Feed Backyard Birds in the Fall and Winter: Keeping Our Feathered Friends Happy and Healthy

As fall drags on into winter, many of us in northern climes find ourselves spending more and more time indoors. This cyclic separation from nature and the great outdoors naturally drives some of us to look for simple ways to reconnect with wild things. A fall and winter bird feeder is a great way to maintain your connection to the environment, and to provide nourishment to backyard birds just when they need it the most. Follow these simple tips to draw the most birds to your fall or winter feeder with the least work.

Food
Birds hanging around in colder climates are almost all seed-eaters. Birds that have adapted to eat insects, worms, and grubs would find themselves quickly starving to death if they stayed around after the ground freezes. Many seed-producing plants, however, retain their seeds throughout the winter to dry, waiting for spring showers and warm weather to drop them into the waiting soil. These seeds make up the bulk of the food source for winter birds. Almost any winter seed mix available at your local hardware or garden store will fit the bill, but the lower-end mixes often contain a lot of filler, which birds won't eat, so you may be better off mixing your own.

Mix up one or more of the following ingredients - more variety will suit a greater variety of birds: sunflower seeds (black are best, but the standard grey and white striped kind are fine, too), millet, peanuts (shelled), thistle seed (niger), safflower seeds, and cracked corn. Add some suet during the coldest parts of winter - this stuff is almost pure fat, and helps birds to keep warm. None of these items is hugely expensive, and a home-made mix is almost always superior tot eh store-bought mixes.

Location
While some like to simply spread seed on the ground periodically, this is not my approach. Here in Vermont, much of the feed spread in this way sinks down into the snow, making it inaccessible to birds and wasting the food. A neighbor of mine feels that it's "more natural" to broadcast the seed onto the ground, and lays out a dark-colored tarp in her yard. The color tends to melt the snow, and the tarp prevents the seed from being lost. Personally, I think this is ugly, and I recommend commercial feeders.

Place feeders where you will be able to observe the birds as you go about your day - near the kitchen table, or outside of an office window would be excellent locations, and you need not limit yourself to just one feeder. Some bird feeders are meant to be hung from a tree branch or from the eaves of a house. Others can be driven into the ground in the middle of a yard, or attached to a porch or shed. Once you know where you want them to be located, you'll know which type of feeder to buy.

There's no reason to be concerned that feeding birds during fall and winter will make them dependent upon your help. Birds are extremely adaptable creatures with lots of local food sources - of which your bird feeder is only one. Enjoy your winter guests, and know that you're helping to maintain a healthy population of backyard birds.