Did you know that even in the spring, food is still scarce for birds. Bird-feeding is a great family activity. It helps the birds too!
Did you know that even in spring, food is still scarce for birds? It's too cool yet for many insect populations, and there won't be any fruit on trees until harvest time.

Feeding birds in the winter is a great family activity. It helps the birds too!

FIRST DO SOME STUDYING & READING

Check out the bird photo library here.

Learn about the different birds! GardenArtisans offers a 64-page color flip book called "Early Bird: Common Backyard Birds," with pictures of birds and migratory maps. You can learn to identify and attract birds to your yard. Also contains drawings and measurements for building birdhouses to suit specific birds. Only $5.95.

Download free kids kit "Learn about Backyard Birds".

And go here to learn bird songs and calls.

WHAT TO FEED THE BIRDS?

There are tons of products available for feeding birds. In most locations, however, the best bet for attracting birds is black-oil sunflower seed. It's got a high meat-to-shell ratio, it's high in fat, and it's small size and thin shell make it easy for small birds to handle and crack. (The striped version is larger and has a harder shell.)

You'll want to attract smaller birds, because larger birds like starlings, doves and grackles can cause quite a mess and are very noisy as well.

Never feed birds spoiled leftovers, salty snack foods or sugary cereals. Also NEVER chocolate. Chocolate contains an ingredient called theobromine, which is toxic to birds as well as dogs and cats.

Only use peanut butter if you mix it with seed. Alone, it can choke birds.

Different feed attracts different birds. Here's a chart that will tell you about this.

Here are some suet recipes.

FEEDERS