I do. But I don't feed much in the spring and summer. In the winter I provide black oil sunflower, thistle seed and suet blocks. Cheap seed attracts "trash" birds and I'd rather see goldfinches, house finches, cardinals and woodpeckers. In the summer I provide suet blocks and hummingbird juice.

The birds were nearly eating me out of house and home with the suet cakes. I WAS putting them in the wire cages, but they'd eat that in a day or less. I finally got a plastic box feeder with the wire only on one side - now it takes them TWO days to eat one suet cake.

I'd like to get a solar water bubbler, too. The birdbath I'd put it in is too far from the house for an electric one.

There's an ongoing thread in the New England forum titled Birds and other Mobile Features in the Garden that you might be interested in taking a look at. Some of the photographs are amazing, and while it's just New England, I don't imagine anyone would mind if you hopped on and asked about what folks use to take photos without scaring the birds. I know at least two folks have the bird feeders set up so that they can use the house as their blind.

I don't feed birds any more, though I used to. We have black bears that like snagging bird feeders for dinner, and I really don't want to encourage them to think of our house as the local diner. I could feed in the dead of winter when the bears hibernate, but would need to take in the feeders when the bears emerge in spring before there is much in the way of natural food. Since that seems somewhat unfair to the birds, I just stopped feeding them. Instead, I plant with the birds in mind for shelter and food, and we time mowing of the fields to avoid the ground nesting birds. I got a camera with a longer lens since few of our birds come right up to the house compared to when we had feeders, and that has helped as well.

DH is the 'birder' here so he's responsible for feeding. I know he uses the black sunflower seeds, thistle, and suet blocks, plus hummingbird and Baltimore oriole liquid feeders in warmer weather (they've been set up out there a few weeks now). He has several feeding stations in the south driveway border, and uses the car as a 'blind' for taking pictures - the birds are used to seeing the car on the driveway so aren't bothered when there is someone sitting in it.

I've been planting a lot of native wildflowers and grasses and am hoping that this will bring in more insects that birds can feed on, plus providing seeds for fall/winter. Hard to say at this point since I'm just getting started. Mostly I see a lot of robins. I've been doing a lot of digging for a rain garden and they come in fast to check out the disturbed soil as soon as I take a break.

My parents always had bird feeders and what not all over the place, but were also spraying or dusting everything with insecticide. Didn't seem like an ideal combo to me.

We used to feed with black oil sunflower and suet. We found the shells from the sunflower so messy after an entire winter of feeding the birds. And then the woodpeckers would flick the suet on the house, and we got grease stains all over the cedar siding. So.....we ditched both of those and went with a clean woodpecker feed. We weren't sure if we would get less bird variety, but we still got the same birds as before. It's not inexpensive food, but they really enjoy it and the nuts were a great source especially through this last awful winter. Although they nearly put me in the poor house! LOL! Also have a heated birdbath in winter and hummingbird feeder is up now and the male is quite happy. Always wish for Baltimore orioles but they just seem to pass through quickly, ignoring the liquid feeder and grape jelly we put out when we think it's close to their arrival time.

Our feeders all (except liquid feeder) hang under the eves of our house and if we keep screens out of those windows the squirrels can't get to them. They're crafty, but we think we have them outsmarted! Famous last words...........

We have a seed feeder which we fill with a no-mess blend, a thistle feeder, two suet cages and two hummingbird feeders. The hummingbird feeders are hung along the edge of the patio outside the back door. The two seed feeders are along the wall which borders the back garden, and the suet cages hang in a mostly dead trumpet vine. From our kitchen or the patio we get a great view of all the bird life. Last weekend I watched 4 tanagers, 2 woodpeckers and 3 grosbeaks arguing loudly over whose turn it was at the suet.

