As you sit inside your home for the next several weeks trying to stay warm, peek outside the window occasionally and notice how the songbirds in your backyard are struggling to try to find enough to eat. There are some things you can do to help.

We have an abundance of beautiful songbirds in our area. Some of them are permanent residents, and we see them in our yard year-round, but many of them are visitors. They stop off to visit for a few weeks, or even for several months, but they migrate south in the winter to feed or north in the summer to nest.

The primary diet of most songbirds is either seeds or insects, or a combination of both. There is always an abundance of both seeds and insects in our area for the major part of the spring, summer, and fall. But there are very few seeds, and almost no insects, available for the birds during the winter months.

Birds, like people, also need plenty of fresh water to drink. When there are frequent rain showers, there are plenty of mud holes and other areas for birds to get their water. During the winter, there may not be as much rainfall, and if water does accumulate, it is often frozen solid.

If winter conditions are especially harsh, as many as half of the songbirds we normally see in our backyards may perish. Some of them may die of starvation, because they cannot find enough to eat. Others may die, because they are unable to remain healthy enough to generate enough body heat to withstand the cold nights. This would be especially true if it is very windy or if there are several days of freezing rain or subfreezing temperatures.

With this in mind, let me share some ideas with you as to how you can help the little songbirds. By all means, make sure they have access to clean, fresh water. If you have a birdbath, remove the ice whenever necessary and refill with water. You may need to do this more than once a day.

If you have bird feeders in your yard, make sure there is always a variety of commercial birdseeds in them. If you don't have bird feeders, buy several and place them in your yard. If you can't purchase a bird feeder, make one out of scrap materials. The birds aren't picky, so the bird feeders don't have to be too fancy. If nothing else, scatter seeds on the ground, in the driveway, or in any other areas that birds may visit.

Many items around your home and scraps from your kitchen can be used. Cut a quarter section out of an orange. Hollow out the inside, fill it with birdseed, and hang it in a tree. If you didn't eat the quarter section you cut out of the inside of the orange, place this outside where the birds can find it. Most birds love fruit, even citrus.

Those aggravating pinecones that you pick up in your yard are useful. Smear them with peanut butter, roll them in birdseeds, and hang them in trees. Use cookie cutters to trace patterns on cardboard. Cut out the shapes, smear with peanut butter, and sprinkle with birdseeds. Hang these in trees or bushes, but tie them securely so they don't blow away and litter the neighborhood.

Save those large, clear plastic candy canes that were filled with candy. Use a hot glue gun to fasten the top securely and attach a hook, fill with birdseed, and use an X-acto knife to make ½ inch slashes so the birds can get to the seeds.

Tie a wire or stout cord around ears of corn and hang them in small trees. This will even be attractive to the squirrels, and if you use your imagination placing them in the trees, you will be entertained as you watch the squirrels try to figure out how to get to them.

I'm not advocating that you discard all your table scraps in the backyard. You may attract visitors you don't want, or you may create an odor or health problem. Consider using select scraps of skin and fat from certain cuts of beef or pork and hang in the trees as substitutes for commercial suet.

Don't ever throw away stale bread. Break it into small pieces and scatter in the yard. Better still, toast some of it and hang it in small trees and bushes. Birds also like doughnuts and bagels. Don't ever throw any pastry products away, because you can feed them to the birds instead.

Birds like almost any kind of cereal. Place cereal in bird feeders or scatter it on the ground. For even more fun, thread those cereals that are shaped like little Os and drape them through the trees just like you would your Christmas tree. Sit back and watch the birds as they pick the cereal off the twine.

As for your Christmas tree, if you have not already discarded it, remember that it makes a great feeding station and perch area for birds. Consider placing it in the backyard where it can easily be seen from the house, and let it serve as a feeding station for birds for the next month or so. You can throw it away later.

You can use your imagination and come up with many other ideas. Most books about songbirds may provide a lot of other neat ideas about feeding songbirds.

Let's feed our feathered friends. They will love it, and we will feel better for having done it.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 1/22/02