The secret to good birdseed.

There are so many bird seed products out there these days.  How is a person to know if one bird seed is better than another? These days, many of the bird seeds in the market are changing composition to include cheaper, lower quality and less desirable ingredients. Has the consumer noticed? I don't know but I am sure their wallet and the backyard birds have. So what is the secret to good, quality bird seed?

When it comes to good bird seed it’s the ingredients in the bag that make the difference.  Here’s what to look for when choosing bird seed:

SEED INGREDIENTS IN THE MIX:  

What seeds are in the mix? (Look at the seed in the bag and read the mix ingredients which should be listed from highest % ingredient to lowest % ingredient).

Avoid seeds with a high percent of low cost, low value ingredients like:                                                                                                                              

• Corn or wheat – a little bit of corn or wheat in a mix might appeal to some ground feeding birds but if you see a high percentage of these ingredients in the mix, walk away.  You might as well be feeding squirrels or chickens because all this seed is going to be thrown to the ground under your feeders.

• Milo seed (sorgum):  This is a seed that often is uneaten in bird seed mixes.

Choose seeds with more bird preferred Ingredients

• Sunflower (in particular black oil sunflower) is the top pick of seed eating birds.  These can be in shell or hulled chips (kernels)

• Nuts:  Tree nuts or peanuts are very popular with birds

• Nyjer seed: This small thin black seed is very popular with finches

• Millets:  Millet – white, gold and red millet are key birdseed ingredients

• Canarygrass seed:  There is a reason it is called “canary” grass or “canary” seed. 

• Flax seed, canola seed or other oil seeds:  Less popular than the seeds above but still providing high energy food value.

  Is the seed clean?

• Are there a lot of sticks or dust in the bag? Is there any sign of webbing or insects? Good seed looks clean and fresh. Is the bag dusty or taped? Seed that has been sitting along time may not be fresh anymore.  Choose seed bags that look in good condition.

Remember that not all bird seed mixes are the same and that price is not the only differentiating factor. Remember also that if you want to attract specific birds to your yard that it is better to buy a mix that is specifically designed to attract that type of bird. For example Mother Nature's Finch mix for wild finches, Mother Nature's Jay mix for jays and woodpeckers, Mother Nature's Chickadee mix for chickadees and nuthatches and so on.

Improving mental health through experiencing nature and wild birds.

 I have often felt that we need to get scientists to do research on the benefits of backyard bird feeding on mental health. I see the joy that bird feeding brings to people, both young and old. Recently, I was happy to come across an interesting study that does link bird watching with positive mental health and I wanted to share this study with you.

Research done by academics at the University of Exeter, the British Trust for Ornithology and the University of Queensland was recently published in BioScience Journal (Vol 67, Issue 2, 1 February 2017) and links the abundance of backyard birds and plants in a neighborhood with lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress.

The study looked at 1023 adults in southern England and evaluated how the abundance of vegetation, the abundance of birds and bird diversity affected mental health in the area. The study concluded that people living in neighborhoods with greater levels of vegetation and greater afternoon bird populations had less severe depression, anxiety, and stress. The study could not find a link to bird diversity, meaning that it was more the abundance of birds than the different types of bird that affected mental health. The study also linked greater time outdoors with a more positive state of mind. This would seem to indicate that the ability to experience the outdoors including hearing the birds sing was an important factor.

So what does this study mean for urban planners and people who run public facilities like senior citizen homes?  Could we improve the mental health of our communities while supporting nature, by adding more green spaces to communities, and to take it one step further, by putting in bird feeders to make those spaces more interactive with nature? 
There's a little food for thought for you. 

Which foods to use to attract woodpeckers to your backyard.

We are seeing quite a few of pictures of woodpeckers including flickers and downy woodpeckers posted on bird watching sites right now.   I am always excited to see a woodpecker on my feeder. They are just such beautiful birds.  If you want to attract these showy birds to your backyard here is a very brief outline of some of the different types of bird food to consider.

Peanuts
Woodpeckers seem to enjoy peanuts. While the picture above shows in shell peanuts, we also recommend offering skinless or red skinned peanuts in an appropriate peanut feeder. This will attract woodpeckers and also birds like nuthatches.

