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Basic bird feeding questions (1 Viewer)

Stacey

Active member
Hi! My name's Stacey and this is my first visit to this forum (though I know I'll be a regular now!)

I'm new to feeding birds. Today I bought three feeders: two hoppers and a suet feeder. I positioned them from brackets so they hang down from chains in front of my parlor windows.

They came prefilled with mixed birdseed, but I plan to fill them with black oil sunflowers later (when the mixed seed runs out), or put millet in one and sunflowers in the other (plus the suet of course). Am I doing well so far?

I have a few basic questions which I hope you'll have the patience to answer!

#1 Do birds feed more often during certain times of the day?

#2 Will the noise inside the house scare the birds away, or will they eventually get used to it? I have a dog who likes to look out the windows, and I think he might bark at the birds (but I'm not sure). I also have a noisy husband and two teenage kids.

#3 How long does it usually take for the birds to find the feeders?

#4 I don't have oudoor wiring, so I won't be able to provide a heated birdbath this winter. Will they still come?

I really appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks in advance!
 
Hi Stacey! A very warm welcome to you on behalf of all the Moderators and Admin here at Bird Forum. I think you will become addicted quickly. :)

It sounds like you are off to a great start with your feeders. How close are the feeders to your windows? If they are too close, they may be a bit startled by any fast movement they see. I have a couple of feeders in front of my kitchen window and the feeders are behind some huge hanging ferns to give them some feeling of seclusion and it seems to work well as I am filling the feeders twice a day. I pretty much get to watch them all morning long when I am home as the windows face east and the sun reflects off the window so they don't see me behind the glass.

Don't be disappointed if it takes a couple of weeks for the birds to find the feeders although with your cold winters, I would think they will appreciate the added food source you will be providing.

Birds tend to feed early in the morning and then feverishly a couple of hours before darkness falls.

Even if you don't have a heated birdbath, remember to keep the water fresh as the birds will want fresh water even in the coldest of winters. I swear, my birdbaths get more activity in the winter. Especially with the chicadees.

I don't know too many birds that don't enjoy BOSS. I also use Sunflower hearts and safflower. I have to keep an eye on the sunflower hearts as if they get wet, they will spoil or clump inside the feeder. I had that problem in the beginning when I had few birds but now it doesn't get a chance as it is emptied quickly.

I'm sure there will be many other suggestions for you and please feel free with any other questions you might have. Again, welcome.
 
HEATED Birdbath!?!?!?!

My God, the birds in Michigan get all the mod cons!!!

Hi Stacey,

Welcome aboard.

I won't do the official bit, as KC already has, but... have fun!!!

(Do they get a jacuzzi???)
 
hehe birdman. No - I meant just heated enough to keep it thawed!

KC Foggin I guess the hangers are approximately 1 foot from my windows. Would putting houseplants in front of the windows help?

If the birdbath freezes, it's not any good is it? Maybe there's some sort of battery-operated or solar heater available?

How far from the food should the bird bath be? Also - I've got 2 cats so I need to find a way to keep them out of the bird bath.

We're avid gardeners, and luckily for us the area in front of these windows doesn't have a garden yet, so we get to start out from scratch! We're going to plant some annuals this year then gradually switch to perennials. Any suggestions as to plant colors and height to attract the birds? I'm thinking that I'll put in plants that attract a lot of insects for the birdies to eat.

Thanks for your friendly help! I can't wait for the birds to start coming! But you know - I don't think I'll be able to refill twice a day. I hope that won't discourage them too much.
 
Hi again Stacey. I definitely think some hanging plants in the window would help a lot.

I would keep the birdbath away from the feeders for a number of reasons. One is that the bath will get messy and if you are having a lot of activity at the feeders I doubt the bath would be used all that much. I know, I learned the hard way and had to move a concrete feeder. Very heavy. :) If you have a spot under a tree, that might be a good spot. The one I have under the tree gets the most use. Please do keep the cats away from the birds. The birds will love you for it.

Your thoughts about plants attracting insects is a great idea. I have a butterfly bush, that is still blooming profusely and smells heavenly and it attracts not only the hummers but some warblers as well. Sounds like you are off to a great start and look forward to hearing about the first birds to your feeders. Mine were house finches.
 
Well - it's 8:00 am. I've been sitting in front of the window for 1 hour and no birds yet. . . . . . . . . patience . . . . . . . . . ! Good thing I can see the windows from here.

My husband is going to put a bird feeder outside our bedroom window on the 2nd floor. Silly question - but since food is naturally not available that high, do you think the birds will even look up there?

As for situating the bird bath - is 6 feet away from the feeders too close?

Aha - looks like the birds are awake! I saw some flying around. But there's a cat coming into our yard. Now he's eating catnip in our garden. Well - I guess that if we want birds we need to get rid of the catnip! Oh - this is so fun!

My husband is scoping out the back yard. Report - two morning doves in the back garden. Two blue jays in the back garden. No birds at the feeders yet.
 
oooo oooo oooo ooo ooo we have birds!!!! I don't know what kind they are but they're cute little birds!!!!!!!!! Three of them!!!!!! Oo oo oo oo oo They're little and have black heads and black throats and they're so adorable!!!
 
LOL. Do you have a bird guide Stacey? Sounds like you might have chicadees. In the absence of a bird guide you might try www.enature.com to compare what you have at the feeders.
 
This is a photo of our Carolina Chicadee. Don't believe you get the Carolina but I don't have my guide handy at the moment.
 

