Birds in the Backyard
58 views · Published 20 January 2018 · 5:49 · Indexed 1 October 2026
Channel: mywonderjam · 2018 · Pets & Animals
⚡ ⚡ Please Subscribe. Thank you! ---- https://goo.gl/zoPBwf ⚡ ⚡ Birds in the Backyard - https://youtu.be/UrQib_DMyWI Can you identify some of the birds. A few look like the American Robin. Supercharge your backyard bird feeding with these 16 tips Nearly 60 million Americans feed wild birds, according to the 2016 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. They spend more than $4 billion per year on bird food and another $1 billion on feeders, baths, nestboxes and accessories. About 2.3 million Pennsylvanians were counted among the country’s backyard birders in 2011, the last time a state-focused report was drawn out of that national survey. Many maintain a lone feeder or two only during the winter. Others maintain an array of feeders, baths and habitat elements throughout the year. While most of the birds in our backyards – excluding sick, injured, old and misdirected birds – do not need the food in our bird feeders, we want to see the birds relatively close-up and on a daily basis. That’s the real reason we feed the birds. To that end, the maximum number and variety of birds are attracted to the widest range of bird feeders constantly filled with a widest range of appropriate, quality food in the most welcoming habitat. That starts with placing a variety of feeders, including tube feeders, tube feeders with perches above the feeding holes, bin feeders, platform feeders and suet feeders. Black oil sunflower With an assortment of feeders in place, an array of foods can be offered to attract the birds you want in a relatively targeted way. Here’s a look at the common backyard birds attracted to each of the most common bird foods. Black oil sunflower seeds are the most commonly offered food in the backyard. They also are attractive to the widest variety of birds: cardinals, chickadees, doves, finches, goldfinches, grosbeaks, jays, nuthatches, sparrows, woodpeckers and more. Striped sunflower Striped sunflower seeds, which are larger and harder hulled than the black oil type, are attractive to larger birds with stronger bills, such as jays and crows. Peanuts in the shell are similarly attractive to those birds for the same reasons: high nutritional yield for more effort and strength expended. Conversely, hulled sunflower kernels and chips are especially attractive to the smaller birds, although offering them in most bird feeders will result in significant waste. Nyjer, aka., thistle Nyjer, or thistle, seeds are the second most popular food with backyard bird feeders. The small, thin seeds are attractive to finches, goldfinches, pine siskins and redpolls. Relatively expensive, nyjer seeds should be offered in feeders with very small holes to reduce spillage and waste. Safflower Safflower seeds, which have a bitter taste that is off-putting to many birds, is especially attractive to cardinals, one of the favorite birds among backyard birders. 2)ez Millet, the small white globes in bird food mixes, is attractive to the bird species that tend to gather in large numbers at our feeders. Corn Cracked corn is an inexpensive food that is high in carbohydrates and attractive to a wide range of ground-feeding birds, such as doves, grackles, jays, sparrows, starlings and towhees. Fruit and insects Fruit and insects will attract species of backyard birds that rarely come to seed feeders, species like bluebirds, robins, mockingbirds and waxwings. Likely fruits are raisins and currants soaked in water overnight before being offered, diced apples and diced pears. Mealworms and waxworms, freeze-dried or frozen before being offered, are the most common commercially available insects during prime bird-feeding season. Water is a big draw It may come as a surprise, but your backyard birds do not need the bird food you give them through your feeders. They will use your feeders because they are an easy source of top-level nutrition. Nothing can enhance a wintertime backyard, including a backyard already packed with an array of bird feeders, as much as the addition of a water source. That source can be a bird bath, a hollow in a boulder or a pan. Its most important aspects are clean water and available water. The first concern is a matter of regularly emptying the water source of refilling it. Music Credit : Incompetech. Kevin McLeod
