I could use helpful advice, please :) (1 Viewer)

[FeistyRdHd]

Beginning last fall, my husband and I decided to custom make all of our own bird feeders (well, he did the making mostly). We built a special large feeder for the winter that would allow birds to eat and have shelter. We have now finished the summer feeders.

The question is what should we put into the feeders? I have done some reading and before we purchase more seed, I would like to get some opinions.

An article I read recently suggested that sunflower seeds are prefered by birds who eat from feeders. It also said that ground feeders usually prefer white millet or red milo. Are there other types of seeds that birds who eat from feeders like?

In addition, I had been throwing the seed on the ground for the ground-feeders. I had not read anywhere that scattering seed on the ground was not okay until I read an article that said that seed should not be thrown on the ground because it gets damp and then the birds inhale fungal spores and get bronchitis or pseumonia.

Being obviously new at this, and really wanting to do what's best, I would like some advice, please.

Thanks!

Lydia

P.S. My husband designed a finch feeder that has sectioned slats. This elimanates the problem of having the feeding holes in the top of the feeder being useless to the finches because the food has fallen down to the bottom. Our feeder is in 3 sections and you fill each separately. If you have any interest in building feeders, this idea works great!

 

[Jos Stratford]

Hi,

not sure how relevant this is, being the other side of the 'pond', but over here sunflower is universally popular whether in feeders or spilt on the ground. As for seed on the ground, I don't think there is a problem here - obviously you wouldn't want to dump a hundredweight of it at once on the ground as mould could set in before it would be eaten, but daily amounts I can't see being a problem. I scatter over a kilogram (2.5 pounds) a day. Have you thought about niger seed - works wonder for the smaller finches

 

[streatham]

Jos you're advice works fine here too. Black Sunflower is best for most feeder birds here. Niger works well for finches but in my experience they seem to be just as happy with sunflower (which is far less expensive). I avoid seed mixes as birds seem to have preferences and much mixed seed seems to be wasted. As far as the seed on the ground is concerned - I don't think you need worry too much - I just place my feeders over bare patches of earth and dig the seed husks in every few days. Suet is always a good option as well as you may attract warblers, nuthatches and woodpeckers more readily with it.

Luke

 

[SRE]

We put out black oil sunflower, niger, peanut butter suet, and peanuts (in a metal cage feeder with holes) - the yard's pretty messy come spring, but easily rakes up to clean the area. We also put out a dripping water tube that "plinks" into a bird bath -really attracts the birds too. The Cornell Laboratories did a study a few years back that found that niger was eaten much more than either red or white millet so that's what I use -none goes to waste it seems.

 

[KC Foggin]

The only seed I would caution your use on would be the millet. Over here, Millet is the preferred seed of the house sparrow and where the house sparrow is in demand on the other side of the pond, they can literally drive all your other songbirds away if there are enough of them. This has been my experience and I've heard from quite a few other birds in my local audubon that they have come to terms with this as well. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

[humminbird]

I concur with KC. I run 20 seed feeders (as well as others) and use several varieties of food. The one thing I try to avoid is the "sparrow crack" (aka millet).
If you can only buy one seed, you can not go wrong with Black oil sunflower. One I have not had the success others have had with is safflower. If I am feeding thistle (aka nyger), it will be in a sock.

Mark
Bastrop, TX

 

[KC Foggin]

I concur with KC. I run 20 seed feeders (as well as others) and use several varieties of food. The one thing I try to avoid is the "sparrow crack" (aka millet).
If you can only buy one seed, you can not go wrong with Black oil sunflower. One I have not had the success others have had with is safflower. If I am feeding thistle (aka nyger), it will be in a sock.

Mark
Bastrop, TX

Interesting Mark. At first I was a bit skeptical about the safflower, but over the course of a couple of weeks, I found the chicadees, purple finches and house finches were all feeding on the safflower along with my many cardinals.

 

[WMcLean]

Agreed all the way around. I used to buy various mixes, and ended up with millet plants growing all over the place and heaps of uneaten millet. Now I get a nice burst of sunflowers, but not nearly so much unused food. I have not heard of any big problems with seed on the ground. Just rake it now and then in the summer. It seems to me that if it is really humid where you are, you could make a deep bed of sand,crushed stone or (if you're on the coast) tabby under the feeders. That way, the water would drain away from the seed.

 

[humminbird]

Interesting Mark. At first I was a bit skeptical about the safflower, but over the course of a couple of weeks, I found the chicadees, purple finches and house finches were all feeding on the safflower along with my many cardinals.

Others tell me that if I were to remove the other seed sources for a while I would have success with the safflower. Why force the birds to something if there are other ways to control Grackles? Despite claims of the vendors, safflower is not squirel proof - I have photos of them making an extreme effort to get to safflower.

