Spring Hospitality

Northern cardinal at feeder

Photo Credit: Jim Williams

We think of spring as a time of abundance but birds know better — they’ve eaten Mother Nature’s cupboard bare. Backyard birds have gleaned nearly all of the flower and weed seeds over the winter, hunted down the easy-to-find spider egg sacs and consumed the food they’d stored away last fall. In early spring, our backyard birds need our feeders more than ever, while they wait for insects to hatch and other natural foods to become abundant. Here are some ideas for being a good host.

Some tips for spring bird feeding:

Check all feeders. Winter is hard on outdoor equipment, so look for cracks in plastic, splinters in wood and any seed clumps or mold. Feeders showing any of these signs need to be taken out of the lineup so they don’t injure or sicken birds.
More feeders mean more birds. Goldfinches appreciate tube feeders filled with small seed, such as nyger. Cardinals are natural ground feeders but readily use a platform or domed feeder with black-oil sunflower seeds. Orioles choose a fruity diet, and will snap up grape jelly and oranges. Woodpeckers tap trees for hidden insects, and pressed suet cakes are a good approximation of this high-energy food. Blue jays relish nature’s acorns, as well as a feeder with peanuts in the shell. Robins and bluebirds snare insects and worms on the ground or stop at feeders stocked with mealworms.
Wet their whistles. Many of the 238 or so birds that regularly nest in our state don’t regularly visit feeders. For example, warblers and vireos ignore feeder foods as they snap up caterpillars in tree foliage. But all birds need water, and a birdbath, especially one with a fountain or mister, will draw in dozens of species that might never come to feeders.
Keep it dry. Spring rains mean spring flowers, as well as the potential for spoiled birdseed. Keep a close eye on feeders as you fill them and toss any seed that begins to clump or look moldy. Domed or roofed feeders keep out most of the rain, but still should be checked regularly. When in doubt, throw it out—moldy seed makes birds sick.
Keep safety in mind. Place bird feeders so that you can enjoy the birds, but don’t set them up to crash into windows. Place feeders within three feet of your observation window (so birds leaving feeders haven’t built up momentum), or 30 or more feet away, to avoid crashes.
Clean-up duty. The ground under feeders inevitably gets covered with hulls and bird dropping, an unhealthy mix both for lawns and ground-feeding birds. Rake up and dispose of this debris periodically, and move feeders to allow the ground to recover. If black-oil sunflower hulls are killing the grass, consider a switch to hulled seed chips (but remember, without a shell, these spoil easily).
Avoid diseases. Birds gathering at feeders are vulnerable to the spread of diseases like salmonella and conjunctivitis. You won’t necessarily know if there’s a disease outbreak because sick and dying birds fly away. Keep feeders clean with a bi-weekly wash, rinse with a 9 to 1 water/bleach combination, re-rinse and thoroughly dry before filling with seed.

As you can see, there’s a bit more to bird hospitality than merely filling feeders from time to time. To be good hosts to our feathered friends we need to offer dry seed, a clean environment and safety from the deadly power of glass. Follow these steps and you should see more birds—and more kinds of birds—in your backyard this spring and summer.

St. Paul, Minn., resident Val Cunningham, who leads bird hikes for the St. Paul Audubon Society and writes about nature for local, regional and national newspapers and magazines, can be reached at valwrites@comcast.net.