Suet

Woodpeckers love suet. We would recommend our Pine Tree Farms Peanut Butter or Insect Suet.

Sunflower Chips
Woodpeckers enjoy sunflower seed and sunflower chips in particular. We recommend our Mother Nature's Medium Sunflower Chips served in a tray feeder or fly through feeder

Jay and Woodpecker Mix
Our Mother Nature's Jay and Woodpecker mix is a good all purpose mix for attracting woodpeckers. It has a high peanut content and also has striped sunflower seed which many of these larger woodpeckers have no trouble handling.

For more information on these products see our website.

Getting Ready for Winter Bird Feeding

Now that winter is approaching, there are a few things that we have remember to do before the snow arrives:

Feeder Preparation
It is always good to clean and repair your bird feeders before winter starts. Take them apart if possible, and clean them properly. To do that add 5ml of bleach, (more or less one teaspoon full) to 4 liters of water. Bleach will help to get rid of harmful bacteria that might be present. An old toothbrush or small brush comes in very handy to clean the corners or small spaces. Once they are clean, remember to put your feeders in a spot where you will be able to see them and where they can be easily accessed for filling and cleaning. 

Bird Bath Preparation
If you have a heated bird bath for the winter remember to clean it to before using it again this year. Don't forget to keep an eye open for algae when the bird bath is in use and to periodically clean your bird bath throughout the winter season.

Bird House Preparation
It can be surprising to see how much birds make use of available shelters during the cold winter months. If you don't have any bird houses up in your yard, consider adding some prior to winter arriving. If you do have some up, now is the time to clean them in preparation for winter.

So now that we are ready for winter bird feeding, which birds can we expect to see at our feeders during the winter months? On the prairies here, some of the more common birds that are seen at backyard bird feeders include: chickadees,nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers, house finches, purple finches, pine siskins, and redpolls. For more information on these birds and what mixes to feed them see other articles on this blog or our website.

This article was written for us by our Saskatchewan bird expert  - Willie Delport

What birds to expect at your feeder this winter - on the Canadian Prairies

So you have followed all the backyard preparation steps and you are getting excited about what birds you will see at your feeders this winter.  Who should you expect?  Here are some of the usual suspects that we see at our feeders out here on the Canadian Prairies.    

Chickadees

These lovely and friendly little birds will be constant visitors at our feeders for the whole winter. They can get so tame that they will actually eat out of your hand. They will also let you know when you forget to put seed in the feeders. They like to eat black oil sunflower, sunflower chips (kernels), red-skinned peanuts and mixed tree nuts.

We recommend that you feed them our: Chickadee and Nuthatch mix, Nutty Temptations mix, as well as our No Mess Gardeners Mix.

Nuthatches  (Red-breasted and the White- breasted )

At our feeders, the Red- breasted Nuthatch is a regular visitor. Like chickadees they are very active. Always trying to find a spot to hide the seed.

  

The White-breasted Nuthatch is also a visitor at our feeders. Not as common as the Red-breasted Nuthatches, but we will see also see them in the winter.

Like chickadees, nuthatches enjoy black oil sunflower, sunflower chips, red-skinned peanuts and mixed tree nuts. 

We recommend that you feed them our: Chickadee and Nuthatch mix, Nutty Temptations mix, as well as our No Mess Gardeners Mix.

Woodpeckers

Downy woodpeckers are regular visitors at our feeders through to the winter. One year we were surprised to see a pair of parents bringing their young offspring, all four of them, to the feeders at the beginning of August. There, the parents showed the young how to eat the tree nuts from the feeder.

Hairy woodpeckers, like the Downy’s, are regular visitors at our feeders during winter. They might show up a couple of times in summer, but not that often. They look very similar to the Downy's but are quite a bit bigger.

Both of these woodpeckers like good quality mixed tree nuts in particular but will also eat sunflower chips, red-skinned peanuts and suet.

We recommend that you put feed them our: Jay & Woodpecker Mix, our Nutty Temptations mix, or pure tree nuts.   They also enjoy suet. 