We also have tons of house finches, sparrows, doves, goldfinches, bushtits, thrashers, scrub jays, towhees, and an occasional juniper titmouse. During the winter we get robins, flickers and juncos but they have already left for cooler climates. We take all the feeders inside every evening because of the wildlife. One of our feeder poles has a 90 degree bend in it from a bear. The bent poles are a common sight in the neighborhood. We also lost two suet cages, probably to bears who mangled them to a pulp. After this, we started taking all the feeders in which is recommended to avoid confrontations with the critters.

Cheryl

I have a cat that is a serious hunter, so I no longer put out bird feeders. Besides, the raccoons would steal everything when I did - you should see what they did to my suet feeders!!

Now I just entice the hummingbirds, both with nectar feeders and plants. They are year round residents here and completely unafraid of humans or animals. They are too fast and my cat too lazy to bother with them (thank goodness!). He just stretches out on the deck in the sun and watches them dart around but never moves :-))

FWIW, I seem to be inadvertently feeding the birds with Sluggo! No sooner do I spread it around to keep my monster snail & slug population in check but I watch the birds come down and pick it all out. When I go back out the next morning, there's not a single speck left. What could they possibly find tasty about iron phosphate??

We do. We have seed that is heavy on the black oil sunflower and plenty of natural foods that attract birds since we live on a large property. I also will give birds a lard mixture from our rendered pork fat. If you go under my albums I have one with some of the birds we get on our property. That's not even all the types that we've seen here either. Sometimes it's either hard to get a decent shot or we don't have the camera on us.

I do. I use black oil sunflower seeds, thistle, suet, peanut pieces (mostly in the winter) and once spring comes, I also put out grape jelly for the orioles (I get a lot of them) and a window nectar feeder for the hummers. I put nesting boxes out too, and in the winter keep a heated bird bath.

I too use black oil sunflower and thistle. My favorite they attract are cardinals...so beautiful!

Also have 3 birdbaths. Get a kick out of watching them, especially when there are several bathing at the same time.

Certainly not - they already treat the allotment as a large and delicious restaurant without making special efforts to diversify what seems to me an already diverse enough diet from their scavenging, pecking, munching, rooting and yep, downright theft.

I do, however, fill a couple of dustbin lids with water on dry days.

We started using black oil sunflower years ago but the squirrels would eat it all before the birds even knew it was there. We tried mixing in pepper flakes but it was so much hassle that we just switched to safflower seeds - squirrels don't touch it and the birds don't seem to mind at all. Also use thistle feeders, suet blocks and a bird bath. I tried a hummingbird feeder last year but didn't have much success. Bird baths are definetly the most cost effective, on a hot summer day in July the birds will literally watch me from the trees as I refill it and start swooping down before I even get my back turned!

I wish I could, but there are feral cats in our neighborhood. I came home a few times to dead birds on the sidewalk, and the last straw was finding one while weeding under a bush by grabbing it (without gloves on, of course) accidentally. I took the bird feeder down immediately after washing my hands, sadly.

wild animals do NOT need to be fed .. period ...

but that may be different than attracting them .. eh???

i got a hate on for the birds right now.. the freakin greckles are bombing the blacktop with baby poops.. and driving me insane.. meanwhile.. dad is attacking the nests of the smaller birds ..

i also got buzzed by the hummingbird last night.. like a freakin F16 two inches from my head.. wet myself .. again ...

keep your stinkin birds... move out to the country.. and get a hate on for them ...

i rather think its time to end this.. it aint pretty .. lol

ken

PS: you were all in a box.... i had to rip one side off ... and let some air in there .. lol ...

PPS: the only good birds.. are the ones that take care of the bunnys ... now those are some birds with an attitude ....

PPPS: and whats with the darn robins this last week or two .. WALKING ACROSS A 55 MPH ROAD ... crikey dude ..... you got freakin wings.. get the hell out of my way ... FLY YOU FREAK OF NATURE ....

You do make me laugh, Ken!

Thong too tight, Ken? LOL!

We set up several "bird" feeders in the winter (mostly benefitting the squirrels). One of the reasons we do this is so that our indoor cats have something interesting to look at during the day. They are of course mesmerized seeing the birds and squirrels feeding only about 20 feet beyond the glass patio door. BUT what a mess come the spring and summer as the uneaten seeds sprout in the grass and are very problematic to remove. I need to do it differently next winter...not sure what I can do. For example if I placed some tarp below the feeder this would kill the grass. Any ideas?

