I feed the birds all year sort of. They start with cleaning off the sunflowers that they plant the previous fall and continue to clean off the grasses, berries, and corn that I sometimes grow just for them. Of course I have water out all the time for them and a heated dish in the winter. I feed the big birds cat food with bread or cereal in it. They get any left overs when I cook a turkey or ham. I make my own concoction of peanut butter, prunes, hulled sunflower seeds, rolled oats, millet, black oil sunflower and a few other things they like to pick at. I buy millet, black oil sunflower and striped sunflower by the sack and keep it in large bins in the hall along with peanuts,hulled sunflower seeds, oats and rabbit pellets. Once in a while I will give them a treat of meal worms from the petstore or cut up fruit. And sometimes I will get a seed bell or spray millet just to watch them. I also ground up dry catfood last year and put it in the feeder. The little birds get much needed fat and protein to keep warm that way. I have the usual black and white feather dusters, the blue jays, lots of chickadees (black capped and boreal), nuthatches (red and white breasted), woodpeckers, northern flickers, juncos, finches, sparrows, the odd grosbeaks, waxwings, and redpolls and I even had a kestral last spring. Not many crows unless it is a really warm winter. My computer is in the corner of the front bedroom where there are the old corner windows. I feed the birds from about 5 feeders and baskets hanging from the big white spruce about 2 feet from the corner of the house here. I feed the rabbits under the tree and the dish feeders on the fence from big heavy ceramic dishes. It is such a routine for me to feed the birds after I feed the dogs on winter mornings. My neighbours are used to the crazy lady in her fleece pjs out feeding the birds every morning and the dogs go out and wait by the fence for the maggies to drop food for them. Quite the scene to watch! The maggies are very comical and they literally talk to me. I can't stand to see anything go hungry or be cold and the little birds seem to like to feast under the protective branches of this 50 foot spruce. My neighbour across the street says she likes to sit with her coffee in the morning and watch the bunnies and birds eating. And that reminds me: Must find a bale of hay for the bunnies. Last year I fed a cat all winter but coudln't catch her. She left me mice most mornings under the kennel....... I hope we have a mild winter or at least get some snow. It is bitterly cold without a little insulation. Ginny

I started putting seed out for the birds in the winter only. But they hung around expectantly in the spring, so I've continued feeding year-round, adding a couple bird baths. The entire area behind our tall, wooden fence has grown tall and wild - it's an unmaintained strip of "public utilities" land, and has become a natural habitat for birds (and other critters). So we have our backyard and gardens and the birds come and go from behind the fenced area. I bought an Audubon bird field book and enjoy looking up new visitors. There's always a new bird to id. Over the years I've added many suet feeders that attract all kinds of woodpeckers, nuthatches, and sapsuckers. All of the other "regulars" enjoy the suet occasionally, too, and all of them eat from the suet feeders year-round, not just in the winter. The biggest attraction, though, comes by way of everyone's favorite food that I now put out regularly on the deck rail - at least all the insect eaters: I buy inexpensive jars of dry-roasted, UNSALTED, peanuts. I run them through my food processor until they are crumbly. I have yet to see a bird that doesn't come and gobble them up, including the woodpeckers and especially the cardinals. We have hundreds of cardinals. The best part is in the spring, when the mother birds cram as much crumbled up peanuts as they can into their beaks and fly off to feed their babies, then come right back for more. This goes on all day and it makes me feel good that so many babies are being well fed. We've had several bluebird and mockingbird families come to our deck, as the young'uns grow and learn to fly. Later in summer, the visits pare way down, so I know they're on their own now as far as feeding themselves with insects or whatever they'd eat naturally. They don't come around much at all during the summer. It's really fun and interesting - I didn't start this expecting to be a "birder", but I guess that's what's happened. During the early winter, we have many birds stop by that aren't usually seen in NC, on their winter migrations to someplace warmer. Sorry for the long post!

There's a lot of ways to attract birds. Here are some information on how to attract birds. You can provide some food like seeds or grains. Give them some nesting materials, anything a bird can use to make a nest. Make a small pond, they can use that for taking a bath and lastly, plant some native plants.

How nice this thread got bumped! I enjoyed re-reading it and thinking about how much the yard has changed in a year. My bird-friendly yard is evolving. Have made great progress removing invasives, particularly Bittersweet, Buckthorn, and Norway Maples (treework cost me $2000 last year and there's still one GINORMOUS Norway maple left). There was a lot of brush created by all this tree/shrub work. Some was burned this Spring, right smack in the middle of the Oriental bittersweet patch, but the rest is in piles. The brush piles attract a lot of birds, particularly Sparrows, Cardinals, Juncos, and Wrens. The birds also love the back half-acre, which is wild and full of Crabapples, Choke Cherries, White Pine, and still some invasives like Honeysuckle and Autumn olive. Also making great progress on growing bird-friendly natives. Purchased another 50 native tree/shrub seedlings from the NH Nursery. That makes 130 total between this year and last - all of which ultimately make berries/nuts for the birds and wildlife. Most of them are in holding beds and haven't flowered yet, too little, but I've given away some and started to plant out a few. I winter-sowed many native species of perennials, annuals, and vines. Exactly where all this stuff is going, is not completely clear at this point, but I'm creating lasagne beds like crazy! The birds are always flitting around the yard and it's only going to get more interesting and fruitful for them (hopefully). It's great!