Feeding Our Backyard Birds During Winter

It has been several years since the last time we bought bird food for our backyard cuties. Mainly because when the squirrels, pigeons, grackles and other blackbirds discovered the food, they would wipe out the feeders in a days' time - or less. The songbirds we were trying to attract worked well until the bullies and gluttons showed up. At that point, it became quite an expensive hobby to feed animals we didn't want to attract. So, we would take the feeders down for a week or 2 hoping the other animals would lose interest. But it would take only a day or 2 for them to discover the feeders once more when we would hang them again. So, we finally threw the feeders away. We don't have all the nuisance birds in our backyard anymore, but also, our songbird population has dropped off. Very sad trade off.

Since this winter has been a bit colder than the last few winters, though, we decided to buy some bird food that had a good variety of sunflower seeds and other seeds as well as fruit. We poured the food out in 4 locations around our backyard. Just on the ground under a couple of trees and beside some bushy areas. It was apparently too cold the first couple of days as a few would swoop in quickly for a bite and back to their warmer sanctuaries in a matter of seconds. The squirrels were even staying quietly tucked away in their burrows on those colder days.

The male cardinals showed up in droves first. Then droves of female cardinals made an appearance. Again, not for very long periods of time, because it was very cold.

image courtesy of Bonnie Kittle via Unsplash

Then we got 3 inches of snow a couple of days after pouring the food onto the ground. So, I grabbed 2 round cake pans that I had bought at the Dollar Tree and filled those with more bird food, then placed those on top of the snow. We placed the make-shift feeders in the 2 most-visited locations prior to the snow. For a couple of days, the food just sat there. But when the sun came out, so did the birds. Our backyard was suddenly alive with a variety of avian visitors. Ironically, very few cardinals visited at this time. But we had the normal blue jays, wrens, barn swallows, and mockingbirds.  

Below are some of the other birds that visited - before the squirrels wiped out most of the food a couple of days later. But I must admit I don't mind the squirrels too much. They're cute too! The only 2 species of birds that I didn't see and are fairly common in our backyard was the house finch and the northern flicker woodpecker. 

Tufted titmouse image courtesy of All About Birds

Junco image courtesy of Birds&Blooms
These came in droves too! This one is new to our backyard.

Black-capped chickadee image courtesy of Birds&Blooms

Downy woodpecker image courtesy of Wikipedia

Red-bellied woodpecker image courtesy of Wikipedia

Pileated woodpecker image courtesy of Wikipedia

As I write this, about 7 squirrels are fighting over the last remaining scraps of seeds that have been left behind. They are so funny! Watch the video below.

What about you? Do you feed the birds? All year around or just when the weather is cold? What are the most common birds in your backyard? What are the prettiest birds that visit your feeding stations? What are the birds and other animals that you don't like but are also attracted to the bird food you put out? Have you figured out how to get rid of the nuisance animals?

Stay warm and safe,
Patricia