A Bistro for Birds

Providing a safe and nutritious diet to visiting birds is critical to the long-term success of your backyard sanctuary.

A great place to start is by choosing a premium blend of wild bird food. These foods are specially cleaned, formulated to be attractive and healthy, and packaged to stay fresh. By offering a premium food, you can feel confident that you’re providing the wholesome nutrition that birds need to stay healthy and vibrant.

Refill feeders regularly with blends sought by wild birds in your area. A few tips:

•  Foods specially blended to attract songbirds often contain a mix that will keep visitors like cardinals or finches coming back without attracting too many nuisance birds.

•  Black-oil sunflower seeds are fine, but variety is important. Adding foods that contain real fruit or nuts may help yours to become a feeder of choice.

•  Consider other food besides seed to supplement your feeding. Suet is particularly attractive to woodpeckers, but many insect-eating birds – nuthatches, chickadees, wrens, creepers and kinglets – are fond of it too. It’s a good high-energy, cold-weather food. But avoid offering unprocessed suet in hot weather as it quickly becomes rancid.

For more information:

•  “6 Steps To Turn Your Yard Into A Sanctuary For Birds,” www.backyardbirdcare.org.
A philosophy created and endorsed by the Wild Bird Feeding Industry, www.wbfi.org.
 
•  North American Bird Feeder Handbook, published by the National Audubon Society.