5 replies to this topic

[hawk22]

Hello.  I am Fairly new to birding and am wondering if someone can give me advice on attracting birds to my yard this winter.  I heard that Peanuts and peanut butter is good, and i am pretty low on money, so if anyone can give me advice, that will be helpful.

Thanks in advance,

Steven

[JimBob]

Sunflower seed is good but if you don't have the money millet will also attract birds. Peanuts are very good, peanut butter will do just fine, and might attract even more. If you decided to use peanuts I recommend them out of the shell. In the shell works but some birds wont eat them, due to beak size. Cracked corn is pretty cheap and also works. Suet I recommend, but can be quite expensive. A bird bath is a good option. I hope I did not tire by giving so many options.   

[hawk22]

Thank You JimBob I will be sure to try them out.

Steven

[dklucius]

i buy chicken scratch or chicken feed from a local feed mill or a farm store, almost all grains and feeds and seeds are high at this time but for me the chicken scratch is a 50lb bags of cracked corn and other grains such as wheat or milo or millet or others and varies from one store to another and what part of the country you live in. here its 10$ for a bag and a large variety of birds eat it well. some birds don't eat the wheat good and others the milo  but others do eat it all. some people say it attracts the trash birds but ive found that the trash birds eat almost any food you put out. Black oil sunflowers or hulled sunflowers seem to be the most popular to the biggest variety of birds but can also be the most expensive. lots of the little birds like the nyger or thistle seed but it is also not cheap. lots of birds wi8ll pick through the mixed seed and waste some of it. If you have a feed mill or a farm supply store near you they are usually the cheapest place to buy bird seed or grains or corn they usually come in 25 to 50 lb bags but its easy to store the feed in storage tubs or buckets with tight lids or trash cans with good lids to keep out mice or sauirrels or insects. and over all it cost a lot less per lb than what you can get at a pet store or a big box store.or hardware store.

[cabirds]

As an alternative to peanuts, which get _really_ expensive, and peanut butter which is messy:  I've had really good luck with the peanut suet.  Anything I have that'll eat peanuts loves the peanut suet.  A suet cake is $0.87 at Walmart here, and a cage is $1.27.

You can mix it up with Berry Suet, and even Bug-infused Suet (no kidding!)  I found the bug-infused suet at one of the major chain pet stores.  The Yellow-billed Magpies here go bonkers for it...  Even with the hundreds of birds I get in my back yard, I only go through a couple suet cakes a week.  But I also feed mixed seed (15lbs/wk), Nyger (1.5lbs/wk), sugar water (2lbs of sugar a month), fruit (whatever I have left over that is getting too soft to be appetizing).  I avoid the big nuts because the squirrels will instantly reduce $50 to squirrel-poo... [sigh]

If you're luring birds in, don't forget a bath!  A heated bath can be had on fleaBay for <$50.  I built my own water feature with an inline heater for <$30, and it's a full-fledged waterfall onto a shallow rock pond.  Get creative and DIY this stuff.  You don't have to spend real money on feeders or water features - the birds just aren't that "gourmet". ;-)

 

 

[glennwelch]

The habitats around your feeders will certainly dictate what's possible.  Given some diverse/bird supportive habitats nearby, the food offered can help.  For a single source, black oil sunflower works well, that and a suet feeder are the two essentials I think for the most diversity, fewest selections (you can add thistle, peanuts, meal worms...)  Bird food is expensive, buying in bulk from a discount retailer/wholesaler helps. Safflower  is less expensive, birds like it OK & squirrels, less so.  For diversity add a sugar feeder for hummers (next spring).