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What kind of foods are you feeding your backyard birds during this autumn season? (1 Viewer)

Birdy Vantage

Let your backyard birdwatching take flight!
Autumn is finally here and with it comes cooler days, and trees that transition into vibrant shades of red, yellow, and brown.

While I relish the cooler temperatures and revel at the trees taking on various colors, I recognize that the changing season is a fragile time for wild birds because food becomes less abundant for them.

Providing nutritious bird foods rich in proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, fats, and minerals will help birds sustain the high amount of energy needed to prepare for migration or coming winter.

Some foods I like to leave out for my backyard birds are peanuts, black oil and stripped sunflower seeds, suet, and dried mealworms. These food items are rich in fat and protein and provide my backyard birds the energy they need.

What kind of bird foods are you feeding your backyard birds during this period?
 
I usually use Black oiled sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts and safflow seed along with 3 or 4 suet cakes. All drained in a couple of days once the cold weather arrivesl Sometimes Ill put a plate of grapes out and they go pretty quickly too ;)
 
I have out my usual sunflower hearts, orange suet, mealworm suet, berry suet, and peanut delight suet. I still have my hummingbird feeder up too. I want to get one of those peanut feeders, but I havent yet. All the birds I've had thru out the summer have just vanished. I think they are just feasting on the fall harvest, which is plentiful right now around here in Dallas. There are still a few visitors thru out the day for a drink and maybe a bath. A hummingbird or two, I think trying to catch up with the others migrating south. We are still having lots of warm days here, and I still run the a/c during the day and sometimes at night. But, a big cold front hit this weekend, took us down into the 50's at night, and maybe even the high 30's by the coming weekend, so I'm hopeful birds will start looking for their winter feeding areas, or whatever it is they do come fall. I think I read birds do that, not sure. This is my first year feeding, so I'm learning a lot as the seasons roll on. This is my first fall feeding time.

Really excited to see what happens, and what kind of visitors I get! |:D|
 
@Kcal Foggin: I know what you mean. I always keep up to four fully stocked bird feeders out in my backyard. The combination of berry suet, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and dried worms don't even last a week. But it's exciting to see so many different birds ranging from northern Cardinals to blue-crowned parakeets just feasting away.
 
@MeInDallas: I'm so excited for you! The birds will come flocking to your feeder as the temperature continues to drop. And please do share pictures of the lovely birds that visit your feeders :)
 
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@MeInDallas: I'm so excited for you! The birds will come flocking to your feeder as the temperature continues to drop. And please do share pictures of the lovely birds that visit your feeders :)

I hope so thanks!! I really do miss them! I used to have tons of carolina chickadees, finches, cardinals, woodpeckers out the wazoo. I can still hear them though, so I guess they are just feasting on the bugs and berries. I really want to get me a peanut feeder too, but waiting until more come back. I love looking at the new feeders ;)
 
I have tried various types and mixes of raw seeds in the past four years with our local backyard birds (mostly tits, finches and sparrows), but they do prefer black oil sunflower seeds, peanuts and, not so much, fatballs. Great spotted woodpeckers, by the way, just love peanuts and come daily to check stock levels of the nutfeeder :)

Just posted a photo of last year feast on one of the most snowy days here in Bulgaria.
 

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Mixed seed, niger seed, fat balls - some with seeds, some with berries, and peanuts. I add apples and grapes every so often.
 
What don't I feed them?! In addition to the bird seeds, which I take your standard bird mix and add in more black oil sunflower seeds, sunflower chips, safflower seeds and cracked corn, I also will also occasionally mix in some premium bird seeds that include shelled peanuts, pistachios, cranberries and pumpkin seeds. When I see the occasional house finch, I'll also set out nyjer seeds for them too, but they haven't been around lately.

Since the temperature has gotten cool recently, suet cakes have been the big hit with the birds. During the spring/summer, they wouldn't even touch the stuff, but squirrels go crazy for it. It's been a lot of trial and error to figure out a way to get the birds to only eat it but still keep the squirrels at bay. Found a way that's not 100% squirrel-proof, but it's way better than before. So yeah, the suet has been a big hit as of late due to cooler temps, and I can't keep it stocked long enough for them outside (well, it depends on the brand, as they prefer one over all else—C&S).

I also chop up apples and pears for the northern mockingbird, but he doesn't come around too often anymore and only stops by for suet, so once I run out of fruit, no more chopping till spring rolls around again.

And because I try to fill the squirrel's stomachs, I set out bread and cereal for them, but the sparrows will eat it too.

I also hand-feed a scrub-jay peanuts and occasionally throw out a couple extra for the others lingering (but won't come too near), but only if I know the squirrels aren't around yet. If I let them, they could easily go through a whole bag a day—just the birds alone; can't imagine how many the squirrels would take/steal if they got their grubby hands on them.

I can still go on with a more extensive list because I supplement here and there (more for the squirrels to try to deter them from eating the bird seeds), but the bird seeds always are the first to go and then the suet—but only because of the cooler weather.
 
Sowed 0.2 acres of kale/tritikale/mustard. In it's second year so now kale is gone to seed. Mostly linnets but twite as well.
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Wow, what a fun contraption! Certainly this should be excellent in deterring naughty, greedy squirrels! But, it's been my experience that my local birds (scrub-jays) actually prefer peanuts in the shell. Actually, all my birds don't like to eat from feeders. Hopefully you'll have better luck!

So excited to have my brand new peanut feeder in the lineup today! Hoping lots of new visitors come to visit me soon!

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