House and Purple finches

The House and Purple finches are also regulars at our feeders during summer as well as in winter. Like all finches they like to eat black oil sunflower seed , sunflower chips, and nyjer seed. 

We recommend that you give them our: Mother Nature's Wild Finch mix, or feed them pure black oil sunflower or sunflower chips.

Pine Siskins  

They will be at the feeders this winter again. We’ve seen them every winter and with the trees loaded with cones here in our town we’ll see them again.

They like to eat sunflower chips and nyjer seed and the other seeds in our Mother Nature's Wild Finch mix.  Alternatively, you could feed them just  pure black oil sunflower or sunflower chips.

Redpolls  (Common and Hoary)

The Common and Hoary redpolls look very similar . The Hoary have a lighter color than the Common Redpoll. These little birds are so much fun to watch. They came from way up north, from the tundra. If the food crop in the north is not very good , they will come down south. In the winter of 2015-2016 we had hundreds of them at our feeders. Lets keep an eye out for them. Normally they will show up around the middle of December.

These little birds love black oil sunflower, sunflower chips and nyjer seed.   

We recommend feeding them our Mother Nature's Wild Finch Mix, pure medium sunflower chips or pure black oil sunflower.  

Now we want to hear from you.  Tell us about your experience. What birds are at your feeders this winter?  What seed mixes do they prefer?  We enjoy getting your backyard feeding tips and pictures.  

This article was written for us by our Saskatchewan bird expert  - Willie Delport

            

Planting for the Birds

With the May long weekend approaching, gardeners are chomping at the bit to get out and get plants in the ground if they haven't already started.  If you are one of those gardeners and if you are still trying to decide on what to plant this year, we have a few suggestions for plants that will attract birds while beautifying your yard.  

Annual Plants for Hummingbirds

Many people enjoy seeing hummingbirds, so planting something to attract them into your backyard may interest you.  Hummingbirds have long, thin bills that are ideal for probing into trumpet shaped flowers to find the nectar they are seeking. They also seem to be more attracted to flowers that are red in colour. At the greenhouse, search for annuals that are high in nectar production such as fuchsias, nasturtiums, snapdragons, dianthus, foxglove, impatiens, and petunias.

Annual Plants for Seed Eating Birds

Seed eating birds are very attracted to the seed heads in flowers. Unfortunately, the seeds in the flowers are not available to the birds until the seed head has dried out.  So during the season, either refrain from deadheading or flowers or if you do, save the seed heads, and once they have dried out, offer them to the birds in a tray feeder. Once fall is here, leave your flowers and the seed heads standing and you will have the birds visiting even in colder weather conditions. Annuals you can look for at the greenhouse for attracting seed eating birds include cosmos, cornflower, marigolds, zinnias, black eyed susans, daisies, impatiens, and sunflower mixes.

Perennial plants to consider

If you prefer not to plant a lot of bedding plants, you may want to look into perennials. There are a variety of choices available with high nectar production to attract those hummingbirds.  Look for bee balm, phlox, columbines, coral bells, hollyhock, foxglove and lupines.  

Vines and shrubs to consider

Even when planting shrubs, vines, and trees, there are certain varieties you can look for that will attract more birds.  Consider plants with berries such as dogwood, mountain ash, chokecherry bushes or trees, Russian olives, and crabapple trees. Also consider shrubs or climbing vines that have a high nectar production like morning glory or honeysuckle vines (a hummingbird favorite).

With this information, you can see that attracting birds to your yard is not only about what feeders you have in your yard. Birds are looking for the right environment, including plants (and water!), when deciding whether to spend time in your backyard.  

Check out Alberta Birds Facebook group

One of the Facebook groups that I belong to is Alberta Birds.  It is a wonderful group, full of very active members.  Every day I get to see wonderful photographs of birds that people have seen in the wild or the backyard.

What is particularly good about the page is that I can get an idea of what birds are currently in the area and this helps me plan what sort of birdseed to put in my feeders.

For example, right now I am seeing quite a few postings on redpolls.  So that tells me that I should have my feeder full of seed that redpolls will enjoy.