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Stacey said:
Silly question - but since food is naturally not available that high, do you think the birds will even look up there?

As you have discovered Birds can find food anywhere :t:

I sometimes wonder what the Blue Tits & House Sparrows ate before I came along.
 
Hi Stacey,welcome to BirdForum and indeed to the wonderful world of feeding the Birds. Enjoy yourself. John. :t:
 
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Hi Stacey,
I'm from Michigan as well. I live in the Auburn Hills area; where are you? Chickadees are one of my favorite birds. There's a park I like to go to in the winter because the Chickadees will feed from your hand. I'm hoping to try that at my house this winter since this will be my first winter feeding birds in the yard.
Shannon
 
Yes! They were chickadees!

Annika, I live in the upper penninsula, in a little town near Escanaba. I'm sure we still have some of the same birds, though.

I don't have a guide yet - but my husband has disappeared and I think he might be surprising me with one for an early birthday present!

Thanks for the welcome, everybody! This is so fun, I'm sorry I didn't start sooner. I'll bet in the winter we'll have tons and tons of them. The snow gets so deep up here that it must be very difficult to find food naturally.

Now I'm starting to wonder about putting up some bird houses. I was thinking about putting them on our house, since the house should be warmer than the trees. I wonder if that would work?

I could even put up little mirrors so I could see the birds from inside our house!

How long of all of you been feeding birds? Do you all have birdhouses where you can see them while you're eating breakfast?
 
Hi Stacey,

Over this side of the Pond I feed the birds throughout the Summer which means we have birds in the garden all year round. We find the birds visit several times through the day starting just after dawn. You can sometimes see them all waiting in the surrounding trees and bushes ready to descend on the feeders. every few hours they return en masse to the feeders. I suspect they do the rounds feeding from neighbours tables too.

We have bird boxes left up throughout the year. In Spring we have Geat tit amnd Blue Tits using them for breeding. In Winter they using them each night for roosting. A Great Tit is using one at the moment. Ours are on a north-east facing house wall. They get the sun in the morning but by afternoon the sun has gone off them so they don't get overheated. Using the house wall certainly works fine for us, but perhaps trees or large shrubs would be more natural for the birds. We have woven reed 'bird pockets' at various places around the garden, but I must admit that I have yet to see the birds using them.

The feeding station for the birds can be seen from the house but the nest boxes can't be seen from inside the house. However we have an inexpensive B&W board camera in one of them so we can watch the roosting and nesting birds.

As regards length of time feeding the birds, that is around 14 year now in this house.
 
Stacey said:
Yes! They were chickadees!

How long of all of you been feeding birds? Do you all have birdhouses where you can see them while you're eating breakfast?

I have been feeding birds for longer than I can remember!! We have various hanging feeders, plus a huge triple tube feeder that we can see when we are eating our meals. This is squirrel proof and so is the bird table that is quite near the dining room window.

We have two nesting boxes that have been used by bluetits for many years (I think bluetits are a bit like your chickadees). Two years ago we put a colour camera in one of the boxes, and it was so successful that we put a camera in the second one too - you can read all about it on our website. At this very moment, my husband is fiddling around with one of the boxes (in the study just near me), making minor adjustments and looking at the effects on his computer.

It is a quiet time for birds here at the moment, but as the weather gets colder, they'll soon be back!
 
Hi Ian! Thanks for the info!

I would put my bird boxes in trees, but my cats are excellent hunters. I have to be crafty about keeping them away from the birds! It's good to know that the birds are using the ones you have on your house.

It's also good to know they feed all day. I haven't seen any at these feeders since this mornign, but I think once they tell all their little friends we should have lots of them.

Is that what they do, by the way? Communicate somehow to other birds? I mean - now that I've had a few should I be getting a lot more of them soon?

What kind of camera are you talking about? Is it a video camera? That would be really neat.

KC, I tried that link and I like it. I added it to my list of favorites. Thanks!
 
Hi Stacey,

I'm sure that word does get around the bird community as to where the food is. We had a Coal Tit visiting throughout the Summer but now there are several of them each day. It could of course just be the time of year that birds start returning to the garden for easy pickings.

The camera is a video camera, mounted on a piece of circuit board about 2"x2". I have it connected up to the TV and video unit and my computer hard drive so I can take snap shots.
 
Elizabeth, we must have been typing our posts at exactly the same time. I didn't see yours when I answered the last one.

I want to get one of those triple-tube feeders. The hospital I work in is right on a lake, and has a big patio outside for the patients. We have one of those big tube feeders out by the patio, and get lots and lots of finches at it.

Those cameras sound so neat. Are they expensive? The wiring must be complicated.

I just got my windows sparkling clean, and when we get more birds I'm going to mount my camera on the tripod and get lots of good photos. I can't wait!
 
Hi Stacey,

Actually the cameras are very simple affairs which come with a wiring kit. You simply fit the camera in place in a bird box and plug in the wires to it at one end and a wall socket and a TV/Video or computer TV card at the other. I suppose a little DIY experience is handy for fitting it in the roof of a bird box and focusing it, but it was all fairly straight forward.

This is the sort of thing available over here board camera which I know are available far cheaper than this in the States even as ready made kits. Ready assembled nestboxes with cameras are available over here but they are quite expensive to buy.
 
Thanks, Ian! I think I might be looking into that in the spring when we get nesting boxes up. That would be so entertaining - and so much more "clean" than daytime television! hehe
 
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