Proper fruit feeding outdoor birds (1 Viewer)

[jrmtl]

Hello,

I would like to add some extra food on my bird feeder
I now have sections with some suet, roasted peanuts, black sunflower and a various seed mixture.
What can I put with fruit seeds like a ball or stick?

Thx
John

 

[KC Foggin]

You can try some cut up Apples and some grapes. My Cardinals love the Grapes.

 

[jrmtl]

You can try some cut up Apples and some grapes. My Cardinals love the Grapes.

Thanks for the tip will do, I now get blueJay's, cardinals red breasted nuthatches, chickadees and juncos

Just wanted to get some more variety on the food front
Is there something I can buy that is wrapped up on a stick or ball which has dried fruit...?

 

[SanAngelo]

I only feed when there's snow or a deep freeze which happens a few times per year.

American Robins like grapes. I buy large purple grapes and cut 'em in half or quarters, if I don't the Robins work on 'em; bangin' 'em on the ground to break 'em apart.

I cut pomegranates in quarters. I throw a few on the ground and I stick one or two on my snag pile. The White-crowned Sparrows, Orange-crowned Warblers, Northern Mockingbirds, Cardinals all love 'em. Dark-eyed Juncos and Black-crested Titmouse like 'em too but the other birds won't allow 'em to feed. The Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers enjoy the ones on the snags. All the birds do but that's the only way the woodpeckers will eat 'em.

Blue Jays like whole shell peanuts but I don't encourage them, they're a big cause of nest predation. They wreak havoc on the Bewick's Wrens and Cardinals.....I've also seen 'em snatch an Inca Dove and fly off. Inca Dove numbers are going down, this is not a good thing.

 

[jurek]

I put whole apples in a mesh bag (like one used to sell vegetables) and hang them on a tree using a laundry clip. At least one apple is as high as possible. I noticed that fruit hanging high is more noitceable and attracts more new birds. At first, only few birds ate apples, but I cut skin in few places, so the birds would see it is a fruit, and it given impression that a bird already ate it. After that all the likely birds started to eat apples. The reason of the mesh bag is that it holds pieces of fruit. I used to impale apples on a nail, but when birds ate, it soon fell on the ground and made mess. I never had a bird coming anything close to entangling itself in the mesh bag (it is rather stiff plastic mesh). I don't use a standing bird feeder to discourage pigeons, magpies and crows, and for hygienic reasons (I would have to disinfect it daily. If all birds are eat hanging food on the branches, and the mess falls to the ground, I clean it every few days or rarer).