The Zen Birdfeeder

Wordless Wednesday

Red Squirrel at rest

Foods to Serve During Fall and Winter

The Importance of Fat and Calories in a Bird's Diet
Whether they are preparing for fall migration or the onset of winter, birds need foods that are high in oil, fat and calories.  These foods and stored body fat are the primary energy supply that fuels a bird throughout migration and during long, cold winter nights.

SEED
Seed-eating birds will continue to look for sources of seeds that will provide them with their essential fall and winter fat and calories.  So it's important to offer the right seeds in your bird feeders.  Many of these seeds, including black oil sunflower, niger (thistle) and millet, are featured in our regionally-formulated, customized seed blends that also have other seasonally appropriate ingredients.

WBU Choice Blend
A combination of black oil sunflower, sunflower chips, striped sunflower, safflower seed, and peanuts to provide birds with energy during the fall and winter.
I use Choice blend in my WBU Elimininator Squirrel-proof feeder.  Choice Blend is the top-selling blend at WBU-Saratoga.

WBU Supreme Blend
Loaded with fat and calories, Supreme Blend features black oil sunflower, striped sunflower, safflower seed and sunflower chips.  It attracts a wide variety of birds.  I use this seed in my hopper feeders.

WBU Deluxe Blend 
Full of black oil sunflower seeds, millet, striped sunflower and safflower.  It's an excellent fall and winter blend for ground feeders like juncos, doves, and native sparrows.
I sometimes fill my hopper feeder that has a tray underneath with Deluxe Blend so that whatever gets swept out by the jays (the millet) gets caught by the tray, providing a great feeding surface for my juncos and native sparrows.  I also broadcast Deluxe blend on the ground in the areas most frequented by foraging juncos.

WBU No-Mess Blend
Loaded with fat, protein and carbohydrates, no-mess is a clean feeding solution - no shells to clean up!
I put out no-mess (or straight sunflower chips) for the goldfinches that gobble it up like I do a lazy-woman's lobster!

 

White-breasted Nuthatch

NUTS & BERRIES/FRUIT
Loaded with fat and protein, peanuts provide birds with energy and are particularly helpful as birds fatten up for migration and during the winter months when the extra calories help keep them warm.  This fall, peanuts have been particularly popular with my birds - I wonder if that means the winter will be especially severe?  Here's the top 5 birds that consume peanuts at my feeders.

Birds that eat insects may start to eat berries to supplement their diets.  Dried or fresh fruit are a winter favorite of birds such as robins, waxwings, and bluebirds.  The Cranberry Fare Seed Cylinder is loaded with seeds, nuts and cranberries and is a great way to offer your fall and winter birds these foods.

Dark-eyed Junco at Nut & Suet Stackable

SUET & FATS
Suet is a high-energy, pure-fat substance that is particularly helpful in winter when many birds have a hard time finding the insects they normally eat.  Bark Butter, suet cakes and suet plugs, suet nuggets, and suet cylinders and Stackables are all high-fat, high-energy foods perfect for birds' winter needs.
I LOVE to offer Bark Butter (and my birds love that I do!), both on Bark Butter feeders and as the innards of Bark Butter Sandwiches.  Here's some of my favorite Bark Butter creations.  And my log suet plug feeders are a favorite of my woodpeckers.  It feels just like a tree to them!

MEALWORMS
As temperatures fall, birds have a more difficult time finding the limited nubmer of live, active insects.  Loaded with protein, mealworms can help you attract common and uncommon insect-eating birds like bluebirds or wrens.
In cold weather, put mealworms out when birds are present and most likely to partake.

As days get shorter and nights get longer, birds will be busiest at your feeders if you offer a variety of these foods to meet their winter energy needs.

Adapted from a WBU Inc. article

Don & Lillian Stokes Book Signing Nov 14 at Wild Birds Unlimited Saratoga Springs NY

The newest field guide by Don & Lillian Stokes has just been released and the Stokes are coming to Wild  Birds Unlimited - Saratoga Springs NY to sign copies of their new guide!

LILLIAN & DON STOKES BOOK SIGNING
Sunday November 14, 1-4pm
Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop
3084 Route 50, Suite 1 ~ Saratoga Springs NY
518-226-0071
Here's how to get to WBU - Saratoga

Here's what you'll find in The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America: 

• 853 species, from backyard favorites to the latest rarities
• Over 1,000 more color images than in any other photographic field guide
• The first guide to emphasize "quantitative shape" as a new cutting-edge method of identification
• The first guide to include all subspecies with common and scientific names
• Complete identification, aging, and sexing clues included
• The first photographic guide to show all significant plumages
• The newest range maps, detailing species' ranges and migration routes
• A special bonus CD with 663 downloadable bird sounds.

The new Stokes Guide is available for purchase at
Wild Birds Unlimited - Saratoga Springs NY.