The other great thing about Alberta Birds is that you are able to post a picture of a bird and get some help with identifying it. 

So check it out and get networked with some of the other active birders in Alberta.

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What to feed Redpolls:
Redpolls love our Mother Nature's Finch mix which has some of their favorite seeds including nyjer seed, fine-cut sunflower kernels, and canola seed. See our website for info on where to find our bird seed in Alberta. 

Interesting facts about Peanuts

While many of us faithfully buy peanuts for backyard bird feeding, have you ever stopped to wonder about where peanuts come from?  

Peanuts are one of those crops that we don't get a chance to see much in Canada. That is because most peanut varieties require 3000 heat units to grow and mature and there are very few regions in Canada that get those kind of heat units. There are some peanuts grown in southern Ontario but for the most part, peanuts in North America are grown in the southern states - Georgia and Texas primarily as well as Alabama, North Carolina, Florida and Virginia. Peanuts are also grown in other parts of the world including Latin America and China but for quality control reasons, we buy our peanuts exclusively from the United States.

Given that most of us are not very familiar with peanut crops I thought it might be interesting to just share a bit of information on how peanuts are produced:

Peanuts are considered part of the legume family - like a pea or bean. However, unlike those plants where the pods are above ground, peanuts are more like potatoes where the peanuts are underground.

In fact, in order to harvest peanuts there are special machines that will unearth the peanuts and then turn the peanuts upside down (pods up) to dry. Then a harvester comes through and separates the peanuts from the rest of the plant. There are a few neat youtube videos that show you some information on crop production of peanuts: Peanut Harvest Video on Youtube.

Peanuts for bird feeding: Many birds love peanuts including chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, jays, towhees, juncos, titmice, and doves. This is likely related to the fact that peanuts have excellent nutritional value with high protein and fat content. We recommend serving them whole or hulled in a tray feeder or in a special peanut feeder. If you want to attract small birds, you are better off with a split skinless peanut since it is much easier for a small bird to handle than an in-shell peanut. We take pride in offering excellent quality peanuts to our customers and believe the birds know the difference!

How to keep bird seed fresh.

We often get asked if it is possible to keep birdseed fresh for a longer period of time. While we typically suggest a bird seed shelf life of about 6 months, there are a few things that you can do in order to keep your birdseed fresh longer.

• Buy fresh seed in good condition:  The first thing to ensure is that the seed you are buying is fresh from the start. Make sure that you have a good look at the bag you are considering buying.  If the seed appears dusty or discolored, or has any sort of cobwebs, do not buy it. Avoid any bag that appears worn out or dusty, as it is possible that it has been sitting on the shelf too long already.  Also check to see if there is a manufacturing date or code on the bag so you know for sure when the birdseed was made.  
• Store your seed in an airtight container:  After you have purchased your birdseed, it is important to consider the type of container that your seed will be stored in.  If your seed is in a bag it is best to change it to another type of container as most bags have small holes in it to allow bags to stack better when shipping.  However these small holes could allow insects or moisture to get inside the bag.  A great alternative is to transfer your seed into an airtight plastic or metal container.   
• Store your seed in a cool dry spot:  Once you have your seed in an airtight container, you will need to determine where you are going to place the seed.  Temperature plays a major role in how long your birdseed will stay fresh.  If the seed is stored at a temperature that is too warm, it will spoil a lot faster. Most homes are too warm to store seed. Therefore, a cool garage or garden shed are great options.  During the summer months, it is a good idea to move your seed to a freezer if possible.  Keeping the seed frozen will not affect the seed quality and will help to prevent the seed from spoiling. 

It is always a good idea to do occasional quality checks on your seed.  Ensure that there are no signs of insects, or insect cobwebs.  The seed should not be discolored in any way, and you should check to make sure the smell is not ‘off’ and remains fresh.

If you follow these tips, you should be able to ensure your seed stays fresh for your feathered friends.

Summer Bird Feeding Tips

It’s that time of year again!

The weather is beautiful, and it’s the perfect time to sit outside and enjoy watching all the birds visiting your backyard.  Don’t forget to keep your feeders filled during the summer months.

