Eat like a bird: how to feed birds in your yard

Story and photos by Donna Bollenbach
Suncoast Native Plant Society 

Bird feeders will attract a great number of bird species, especially during the fall and spring migrations, but they are not substitute for the natural food source from native plants. Before putting out your bird feeders make sure your garden is ready by planting natives that will provide food and cover.

ESTABLISH A NATIVE GARDEN 

The ideal central Florida native garden will have a variety of trees, shrubs and flowers. Some native plants that have many benefits to birds and wildlife include:

• Native plants with edible fruits, such as marlberry, beauty berry, firebush, blackberry, native hollies and wild coffee.  
• Native shrubs and small trees that make perfect cover for birds and other wildlife include Walter’s viburnum, Simpson stoppers, wax myrtle, yellow anise and the white fringe tree.
• Allow these native wildflowers to go to seed in your garden and the birds will love you:  coreopsis (tickseed), rudbeckia (sunflowers) and goldenrods. 

USE A VARIETY OF FEEDERS 

Once your native plant garden is established and you want to add some feeders and a water source to attract more birds to your yard. Here are things to consider, as different feeders and bird foods attract different birds:

• Cardinals, goldfinches and sparrows: use a ground feeder (a screen-bottomed tray that sits several inches off the ground).
  

  

  Black-oil sunflower and safflower seeds are good choices for ground feeders.

• Finches, chickadees, titmice and nuthatches: use a tube feeder and hang it at least five feet off the ground. Put black-oiled sunflower seeds or high quality seed mix in the tube feeder.
• Woodpeckers, including downy and redbelly: use suet feeders, which you hang in mesh bags or cages from trees or poles. Suet is rendered animal fat. It is often mixed with nuts and berries. There are many recipes online if you prefer to make your own suet.   
• Jays, grackles and red-winged blackbirds: hopper feeders are so-named because they release a mix of seed when the birds hop on them. Most of the same birds that come to the ground and use tube feeders will visit hoppers. Use black-oil sunflowers or a high quality mix of seeds. 
• Small beaked birds, such as finches: you may want to hang a thistle (nyjer) feeder from a tree or five-foot pole. Thistle is loved by many small birds, but it is expensive.

PROTECT YOUR FEEDERS 

My husband calls my bird feeders “squirrel feeders,” and for good reason. At times, I see far more squirrels on them then birds. How can you keep the squirrels away?

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  Use feeders that come with cages that allow the birds to go in, but keep the squirrels out. 

• Use feeders with a baffle (inverted cone or dome) that block the squirrels path to the feeder.
• Hang feeders from a 5-foot pole in an open area at least 6 feet away from any object that the squirrels can use to launch themselves onto the feeder. 
• Provide the squirrels with their own feeder. Sometimes I can keep them busy munching on ears of dry corn, while the birds visit the “bird” feeders. 

Other predators you want to protect your feeders from are cats and hawks. If you own a cat, keep it indoors. In 2013, a study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications stated that, in the continental United States, domestic and feral cats kill 1.4 to 3.7 billon birds each year. If a hawk is hanging around your bird feeders, stop feeding the birds until the hawk finds another place to hunt.

KEEP YOUR FEEDERS CLEAN

Would you eat off dirty, moldy dishes? No, not unless you wanted to get sick. Dirty bird feeders and moldy seed make birds sick too. The National Wildlife Health Center has identified four diseases that commonly affect bird species that use feeders, and all of these diseases can be prevented if people who feed birds take the proper precautions:  

• Do not crowd your bird feeders together.
• Disinfect feeders in a solution of one-part bleach to nine-parts water at least twice a month.
• Clean up bird droppings and seed hulls from below the feeders.
• Prevent seed from being contaminated by storing it in containers with tight fitting lids in a cool location. 

QUICK  TIPS

Window Casualties 

You may be surprised to find out that you should locate feeders closer, rather than further, from the window to prevent bird/window casualties. The theory is that if the bird takes off from the feeder and hits the window it has a better chance of surviving. A 2014 winter article in Living Bird Magazine, Glass Action for Birds, recommends that feeders be put no more than 1 to 3 feet from a window. 

Bird Bath

Birds need water to drink, but they like to bathe in it too. A bird bath in your native plant garden is a great way to provide water for birds to drink and bathe, and it is fun to watch birds splashing around in a pool of water. But your birdbath does not have to be a concrete basin on a pedestal. In fact, most birds will like to take their bath in a puddle. A very shallow, plastic-lined pool of water would be ideal, and add a pump to circulate the water. If the water is not circulated, you should empty and refill it every day or two.

To find out more about the Suncoast chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society, visit SunCoastNPS.org or attend a meeting at 7 p.m. the third Wednesday of each month at the Seffner UF/IFAS Extension office, 5339 County Road 579, Seffner.