Want to feed birds?
If you are thinking of starting to feed birds or want to get back into doing so after moving to a new house or now spending more time at home, there are couple of things to think about before buying the equipment or seed.
Find a location in the house where you can easily see the birds. Pick a window in your house where you spend a fair amount of time and would be able to view part of your yard easily. Could be a window or sliding door in your family room, office or kitchen table area. The area outside needs to conducive to setting up feeders as well as have some trees for the feeding birds to perch on their way to and from the feeders. Feeders can also be installed up high on deck railings or roof overhangs. And there are always window mounted feeders available that make a fun, easy way to view small birds up close. The important point is for you to see and enjoy the birds. Feeder birds supplement their daily intake with supplied bird seed but don’t need it to survive. Bird feeding is really for human enjoyment.
Make the commitment to keep the feeders clean. This is a super important point as moldy bird feeders can create very unhealthy conditions for the birds. It can be a real hassle to keep feeders clean especially in the middle of winter or if the weather has been humid and wet. Plastic tube feeders tend to stay cleaner due to their design and there are some that are designed to make cleaning even easier such as the Droll Yankees Ring Pull or Onyx Clever Clean series. Less expensive options are the metal mesh feeders such as the More Birds Screen Feeder or the Perky-Pet Seed Ball that are able to be clean quickly. If not wanting to clean, there are packaged seed cakes available that can be hang alone or square sizes to put in suet cages basically eliminating any need to clean.
If leaving for long periods of time and do not have someone to refill your feeders regularly, reconsider even getting started. As stated above, feeding birds is really is for the benefit of the viewer.
No need to provide bird seed or suet in the summer months if you want to take a break from bird-feeding. Many of the seed and suet-eating birds rely on insects in the summer for food or to feed their nestlings so their interest in bird seed drops off dramatically. Suet can melt in the warmer weather getting very messy and spoiled. Due to the humid weather and rains, bird seed can also spoil quickly and get moldy requiring diligent feeder cleaning. If you want to keep a feeder going during the summer use a plastic tube feeder with oil sunflower seed. That will get the most amount of birds and the tube feeders do keep seed pretty dry. Better yet, you can use these months to focus on feeding our summer gems - the hummingbirds!