You may assume that birds have a lot of food to eat in the wild at this time of year, and while this may be true, they can still benefit from our help.  Many birds are breeding and nesting during the summer, and by keeping our feeders filled, it allows these birds to stay close to their young ones.

Here are a few summertime tips to keep the backyard birds happy and healthy throughout the season:

1. Add water to your backyard:  Birds really love water, and even though water is more accessible during the summer months, bird baths are great to have in your backyard.  Having a bird bath will attract more birds into your yard.  Just be sure to keep bird bath clean, empty the old water and refresh it on a daily basis.  This will help to make sure that your bird bath will not become breeding grounds for pesky mosquitoes. 
2. Set up a sugar water feeder:  If you would like to attract a wider range of birds, such as hummingbirds, orioles, sapsuckers, purple finches, tanagers, and warblers, you can set up a sugar water solution feeder. Just make sure that the water gets changed every couple of days when it is hot outside to prevent it from getting mouldy. 
3. Protect bird health by keeping feeders clean:  It is also very important to ensure that you are keeping your feeder clean at all times during the year, but especially during the summer months. Summer temperatures bring with it an ideal time for bacterial growth in your feeder. You can keep your feeders clean by following these simple steps:  

• Scrub your feeder with hot soapy water about once per month & allow them to air-dry afterwards.
• Wipe down perches and feeding portals on the feeder with a cloth dipped in a weak bleach solution,.  This will prevent the spread of salmonella. 
• Fill your feeders with small amounts of seed more frequently rather than large amounts all at once.  This will keep the food from spoiling which could pose a health risk to the birds. 
• In an open tray feeder, remove any food soaked by rain, as well as any bird droppings.  This will also help prevent the spread of diseases. 

If you follow these simple tips, your backyards birds will be happy and healthy, and you will surely enjoy seeing various birds visiting your backyard throughout the summer season.

How to attract finches to your yard this spring.

Spring and summer are great times of the year for feeding finches. Goldfinches become a beautiful yellow in these months and house finches, purple finches and pine siskins are plentiful. So how do you attract these little birds to your feeders?


Start with the right feeder: Purchase a tube thistle finch feeder. This will be a long cylindrical feeder with small perches and very small seed holes.

Put the feeder in the right location: Mount the feeder in a tree or bush where you have seen finches before. You can move the feeder closer to the house once your birds are used to the feeder and regularly visiting it.

Choose the right food: Goldfinches are known for their love of njyer seed (pictured left).

However,there are other options. The variety of ingredients in Mother Nature's Finch Mix is designed to attract redpolls, pine siskins, goldfinches, housefinches and other finches. Our Mother Nature's finch mix contains ingredients that these small birds love including nyjer seed, finely chopped sunflower seed, canola seed, canarygrass seed, and gold proso millet.

Another option to consider, particularly if you are looking for a "no mess" solution, is our Mother Nature's Fine Chips which are finely chopped sunflower kernels. They feed well through the small holes in finch feeders and are very popular with finches. While the fine chips are a bit more expensive than our Mother Nature's finch mix, there will be no shells under the feeder and no sprouting to worry about.

Finally, when you have your feeder up, you could consider adding a birdbath to your yard. All birds including finches enjoy water.

The Ultimate Bird Food: Black Oil Sunflower Seed

There are so many different kinds of seeds in bird seed mixes and it can be kind of confusing to know what mix to buy and use in your feeders.  Well today I wanted to shine some light on the ultimate bird food, black oil sunflower, and explain why you should buy mixes that contain a high percentage of this nutritious seed.

Black oil sunflower is a much loved food source for wild birds.  In fact, studies have shown that black oil sunflower is the top choice of most seed eating birds from chickadees to sparrows.  So why is black oil sunflower so popular?  

Sunflower plants in bloom.  The center of the flower contains
the seed which will turn black when the plant is mature.

Well black oil sunflower has a very high oil content, as high as 40%. This oil content acts as a very important energy source for wild birds who have to stay warm in the winter, migrate in the spring and fall and raise young during the summer. There are other bird foods with high oil contents as well, like peanuts and safflower, but the birds appear to be more attracted to sunflower than these other food sources.  

