8 Common Bird Feeder Mistakes You Might Be Making (And How to Fix Them)

Wild birds, such as finches, robins, and cardinals, are a fascinating part of many gardens and landscapes. They're so much fun to watch, especially when you draw them to your yard with feeders so you can get a closer look. The cast of birds you'll see gathering at feeders changes with the seasons, but their lively antics will be a constant delight. Attracting wild birds is usually quite easy. There are, however, a few common mistakes that can repel, injure, or even kill birds, spoiling your well-intended efforts. Make sure to avoid the following bird-feeding pitfall so you can keep your winged visitors healthy and happy year-round.

To read more on this story, click here: 8 Common Bird Feeder Mistakes You Might Be Making (And How to Fix Them)

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Tips for Feeding Backyard Birds in the Winter

If your community gets consistently cold (below freezing) in the winter or has extended periods of snow and ice on the ground, you may be surprised to learn what a huge difference you can make by feeding wild birds right outside your own door or window.  A large-scale winter storm, with deep snow or ice cover, cuts off many birds from their natural food supplies and can actually cause them to starve by the thousands and even millions. Backyard bird feeding can make a real contribution to their survival and even thriving during the winter months.   Here are ten pointers for a successful winter bird feeding season:

1.  Put out feeders with good size capacity:  And/or use multiple feeders to provide ample food especially during snow and ice storms.  There are many stores in your area that sell excellent bird feeders including bird-specific stores and most lawn and garden centers. You can also visit the National Wildlife Federation’s online backyard store to purchase feeders while also supporting the Federation’s conservation work:

2.  Provide nutritious winter seed foods: For most birds theses often include seed mixes of: black oil sunflower seed, hulled peanuts, niger seed and white millet seed.  Mixed seed bags can be purchased at local bird and lawn and garden stores or you can go on line and visit the Scott’s Songbird Selections website for a store locator or to learn more about wild bird feeding:

3.  Offer fatty food too:  Birds need to burn more calories in the winter just to stay warm.  Suet is considered a high energy food because it consists of fat that has 9 calories per gram compared to 4 calories per gram for carbohydrates or protein. Peanut Butter is also popular with our flying friends but is more expensive than suet. Suet feeders are a favorite of woodpeckers and other insect-eating birds

4.  Keep your feeders full: Winter birds need to stock up on calories especially for those long, cold winter nights.

5.  Be consistent and keep feeding through the winter: Birds grow accustomed to your feeders especially in severe weather when the snacks you offer may mean their very survival.  If you leave home for an extended period, try to have a neighbor or friend keep the feeders going.

6.  Remember water: Birds can become dehydrated in winter even if surrounded by ice and snow.  Putting out a pan of water near the feeder on warmer days is a terrific idea.

7.  Stamp down the snow below: Ground-feeding birds such as dark-eyed juncos, doves and many sparrows will be able to gather up the seed that drop from the feeders if they don’t have deep snow to try to manage. 

8.  Hang feeders in cat-safe locations: Place bird feeders in locations that do not also offer hiding places for sneak-attacks by cats and other predators. Think of placing the feeders ten to twelve feet from shrubs or brush piles.  This gives the birds some time to react.

9.  Remember feeder cleanliness: Your feeders can get a little grimy. Because natural food sources are scarcer in the winter, more birds may be attracted to backyard feeders and those feeders will need to be cleaned with some hot water and dried a few times during the season.

10.  Save some money and stock up on seed: Bird feeding veterans say it is best to stock up on birdseed in the Fall when many lawn and garden centers are discounting it to make way for winter merchandise. Stored properly, (in cool dry places) seed can easily last for months, particularly seed mixes and sunflower seeds.

The first days or winter are a great time to start feeding birds.  Once you have bird feeders, some water sources, some shrubs and trees for habitat cover you are well on your way to qualifying for certification as a backyard habitat with 135,000 other U.S. residents.  Learn more about NWF’s Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program and see if you might like to join up.  The winter birds surely need you.

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Feeding Bread to Birds: May Actually Do More Harm Than Good

Many people have memories of going to a park and tossing out scraps of bread to feed the pigeons and ducks.  It is not unusual for people to put out bread that has gone stale in their backyard feeders, too, so that it "doesn't go to waste".  However, caution must be taken with offering bread, as it may actually do more harm than good.

Bread molds fast outside and injesting these molds can cause a whole range of illnesses in birds.  Bread offered in too large pieces may also cause blockages in birds' digestive tracts.  Crop stasis, a condition where the crop fails to empty properly and food ferments leading to secondary yeast infections, can result from bread consumption.

Bread is more likely to attract nuisance bird species, particularly European Starlings, House Sparrows, and pigeons.

The biggest problem with offering bread is that it does not offer proper nutrition to birds.  Birds that fill up on bread feel full, but have not obtained the fats and proteins needed for survival.  Many of our favorite feeder birds have digestive systems that rely on calories obtained from dietary fats, not dietary carbohydrates, for daily health and survival.

Consider the following facts:

• Dietary fats supply bird with energy, essential fatty acids, and pigments. 
• Fats are the most concentrated energy source that a bird can consume. 
• Fats are the only dietary component that is deposited intact into a bird’s tissue. 
• Stored fats are the primary energy supply that fuels a bird between meals, throughout migration, and during a chick’s embryonic development. 

• In small passerines the amount of fat stored is a function of overnight energy expenditure used to maintain metabolic rate and body temperature. Up to ¾ of fat reserves may be used in one night and replenished the next day. 
• When fat reserves are depleted, protein, mostly from muscles, is depleted to sustain energy needs.

100 grams of white bread contains only 28.6 calories from fat; you may get up to 40 calories in some multi-grain breads.  By comparison, 100 grams of black oil sunflower has 354 calories from fat.  How about other favorite seeds of our backyard birds?  The same amount of safflower offers 322 fat calories, peanut chunks give 413 fat calories, and sunflower chips offer a whopping 429 fat calories.  Those tiny nyjer thistle seeds that goldfinches love?  Yup, they're fatty too, providing 342 fat calories per 100 grams.

These seeds all also offer more protein calories than bread.  100 grams of bread offers about 30 protein calories, while black oil sunflower gives 74 protein calories.  There are 56 protein calories for safflower, 91 for peanut chunks, 70 for sunflower chips, and 84 for nyjer thistle.

If you do decide to put out bread, we suggest following these guidelines:

• Only put out an amount of bread that the birds will eat in a day; food left on the ground overnight may attract undesired visitors such as rats and raccoons.

• Brown bread is better than white.

• Crumble bread into tiny pieces.  This is especially important during the breeding season so that it is only eaten by adult birds.  Dry chunks of bread will choke baby birds, and a chick on a diet of bread will not develop into a healthy fledgling.

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