Love feeding birds? Here are 20 fanciful DIY bird feeders. Attract birds with these easy bird feeder designs. Ideas for both adults and kids.
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Encourage wildlife into your garden with these unique, handcrafted homes for birds, bats, and bugs. Find out how to make them, where to position them for different species, and how to provide food, nesting materials, and shelter for your wild neighbors. In Natural Birdhouses, you’ll find instructions for making birdhou
Is this scene similar to what you've seen in your backyard recently? It must be spring when the "blackbirds" return, right? Many people are trying to deal with this problem right now and I wanted to do this blog post to give you some ideas and solutions that have worked in my backyard. Blackbirds are generally lumped into one group, but usually consist of several different types of birds: common grackles (iridescently colored black feathers and yellow eyes), brown-headed cowbirds (as the name implies, they have a brown-ish colored head--most easily seen in bright sunlight), European starlings (mostly black with lighter colored speckles and a long yellow beak), and red-winged blackbirds (I think you can figure that one out!) Except for the non-native European starling, I believe it's illegal to kill the other 3 species as they are considered native, migratory songbirds and I believe in most towns and cities, it's probably illegal to discharge a firearm anyway -- even a BB gun. So here are several solutions that you might want to try in your backyard. If you're really desperate, you can just stop filling your birdfeeders or take them down and eventually the blackbirds will move on. Of course, you will deny yourself the pleasure of seeing all the other spring and summer feeder birds, like rose-breasted grosbeaks, indigo buntings, chipping sparrows, etc., but that is the best alternative for ridding your yard of black birds. If you decide to leave your feeders out, one of the seeds you can fill them with is safflower seed. This seed looks kind of like a small, white sunflower seed. It's a little more expensive than sunflower seeds, but you should be able to find it easily wherever you normally purchase your birdseed. It also has the added benefit of discouraging squirrels (they don't like the bitter taste either). You will find that many other birds will still eat safflower seed, including house finches, mourning doves, cardinals, and rose-breasted grosbeaks. Oh yeah, it doesn't discourage all blackbirds either......I spotted this one silly red-winged blackbird eating it last week! I like red-winged blackbirds, so I don't mind these guys hanging around the feeders close to the house. Another technique you can try is to buy a less expensive seed or seed blend and put that in feeders farther out in your yard in an attempt to keep the less desirable blackbirds away from your house. This blend I use contains cracked corn, white millet, black sunflower seeds, and safflower seeds. This seed blend runs me about $19 for 50 lbs. I put this seed blend in my open trays and ground feeder trays which are placed farther away from the house. Lots of different birds enjoy this seed blend including mourning doves, bluejays, cardinals, sparrows, juncos, and even indigo buntings. (Sophie isn't eating the seed, just checking out all the interesting bird scents around the feeder.) You might find some possums or bunnehs partaking of the bounty in your ground feeder trays too! This picture was taken last Sunday morning after our overnight snowfall. Another alternative to discourage blackbirds from your feeders is to put your tube feeders inside "cages." I have my good "cardinal blend" seed in these tube feeders and the cage works for keeping the big, piggy birds and squirrels out. Chickadees, goldfinches, downy woodpeckers and other small birds can still get to the seed. The downside of the protective cages is that it also keeps the larger birds you want to feed (like cardinals and rose-breasted grosbeaks) away from the feeders. Starlings and grackles also really like peanuts (shelled and in-the-shell), so if you're going to offer peanuts for your backyard birds, it's best to put them in a feeder that doesn't have perches. Grackles and starlings don't have good clinging abilities, although they may be able to hold onto a feeder like this for a few seconds or long enough to knock out a peanut or two. Their love of peanuts also extends to suet with peanuts or peanut butter in it and I've seen them devour an entire block of suet in a day, so I generally put my suet away or inside a protective cage (like you've seen in past pictures I've posted on this blog). Another reason we have so many common grackles in our yard is the habitat. When I planted hundreds of evergreen trees 20+ years ago, I was only thinking about how great they would be for windbreaks and sound barriers when they got big. What I didn't realize was that common grackles LOVE large evergreens for nesting in. And boy, do we have large evergreens now! So for the next couple of months, I'll just have to deal with having a bunch of grackles hanging around the yard. The nice thing that I've noticed for the past several years is that generally once the grackles have raised and fledged their first batch of babies, many of them depart the backyard in early July. I don't know if this is due to the fact that there are more food sources available for them in the countryside (oats and corn fields starting to ripen) or if they just begin their migration early, but I'm not sorry to see them go. A few will still hang around the backyard, but it's nothing like the huge numbers I'm seeing now in the early spring. I hope this post has been helpful for you. Dealing with blackbirds takes a little bit of patience and perseverance, but if you make the choice to leave your birdfeeders up over the summer months, you will be rewarded with seeing a good variety of our spring and summer migrants and also the joy of seeing the young birds coming to your feeders and being fed by their parents. Happy birdfeeding!
Goldfinches are a favorite at backyard bird feeders, but can be a little tricky to attract. So we've put together some tips for how to attract goldfinches.
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This question was asked by a visitor. The answer to this question depends on where you live. But, Wherever You are, Hummingbird Feeders Should Go Out Early! It is always a good idea to
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Do you want to collaborate with the nature that surrounds you? Here you can find 8 of the daily food scraps that you can give to the birds.rnIn order to feed and maintain the rich population of wild birds, you will need to know which foods are safe. Using waste instead of disposing of it is key to maintaining a healthier environment that should be of concern to everyone.rnBy using foods that would otherwise be discarded, you can take a small step towards a more sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle for the future generation.
If you are a hummingbird lover, this is for you! Learn all of the best hummingbird tips to keep attract hummingbirds to your yard. You'll thank us later!
The sugary nectar in hummingbird feeders can lure unwanted guests. Learn how to keep bees and wasps away from your feeder.
Learn 4 strategies that get rid of starlings TODAY! These simple tips will help prevent, repel, & deter starlings away from bird feeders.
Here are the 8 BEST Northern Cardinal bird feeders in my yard. Plus, learn about their favorite foods. I observe the MOST birds on Feeder #3!
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Return to: DIY Projects DIY Habitat Tripod Use this guide to create a unique garden feature and provide Food and Shelter for small birds in your garden. Two develop and test this guide we sourced r…
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Attracting finches to your yard is easy with these helpful tips.