Yes the tarp will kill the grass. I have one of the feeders in the front garden. I have plants growing that never grew before. They do for sure make a mess. You need more ground feeders I think. And less squirrels ;)

Yes the tarp will kill the grass.

But now that I think of it, I sometimes see golf courses covering entire greens with a tarp of some sort in the Fall to protect the short tender grass from the ravages of winter. This material must be 'breathable'. I would need maybe 4 feet by 4 feet so it can contain the fallen seeds. I will have to look into this later this summer or early Fall.

i did feed the birds in suburbia ... didnt take long to move the feeder near a window over the driveway ... too many weeds ...

i just dont see bothering in the country ...

i go by the same spot in the road to pick up kids from school .... . and i think its the same robin .. on the same corner.. with that walking death wish ...

ken

My entire family has always fed the birds and gone on bird watching weekends, etc. my sister also raises chickens, and introduced me to live meal worms as a source of protein for birds (and fish and pet reptiles and even humans). But, they are especially beneficial for nesting birds raising chicks. As I read about the precipitous drop in the numbers of pollinators, it only makes sense that other insects might be threatened as well. And, if there are fewer insects, there might be less food for the birds to feed their chicks. Plus, I need another hobby, right? So, I raise live meal worms in my basement and feed them to the birds. Now I have robins looking in my window each morning wondering when breakfast is coming. I'm looking forward to when the babies start to fly and can visit the feeders themselves.

Martha

I use Purina's Bird Lover's Blend and Meal worms.

Martha, you raise the mealworms? We used to raise them at school during one science unit for our 6th grade kiddoes. I am totally repulsed by them, but I might be able to stand them if I were doing it for the birds!

That's awesome, Martha!

We have several black oil sunflower seed, thistle seed, and suet (the real stuff plus the cakes) feeders. Hummer feeders in the summer. The sunflower hulls do pile up on the snow in the winter. We just clean them out in the spring. Once in a while a sunflower sprouts under a feeder but I don't think that's a bad thing. We are not perfect lawn people but the areas around our feeders are nicely green so the hulls are certainly not a problem lawn-wise here.

We have a couple of birdbaths. Tried a birdbath heater but it was inconvenient since we had to run an extension cord to it. A solar one would be great. As long as it doesn't require actual sunshine. ;-) We don't get much sun here in the winter.

Hmmm, looks like it is just Ken and I (the heartless ones) who don't feed the birds...in fact, I have to go to considerable lengths to ensure the thieving avians do not steal every single cherry, redcurrant, broccoli top or strawberry...not to mention the rootling and soil flinging in my pots. As far as I can see, our urban birds are doing perfectly well with no input from me while I swear I am mobbed by them in my wood. True, birds can and do die...but generally through pesticide use, loss of habitat, cold and drought - never lack of food.

Also, in my bird-feeding days, the tables and feeders were invariably colonised by pigeons, squirrels and worst of all, a particularly cunning sparrowhawk...not to mention the urban cats.

How can you not want to feed this beauty?

birds seen on property · More Info

And look this little birdie has to hang out with the metal ones. When you give them a feeder they can socialize with real birds. LOL

birds seen on property · More Info

I do get it about the fruit though. We are lucky enough to have lots of hawthorn and choke cherry for the birds. They don't currently seem to clean out our fruit trees, but if they become a problem I'll just get bird netting.

My god, some of you guys not only BUY stuff for them, you actually prepare (cook?) things for them (and I am not thinking of suet balls here but far nastier things lurking in basements). I was persuaded to try this ruse at the allotment, as a kind of lure away from my fruit - but the buggers just increased in number and still ate everything. I had 6 consecutive pea sowings one year before I managed to raise a tiny crop of uneaten peas (although tbf, it wasn't just the birds that ate them).