Sunflowers can be offered on their own or with other seeds in a mix but you will find that mixes with higher sunflower content will be more popular and attract a broader variety of birds than mixes with low sunflower content.

Whole sunflower kernels

The great thing about sunflower though, is that in addition to feeding the sunflower seed whole in-shell, you can also feed sunflower kernels. Sunflower kernels are sunflower seeds that have had their shells removed by a dehuller.  These kernels are sized to be either whole kernels or broken kernels in medium or small size pieces.  We call these hulled sunflower kernels "sunflower chips" and one of our most popular products is our Mother Nature's Medium Sunflower Chips. Sunflower chips provide a "super accessible" high energy food source for birds.  In addition, they are a "no mess" solution because there are no shells to clean up under the feeder and the broken kernels will not sprout. 

If you buy the fine size sunflower kernels - Fine Sunflower Chips, you can use these chips in place of, or combined with, Nyjer seed in a finch tube feeder.  The small sized chips will work just fine with the small size holes you will find in finch feeders.  In fact, my experience is that the finches love the fine sunflower chips as much or more than Nyjer seed.  

So hopefully, I have demystified black oil sunflowers a bit for you and you will understand why they are an important food for backyard bird feeding.

Winter bird feeding tips.

Brrrrr...... it's suddenly so cold out there! So glad I filled the bird feeders yesterday while it was still beautifully snowy but not frigidly cold.

With the arrival of the cold weather I thought that now might be a good time for a few quick tips on how to feed the birds to help them survive a cold winter.

Winter bird feeding tips:

1) Stock those feeders!  Birds need lots of calories to keep warm on cold winter days.  Provide food that has the maximum bang for the calorie buck:

• Black oil sunflower chips (sometimes called sunflower kernels or hearts) have a high fat content that can help power little birds on those cold winter days.  The fact that the sunflower shell has been removed means that the food takes less effort to consume which can also help.
• Skinless peanuts have a high calorie and fat content which is important for birds in the winter time.  
• Suet (beef kidney fat that has been specially prepared) is another great energy source for birds on cold winter days.

2) Regularly fill your feeders!  Now that the birds have found your backyard and are relying on your help to survive the cold, it's important to keep the food coming.

3) Put up a few different types of feeders in your yard.  This will spread the birds out and reduce competition at your feeders.

4)  Keep the feeders clean of snow.  Snow on the feeder just blocks the seed holes and leads to seed spoilage if and when the snow melts, so try to keep your feeders brushed off.

5) Keep your feeders clean of mess.  Some birds are very susceptible to salmonella.  Bird droppings on the feeder and around the feeder can help spread this sickness from one bird to another especially when you have lots of birds at your feeders.

Those are a few tips for the day.  Happy winter bird feeding!

Kelly

Get Ready for the Redpolls

With winter approaching, we are starting to see birds migrating to their winter feeding grounds.  That means that the redpolls hopefully will be showing up at my feeders later this fall.

Did you know that Common Redpolls and Hoary Redpolls are generally found year round up north in the North West Territories, Nunavut, the Yukon and Alaska? They actually breed in the very northern edges of these areas right around the Arctic Ocean. According to the the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, these hardy little souls can survive temperatures of -65 degrees F (-53 degrees C)!

In the winter months, though, even these birds say "enough is enough" and many will migrate further south and be found down in southern parts of Canada and even down into the central or southern States. They are considered "irruptive" meaning that they follow food sources and their migration can not be predicted year to year.  So some years there will be many in an area and some years not.  Like Pine Siskins, these birds travel in flocks and when crowded at a feeder, can be susceptible to salmonella infections.

So how do you recognize a redpoll in your backyard?  Well it is a small bird and different from a house finch or purple finch in that it has a distinctive red cap on it's head.  The Hoary Redpolls are lighter coloured than the Common Redpolls, but the Common are more common so, given my lack of skills in identifying birds, I presume the ones in my backyard are Common Redpolls.

