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Top Ten Mistakes People Make When Feeding Birds

Posted by MaryG | Added on : March 06, 2013 3:43pm | Last edited: March 06, 2013 3:57pm | Viewed 5747 times | 0 Comments

Top Ten Mistakes People Make When Feeding Birds

If you love birds, you can watch them everywhere. However, the most handy place to do it is in your very own yard while feeding birds. This is exactly why birders have taken to feeding birds in their backyards. And while you are at it, never make the ten common errors that most beginners seem to make. Here are the ten mistakes and see which one of these mistakes that you are making, thereby preventing birds from visiting your backyard in droves. By correcting those mistakes you are sure to improve your favorite pastime by feeding birds properly.

Abiding by these ten commandments of backyard feeding birds, can afford plenty of enjoyment for any ardent bird enthusiast.

1. Choose the right food: The kinds of birds that you can attract, is for the most part determined by the kind of food that you offer the birds. The variety of seeds that you keep in your feeders for feeding birds will influence the feathery visitors to visit you.

2. Lack of fruits: Not feeding your birds with fruits is another one of those mistakes that can keep birds away from your backyard. A varied offering of fruit will lure birds that normally keep away from feeders that are filled only with seeds. Yellow rumped warblers, orioles, tanagers, wrens, grosbeaks, just love to eat up grape and apple jelly, apple and orange quarters, raisins and white seedless grapes. Fruits are better placed in a dish or atop a platform designed for feeding birds, placed over a few feet off the ground.

3. Uninvited guests: Once you have prepared a good bird feeder or platform as the case may be, you might come across the problem created by uninvited guests. These guests are of two kinds. Those who likes to feed on seeds such as chipmunks, squirrels, mice and rats and those who prefer birds for their lunch, viz., hawks and cats.

When squirrels visit the feeder, it is good bye birds. Squirrels do frighten away birds. They eat up the seeds and before long will damage the feeder as well. The solution to the problem lies in building feeders that are squirrel-proof or storing the seeds in a garbage can made of metal. You can make a feeder squirrel-proof just by fixing it on some pole and baffle, with the bottom of the can applied liberally with hot pepper or Vaseline around; fix the feeder at a height of ten feet from which height squirrels are afraid to jump down to the ground.

To ward off cats, keeping dogs is a good idea as birds do not mind dogs as they do cats. You cannot do anything to ward of birds of prey, so welcome them as they are doing their natural duty of maintaining a balance among the bird population.

4. Chemical pesticides: If you are really serious about feeding birds in your backyard never spray herbicides, insecticides or any sort of lawn chemicals in your yard for fear of poisoning your birds.

5. Using the right nest box: If you want your birds to build nests in your backyard, do it with a box with an entry point on top and a hole on the side. Evict sparrows and starlings from the boxes. If climbing mammals and snakes are the problems create physical barriers to deter them and apply pepper or Vaseline to the barriers.

6. Lack of birdbaths: Birds comes to your yard not only seeking food but also water. They need water both for drinking and bathing. So without a bird bath, the birds won’t be attracted to your backyard.

7. Incorrect placement of the bird house: Where you put your bird house is as important as its design as well as construction. Birds who nest in cavities are extremely particular about their habitat which if not right, no bird will ever find it.

8. Keep the nests and feeders clean: Any bird box contains feathers, bird droppings, and some left-over food that can cause infection and hence diseases. So it is indispensable to clean the nests and feeders regularly if you want to keep on feeding birds.

9. Too many birds: Too many of your birds visiting the feeder can be a problem. You can solve it by placing lesser amounts of seeds in the feeders, using special kinds of seeds, or building restrictive feeders. You cannot leave the feeders empty also to control the number of birds because in such a case they will go looking for food somewhere else.

10. Landscape for the birds: Do all you can to enhance the bird habitat of your backyard before feeding birds. Place nest boxes, bird feeders and bird baths and plant shrubs and trees to serve as great nesting sites, and as shelter from predators and the freezing winter. Make sure that a regular supply of natural food is available all the year round for feeding birds.

Abiding by these ten commandments of backyard feeding birds, can afford plenty of enjoyment for any ardent bird enthusiast.

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