Summer Feeding (1 Viewer)

[Bigshent]

I may possibly feed through the summer months this year as it has never entered my head before not entirly sure about the ethics when birds are feeding young. Mealworms surely can help both parents and young but what about seed and fatballs. Im not feeding peanuts as i have lazy birds who prefer crushed nuts instead of standard full nuts in feeders so no worries there. What do you folk provide

 

[TheBirdGarden]

Feeding in summer is fine, usually people just do it. Anything is fine to feed during summer except nuts because chicks can choke on them which you have already noted.

 

[Guinness537]

I continue to feed the birds during the summer too. The only changes I make are to the number of feeders I have up in the yard.

I do have one question, Is it a documented fact that chicks can choke on pieces of nuts. Or are we just tranfering the problems that parents have with feeding nuts to kids to birds.

 

[Dan123]

The chicks can actually choke on the Peanuts if they are fed whole and loose. I read somewhere that when they are that young, they will not be able to distinguish what they can and can't eat. They could try and eat the whole ones, where as the adults either can, or know that they can't. So it's always best to have them in the Peanut Feeder or just crush them.

Yes I still feed in Summer and the same, a variety of different things to keep the energy up. I'd tend to use less Fat Balls and Suet. One year in late spring/mid summer, I bought a few Suet blocks that just melted lol they didn't really need to have that so much then. Though they still love the Suet Pellets anytime.

 

[Zoogoer2000 - Packwatcher]

Summer feeding is great, as you can attract migrants such as grosbeaks, orioles, hummingbirds and warblers

It is also a great time to feed fruit and nectar, but steer clear of suet. If it begins to melt, it can end up on the birds feathers which can cause issues

 

[jewlieee]

I don't really see a reason to stop feeding in the summer. I feed year round and offer the full gambit of bird food: black oil sunflower, nectar, safflower, thistle, etc. Each type of food gets its own feeder so there's less waste going on with the birds shoveling out the stuff they don't like.