We thoroughly enjoy watching the redpolls at our feeders as they quarrel among each other and

have unique personalities.  We find that redpolls will eat from many different styles of feeders but seem to prefer our Mother Nature's Finch mix in a tube feeder or medium sunflower chips in a hopper style feeder.

Please remember to be extra careful about keeping your feeders clean of any bird droppings if you have large flocks of redpolls in your yard, given their susceptibility to salmonella.

A couple of final neat facts about redpolls again from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:
1) they tunnel into the snow at night to keep warm
2) they can travel very long distances and have been recorded to travel as far as from China to Belgium.
 
What interesting lives these birds must lead!  Keep your feeders stocked for redpolls this winter.

Northern Flickers are one of my favorite birds and I have a few of them frequenting my feeders at this time of year.  Flickers are not as common as some of the other birds in your backyard, so I thought I would give you a bit of information on Northern Flickers and how to attract them.

Northern Flickers are part of the woodpecker family and spend most of their time on tree trunks or on the ground foraging for ants or other insects.   However, they do seem to enjoy the sunflower seeds and peanuts in our Jay & Woodpecker mix and I quite enjoy seeing one of these large flickers plop down in my platform feeder. These easy going birds are big enough that when they arrive at the feeder, even the blue jays and magpies think twice about trying to scare them off.

There are two forms of these flickers: yellow-shafted and red-shafted and they can interbreed when ranges overlap. The Yellow-shafted Flicker resides in north and eastern North America. As the name suggests, the yellow-shafted flickers have yellow under the tail and wings. They also have a grey cap, a beige face and a red bar at the nape of their neck. Males have a black mustache.

The Red-shafted Flicker resides in western North America. Very similar to the Yellow-Shafted flicker but with red under the tail and wings.  

These birds are migratory and I believe we have had both red and yellow shafted flickers in our yard over the winter at different times.

To attract these birds to your yard, I recommend offering Mother Nature's Jay & Woodpecker Mix in a tray feeder or platform feeder positioned near some trees in your yard.  I also recommend having several suet feeders positioned around your yard as they enjoy suet very much in the winter time.

The benefits of a fly-through feeder.

I was so excited yesterday.  I have been looking for a really large good quality wooden feeder for a while now.  However, most of the stores I have been in i.e. Canadian Tire just have small feeders.  So yesterday I was visiting one of our customers and there on the shelf was the feeder I have been looking for! 

This feeder by Wild Bird Trading Company is what I call a "fly - through feeder" meaning that it is ideal for birds that just want to fly in, grab a seed and fly out quickly.  This particular one is very large making it suitable for blue jays and large woodpeckers like northern flickers.

Some people complain about the jays in the yard chasing off other birds but I love jays and while I have seen them pass through my yard they have rarely stuck around.  So when I hung this feeder up yesterday I was hopeful but didn't know what to expect.  Well within a couple of hours I had 3 blue jays coming and going.  It was like grand central station and the other birds could still eat at the other feeders without worrying about the jays.

This feeder was about $60 at Green Haven Garden Centre in Lethbridge and based on my experience with feeders I think it is very good quality and a good price for what you are getting.  So consider putting up a feeder just for the blue jays. They can provide hours of entertainment in the backyard and that flash of blue is beautiful especially against the snow in winter time.

No Mess Solutions for Backyard Bird Feeding

Love the birds but don’t love the mess that goes with them? Many backyard bird feeders stop feeding birds over the summer, choosing to focus instead on the perfect lawn and garden.  However, there is a way to have your perfect lawn and your backyard birds too, if you make the correct bird food choices.

It all starts with selecting the right bird food. It is important to select seeds and nuts that have no shells and that won’t sprout under your feeder. I give a "no mess" rating to ingredients like chopped sunflower kernels (also known as sunflower chips) and chopped nuts. Birds love sunflower seeds and when you remove the shells and chop up the seeds, you eliminate mess and sprouting under the feeder.
 

Skinless peanuts and chopped nuts are also bird favorites and have a low mess factor when fed through a peanut feeder. The chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers all really enjoy nuts.

