Feed your feathered friends all winter long

Winter provides a unique opportunity to attract wildlife to your yard while lending the chance to be a small but integral contributor to the local food cycle.

As you move indoors for the season, the time is right to either place or reposition backyard or porch bird feeders within an easy sight line of windows to provide comfortable inside viewing of bird activity. Providing more than one type of feeder at differing heights will invite a greater variety of birds. For example, a raised feeder, 5 to 15 feet above the ground, will attract evening grosbeaks and finches, while feeders closer to the ground tend to draw doves and sparrows.

Remember to consider the ever-present competition from the local squirrel population for the food you put out. Descending chain feeders are a more ready squirrel deterrent than poled platform

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feeders. Regardless of the feeder you use, you can often retrofit a variety of squirrel guards to your feeder to tilt the food competition toward your small flying friends.

Once you have positioned your feeders for easy viewing from the inside, then comes the all-important enticement of food. Different foods attract different types of birds, and higher-quality foods lend even more reason for feathered visitors to make your feeders part of their daily stops. When considering what type of foods to put out, try to stay away from common generic mixes. Lower-priced mixes are often not a bargain, as they contain various fillers, like red milo, which almost all birds discard. Buying higher-quality seed mixes or individual seeds that end up being a complete food to birds are the best value.

Sunflowers are a universally popular choice. They attract cardinals, woodpeckers, blue jays, goldfinches, purple finches, chickadees, titmice and nuthatches. The use of safflower seed will further differentiate your visitors, as this small white seed attracts chickadees, downy woodpeckers, cardinals and titmice, while repelling grackles, blue jays and starlings, which often keep smaller birds away from feeders. Another excellent individual seed is niger, or thistle. While this seed is a bit more expensive, it provides a high-energy meal full of oil and calories. Thistle is often the meal of choice for finches, one of the most colorful of birds to observe.

Suet is a high-fat food that is readily affordable in variously sized cakes and easily inserted into matching wire-mesh feeders to keep larger tree animals out. You can be sure to see colorful woodpeckers and blue jays visiting your suet feeders.

Finally, if you like to attend to your feeders daily, remember to sprinkle affordable white millet along the ground, and you'll spot snacking mourning doves, sparrows and juncos.

This year, provide some winter entertainment by making your yard an enticing stopover spot for the nourishment of our feathered backyard friends.

Courtesy of ARAcontent