About our first birdfeeders and seed: Tube feeder and Suet

I will admit, not a lot of decision making went into what we used for our first feeder; it was simply what we had available. When we lived in the city, we chose this beautiful tube feeder to hang on our balcony as I heard tube feeders are great for attracting finches, chickadees and other small birds. Unfortunately, the only birds we ever managed to attract in the city were flocks of house sparrows and pigeons. Nonetheless, the feeder held up great and seemed to work well for the sparrows. Now that we live in a rural area, the feeder has seemed to attract a greater variety of species. It's main visitors are black-capped chickadees and goldfinches, but the nuthatches and a tufted titmouse have also investigated.

Black-capped chickadee at the tube feeder

After having just the tube feeder out, I decided I wanted to balance it out with a completely different type of feeder. I chose to pick up a wire cage to fill with a block of suet. Suet is animal fat that is usually covered in a assortment of seeds, nuts and/or fruit. Almost all birds will eat suet. Since their metabolism is very fast, birds never have to worry about eating too many calories, thus the numerous calories supplied from solid suet helps birds conserve precious energy. This is important because birds use up a substantial amount of calories flying around searching for food (Roth, pg. 232). Our suet feeder has been a hit so far; we've attracted hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, nuthatches, tufted titmouse, and chickadees so far.

Nuthatch enjoying some suet

Now you may be wondering, what about the cardinal, juncos, and mourning doves that I've photographed at the feeder as well? Well, juncos and doves like to eat on the ground, so they have been content pecking at the seeds and bits of suet that other birds (and squirrels) have knocked from the feeder. As for the cardinal, I think we just got lucky. The poor gal came to the feeder in search for seed, but was only comfortable perching on the railing pecking at scraps of seeds that had fallen out. Unfortunately our feeders do not really support larger/less acrobatic birds like her. So soon, we will be investing in an additional feeder or two to attract a larger variety of species. We will probably be getting either a hopper or tray feeder (I'll tell you more about those once we see them in action, but both support both large and small birds).

Perhaps even more important than the choice of feeder is the choice of seed. Honestly, I don't know how picky the birds are about quality. But I care a great deal for our feathered visitors, so I spent a long time selecting a good for them, and one that wouldn't leave a lot of wasted/rejected seed. In Sally Roth's book, Attracting Birds to Your Backyard, she gives some great advice for birdseed selection. She says, for simplicity's sake, and to stick to a reasonable budget, she usually fills her feeders with black oil sunflower and white millet. These seeds appeal to a lot of different birds and are very nutritious. But then she then goes on to discuss how fun it is to make your own mixes to suit the birds in your garden. Here is the general recipe that she uses that appeals to many kinds of birds:

• 10 scoops black oil sunflower seed, 
• 5 scoops millet, 3 scoops cracked corn, 
• 2 scoops safflower seed, 1 scoop flaxseed and 
• 1 scoop untreated grass seed (Roth pg. 48).

Personally, I liked the idea of coming up with a mix, but I wasn't really sure what would work in our garden yet (as we are starting from nothing), and I didn't want to invest in lots of storage containers to keep all the different bags of seed we may or may not use. So I opted to try out a birdseed mix from the store. I took Roth's advice though and "read the label carefully to make sure the mix contained a high percentage of desirable seeds like sunflower, safflower, millet, canary and flax and a very low percent of fillers, like cracked corn, wheat kernels, and milo". Ingredients are listed in order by quantity, so if fillers are near the top of the list, go with another brand. (Roth pg. 50). 

I finally found a mix I was happy with that was reasonably priced and good quality at Lowe's: the National Audubon Supreme Blend. It's ingredients are Black Oil Sunflower, Stripe Sunflower, White Millet, Cracked Corn, Peanut Pieces, and Safflower. Sunflower seeds are very nutritious and attract a large variety of birds. The only difference between black and striped sunflower are the size; the nutrition value is the same. Millet is a small round seed that small seed eaters like juncos and finches as well as larger birds like doves welcome. Safflower seeds are pointed white seeds that are very high in oil content. Cardinals love these, as do other birds with strong seed-cracking beaks (Roth pgs. 46-48). So far, this mix has been very successful for us. And although I do intend to experiment with my own mixes as I get to know the birds a little better, I will probably be sticking with this mix for a little while.

I look forward to continue sharing our adventures as we try out new feeders and foods in the future.