 

Just a plug here for our Mother Nature's No Mess Gardener's blend (available at UFA, Buckerfields and other retailers):  This blend contains chopped sunflower kernels, peanuts and tree nuts.  The birds love these ingredients so there should be very little waste associated with this mix.  It also has no shells to make a mess under the feeder and no seeds that will germinate in your lawn.  

Finally, as an alternative or an addition to the above, you may want to consider feeding a "no melt" suet in the summer time. Suet is a beef kidney fat bird product and no melt suets are guaranteed not to melt when summer temperatures soar. Suet is popular with many birds and there are no shells or seeds that will fall to the ground from a suet feeder.

Birds can be messy it seems, choosing at times to toss the seed out of the feeder only to eat it on the ground later. You can avoid these issues by adding a seed catching tray under your feeder.

There is something peaceful about sitting in the garden and watching the birds at the feeder. Bird feeding brings tranquility to my backyard and makes backyard gardening that much more enjoyable.

Goldfinches don’t hit the dog’s radar.

We have a watchdog you know. She valiantly protects our yard from interlopers including cats and large birds such as grackles and crows (and unfortunately large woodpeckers, doves or jays).

It’s funny though that she seems to have a risk assessment based on the size of the interloper and apparently gold finches don’t cross the risk line. She is happy to let the finches munch away at the feeders.

I am very pleased to have the goldfinches back in my yard. These cheery little guys will eat at the feeder even while I’m sipping coffee on the deck and the dog on watch. I find that they add such nice flashes of color against the spring greenery of the yard.

 

As an aside, I am feeding the goldfinches finely chopped sunflower chips (kernels) – I also have a another feeder elsewhere in the yard where I alternate nyjer seed and our Mother Nature’s finch mix as well.   To find our Mother Nature's bird seed please see our website:  http://www.chinridge.com/index.php/where-to-buy-our-pet-and-wild-animal-food-products

 

 

Attracting Nuthatches to your Backyard

Nuthatches are one of my favorite backyard birds.  So small and yet fiesty, I enjoy seeing these colourful Red Breasted Nuthatches coming to and from my feeders.  It is easy to see which seeds they enjoy the most based on the feeders that they frequent.

In my backyard, the nut feeder is a favorite for the nuthatches.They enjoy the tree nuts (a mix of cashew, hazelnut, almonds and other nuts) and are often seen at that feeder.

Secondly, they really enjoy the finch feeder with the fine sunflower chips (sunflower seeds with the shell removed - chopped finely into little pieces).

They also seem to enjoy eating insects from an old decrepit tree trunk in my backyard and will visit my suet feeders.  I will also see them taking black oil sunflower (shell on) or a peanut from another mix in my hopper feeder.

Nuthatches are busy birds and are not likely to stay long at the feeder.  They zoom in, grab a seed and zoom out, off to wherever they are headed.

If you are having trouble attracting nuthatches, try to offer some of the bird foods I mentioned above.  Note though that you will have a greater chance of attracting them if you have some coniferous treas around your yard.  Red Breasted Nuthatches are considered a short distance migrant and may not migrate at all if you are in the southern part of the Canadian provinces.  So keep those feeders full because once you attract these cute little guys, you could have them there to stay.

Variations on Suet Bird Feeders

I think we are all pretty familiar with the standard suet cage feeder.  However, recently, one of our customers showed us an innovative modification to one of these feeders.

He attached a piece of wood to the bottom of this feeder and explained how this allows birds to have somewhere to rest their tail when they feed, which gives them better balance and allows them to feed more comfortably.   This explains the long tail on some of those suet feeders that you can purchase in stores, or if you already have a suet feeder, you can make it yourself by simply adding a piece of wood onto the bottom similar to the one shown in this photo. 
 

Another interesting suet feeder to consider is a bottom feeding suet feeder, which is entirely covered on the top and sides, and has a mesh underside.  This forces the bird to get to the suet by hanging underneath the feeder. This unique feeder will allow only birds that are comfortable clinging upside down to get to the suet (birds like woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees). If these are the types of birds you wish to attract to your yard, this is a great feeder to use.