Winter Bird Feeding Advice

If the community you live in falls below freezing during the winter months, or if you have times of ice and snow on the ground, you might not realize how important it is to feed the wild birds right outside your door. Winter storms with a lot of snow or ice cover cuts many birds off of their regular food supply and cause thousands or millions of them to starve. Keeping bird feeders, especially automatic bird feeders,  in your yard makes a true contribution to their overall survival and their ability to thrive during the winter time. There are other things you can do make sure that birds are well fed in the winter months.

Winter Bird Feeding

• Put out bird feeders that have a good capacity size, and use several automatic bird feeders to give the bird’s ample food during snow storms. There are many places you can buy bird feeders, including Sweeney Feeders, for feeding birds.
• Leave nutritious winter seed foods in your bird feeders. For most birds this is a mix of hulled peanuts, black oil sunflower seed, white millet seed and Niger seed. You can buy mixed seed bags at most lawn and garden stores.
• Offer the birds some fatty foods as well. During the winter months, birds burn more calories trying to stay warm. One high energy food is suet because it has more fat in it. Peanut butter is quite popular with the birds, but it’s more expensive than buying suet. Insect-eating birds and woodpeckers enjoy suet bird food as one of their favorites.
• Keep all your bird feeders nice and full. In the winter, birds stock up on calories for the long, cold nights.
• Feed the birds consistently all winter long. Birds get accustomed to coming to your bird feeders. When there is severe weather, they depend on the food you offer as a means of surviving. If you go out-of-town, fill up your automatic bird feeders or have a neighbor come and fill your feeders.
• Don’t forget about water. Birds can quickly become dehydrated in the winter even when there is snow and ice around. Put a pan of water out near your Sweeney Feeders on warmer days.
• Keep your bird feeders in cat-safe places. You want to be sure your bird feeders are out of reach of sneaky cats and other predators. Try to place your bird feeders at least ten feet from brush piles and shrubs. This gives the birds time to react if a cat or predator comes around.

Always start your bird feeders in the first few days of winter. Once you have purchased your high quality automatic bird feeder and found a good location in trees and shrubs to place them, you are well on your way to taking care of your birds throughout the colder months of year.

Need a premium bird feeder for your yard? Visit Sweeney Feeders for the best automatic bird feeders in the industry.