, many birds peck them very willingly. If you are not lazy (and especially if you have children), make a nutritious muffin for titmouse. To do this, you need raw lard (beef or pork). It must be cut into pieces and melted over low heat. Then take a silicone mold for a cake, pour the seeds into it and pour it with melted lard. Let it harden, take it out of the mold and hang it on a string on a tree or balcony. Tits, nuthatches and even woodpeckers will be very pleased.

4. Do not overfeed the birds! You must help them survive, not take them on allowance, making them helpless.

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