Mark
Bastrop, TX

 

[KC Foggin]

Hmmm, I guess I'm lucky then cause the squirrels do not bother with the safflower and I keep BOSS and sunflower hearts in squirrel proof cages. Like you, I am running about 14 feeders not counting suet cages and thistle socks. Also found another mix although a bit pricey which combines thistle with much smaller pieces of sunflower hearts and keep that in the squirrel proof cages and the goldies seem to love that stuff.

 

[Lady19thC]

In the summer I feed safflower to the cardinals, house finches, purple finches, passing rose-breasted grosbeaks, as well as titmice, nutchatches and chickadees. What falls on the ground is rapidly eaten by mourning doves, red-winged blackbirds, and some native sparrows, like white-crowns and white-throated. I also put out 2-3 thistle tube feeders because I get an abundance of goldfinches. I also put oranges out for the baltimore orioles, which feeders have a cup for mealworms or grape jelly, and put out sugar water for hummers. I also plant for the birds; coneflower, salvia, fuschia, lilac, Bradford pears, crabtrees, juniper, bee balm, etc. This morning I had a lovely mockingbird plucking the berries off my crimson barberry, out front. I am hoping to get a dish that attaches to my railing to offer fruit like berries, cut up apples, more orange slices, maybe some cut up suet and mealworms. I am trying to coax a lovely pair of scarlet tanagers to my deck so I can get a decent picture of them. And I need to feed my bluebirds! I guess that means blueberries and mealworms! I also have a birdbath with a drip, which the birds love! I hope this helps some! :bounce:

 

[Lady19thC]

Others tell me that if I were to remove the other seed sources for a while I would have success with the safflower. Why force the birds to something if there are other ways to control Grackles? Despite claims of the vendors, safflower is not squirel proof - I have photos of them making an extreme effort to get to safflower.

Mark
Bastrop, TX

I would be curious as to what your "other ways to control grackles" would be. On one thread you said having lots of trees controlled them. My parents live in a grove of pines and oaks, but they get tons of grackles. And people can't just plant a tree and have a forest overnight. So, what is your other way, please? Perhaps grackles are not as common or as frequent in your part of the country as those of us over here! Buying corn to try to lead them away from feeders only attracts more to the yard, so that is not an option.

 

[humminbird]

I would be curious as to what your "other ways to control grackles" would be. On one thread you said having lots of trees controlled them. My parents live in a grove of pines and oaks, but they get tons of grackles. And people can't just plant a tree and have a forest overnight. So, what is your other way, please? Perhaps grackles are not as common or as frequent in your part of the country as those of us over here! Buying corn to try to lead them away from feeders only attracts more to the yard, so that is not an option.

I live in an area that is highly noted for Great-tailed Grackles - one of the most common comments from out of state birders that come to this area is a remark about the "large black birds with huge tails that make the most ungodly sounds I have ever heard."
Trees are not the only part of that comment. The understory - brush, shrubs and bushes are even more important than just the trees. If you look at where these birds roost - it is always in trees. I have no grackles on my property while neighbors across the road with huge lawns and a couple of trees (they followed the traditional scrape and build method of development) have hoards of the birds on a regular basis. I hear this repeated regularly by people throughout this area.

Mark
Bastrop, TX

 

[Lady19thC]

We have common grackles, over here in MA. A simple example of why we do our best to keep them out of the yard is that they get aggressive at feeders. Not only do they take over the feeders and keep the other songbirds away, including blue jays, which are often known for their own aggressiveness, but that grackles will also kill other birds. I have seen them grab cardinals and finches, by the neck, and smack them on the ground, hold them, and start pecking them to death, ripping out their feathers. That alone is enough for someone to be willing to close down the sunflower feeders and put out safflower. When the grackles go, the others come back, and that is why so many people gladly switch over. Besides, I haven't the money nor the interest to put brambles and bushes over my entire acre of lawn. We have lived here for 13 years and have put in 3 sugar maples, 5 Bradford pears, 7 arborvitaes, junipers, lilacs, barberries, holly, 6 blue spruce, 2 red maples, cotoneaster, coneflower, salvia, bee balm, rhodies, etc. We are doing our best!

 

[humminbird]

To each their own. I have no interest at all in a one acre lawn. Certainly not in feeding, cutting, watering, treating for weeds, treating for brown patch, treating for insects etc. Nor do I have any interest in forcing birds to a feed they do not prefer to simply get rid of a nuisance that does the same thing any other bird does in protecting its territory. I have seen or read reports of Cardinals, Rock Wrens and several other favored species doing the exact thing you are complaining about Grackles doing.
So I use my lack of desire for grass, my love for flowering and berry producing bushes and my ability to grow same to deter the Grackles - both Great-tailed and Common.

Mark
Bastrop, TX