View a Slide Show of some of the wonderful photography in the new Stokes Guide. 
See a Comparison Chart of the new Stokes Guide as it compares to other national field guides.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Donald and Lillian Stokes are widely recognized as America's foremost authorities on birds and nature.  Their books include the bestselling Stokes Field Guide to Birds (Eastern and Western editions), the Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds, the Stokes Nature Guides, and the Stokes Backyard Nature books.  They have hosted a popular public television series, Stokes Birds at Home, and live with their two corgis on Bobolink Farm, their 48-acre property in New Hampshire.

Wordless Wednesday

Bottoms up!

 

Image and caption from
WBU-Saratoga Springs customers Paul & Kathy Pacco. 
Thanks, Paul & Kathy, for sharing!

Top 5 Ways to Prepare for Pine Siskins

Since it seems that we're going to have Pine Siskins around this winter (and maybe A LOT of them!), here's the Top 5 ways to prepare for siskins and welcome them in your yard.

#1 - Make Sure your Niger Seed is FRESH

Niger (aka thistle or Nyger®) is attractive to finches and siskins because of its high oil content.  But niger tends to dry out within a couple months, making it less desireable to the birds.  It can look fine to us but if it's dried out, birds won't come to it.

If your niger seed (whether it's in the feeder or in the seed bag) is more than a few months old, start FRESH with NEWLY PURCHASED seed from a store that you know has FRESH seed.  Believe me - it makes a difference!  And when you buy niger, purchase it only in quantities that you'll go through within a couple months.

#2 - Offer Multiple Finch Feeders

Finches like siskins, goldfinches, and redpolls are sitters.  Unlike our chickadees, they don't take a seed from the feeder, leave the perch, open the seed and come back for more.  No, finches sit there and occupy a perch, sometimes for minutes on end.  That's a good thing!

To welcome the most siskins to your feeding station, add another finch feeder.  Hang it in the same area, but allow some space between the feeders for the healthiest birdfeeding. 



When winter finches like siskins visit en masse, it's an ideal time to hang a mesh finch feeder.  They'll cling on the feeder picking niger seed through the mesh, and you'll enjoy seeing them sideways, diagonally, and even upside down.

#3 - Know a Pine Siskin from a Goldfinch

Pine Siskin (left) and American Goldfinch (right)

If you're feeding goldfinches right now in Saratoga County or in the northeast US, I bet you already HAVE siskins on the feeder and maybe just didn't know it was them!

Siskins feed right amongst the goldfinches, are the same size as goldfinches, and at first glance have the same wing markings at goldfinches.  So you might look out at your feeders and think you just have a lot of goldfinches!  LOOK AGAIN!

American Goldfinch (top left) - the rest are Pine Siskins

Siskins are streaked from head to tail, front and back.  You might notice a bit of yellow in their wings and/or at the base of their tail.  Their bill is a bit pointier than the goldfinch.  They also have a bit more attitude than our goldfinches - they can be a little feisty at feeders.


Go check your finch feeders right now - do you have siskins?

#4 - Keep Feeders Clean

Take time RIGHT NOW to clean your feeders.  Use the standard drill:  1 part bleach to 9 parts water.  Rinse really well.  Air dry.

Then, mark your calendar now to clean your feeders once to twice a month throughout the winter.  Also clean the ground beneath the feeders by raking up the debris and bagging it up for the trash.

If you find that your feeders are so hard to clean that you hate cleaning them, buy easy-to-clean feeders.  Our WBU Quick Clean finch feeders make cleaning easier, and then you'll be more likely to clean your feeders regularly.  Our WBU EcoClean antimicrobial feeders inhibit the growth of bacteria, mold, and other microbes on treated feeder surfaces.

#5 - Monitor the Health of your Birds

At the tail end of our last Pine Siskin irruption (in the spring of 2009), we heard many reports of sick birds at feeders.  Folks reported puffed up birds (and not just puffed up to insulate from the cold) that were lethargic and approachable, and that may have exhibited labored breathing and/or swelling around the eyes.

Sick female Purple Finch

These birds may very well have had Salmonella, which finches like siskins are especially susceptible to.  Salmonella exists at low levels in the wild bird population but outbreaks can occur, especially during winter finch irruptions.

We can help break the cycle of this disease amongst birds by first noticing afflicted birds.  If seen at your feeders, as hard as it is to do, your feeders need to come down for a period of time to let the birds disperse.  Continuing to feed may cause the disease to spread to other birds more easily. 

Follow this advice from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology if you suspect Salmonella at your birdfeeders.  And ALWAYS (sick birds or not) wash your hands after handling a birdfeeder.

Do all these Top 5 things and you'll have the right setting for loads of healthy and happy Pine Siskins.  Now just sit back and ENJOY THE SHOW!!!