TUBE FEEDERS

There are two types of tube feeders: One that disperse thistle seed and one that dispense mixed seed. Each type tube feeder attracts different bird special. Thistle feeder are a popular choice among many backyard bird watchers. They are Loved by finches and other small wild birds, thistle seed needs a specially designed feeder to disperse the thin seed easily yet not wasteful. However, although it is easily identified as “thistle” seed, the seed you are using with these feeders is actually called “nyjer” seed.

Nyjer plants are grown in Asia and Africa and is high in oil content. No one is quite sure how “thistle” seed became mixed up with “nyjer” seed but, to be sure, thistle is not what you’re filling your tube feeders with. Despite any incorrect labeling on packaging, sold commercially as “thistle” seed is really nyjer seed. Thistle bird seeds are long and thin. Those designed for thistle or nyjer seed have numerous perches with smaller, slotted ports, which finches can peck from easily. Styles come in different lengths, from several inches long to three feet long! Upside-down thistle feeders are a good choice because they feature ports underneath their perches. Goldfinches and pine siskins are eager to hang upside down to feed, while less desirable species will not.

Tube feeders can also be filled with mixed seed or black-oil sunflower seed. They also feature perches and larger ports to dispense larger seed. Some tube bird feeders are surrounded by wire “cages” that encourage small birds to feed by excluding larger birds and squirrels.

Whether you choose a tube feeder to distribute nyjer seed or mixed seed, there are many accessories to maximize your feeder’s usefulness. Seed trays attach to the bottom of the tubes to catch spilled seed, also long-handled brushes let you thoroughly clean deep tubes to keep old, spoiled seed from contaminating fresh seeds.

ATTRACTING BIRDS IN JULY AND AUGUST

We hear this from people every day in the summer that birds can fin for them self. And they're right. Most birds will find plenty of natural food in July and August. But this doesn't mean you should stop feeding birds when the weather turns warm, and it doesn't mean you should stop offering suet and fruit, either. If you do You'll miss quite a show.


SUET: Most customer provide suet only in the winter. But if it's cool where you live and you have a shady spot to hang your feeder, you might be able to continue offering fatty suet even in the summer.

If it's too hot and sunny for fatty suet, there's another option: suet dough, a no-melt mix of rendered suet and grain. It comes in a variety of flavors, and regular winter suet eaters love it. You can sometimes entice robins, bluebirds, and mockingbirds with suet dough containing berries.

And not only will your winter regulars come, but they'll bring their families. Every summer, a Ladder-backed Woodpecker calls its chicks to Mary's feeder and then shoves chunks of suet down their throats. Try orange-flavored suet, and you might even attract orioles.

As always, mount your suet cage on a tree so it's stable. A stable feeder will welcome a wider variety of birds than a hanging feeder and make it easier for clumsy fledglings. Since frozen suet is easy to handle and keeps forever, stash a few extra cakes in your freezer.


FRUIT: Most people knows that orioles like oranges. But did you know that Western Tanagers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, American Robins, Northern Mockingbirds, House Finches, and other birds also enjoy their morning juice? To catch their eye, spear a fresh orange half, meat side up, on a branch or pronged fruit feeder. You'll have the best luck when the fruit can be seen from above easily.

Apple halves, pomegranates, even grapes work in summertime, too, and so does grape jelly. You might get to see orioles feeding it to fledglings, and robins, cardinals, and other birds eat it as well. What's more, by mid- to late summer, orioles will be looking for food to fuel their flight south. Grape jelly might be just the thing.

DRIED FRUIT: Robins, catbirds, and other fruit eaters are also crazy about dried fruit. Dried cranberries, raisins, cherries, and blueberries hold up well in the heat and don't require as much cleanup as jelly. Place an open dish on or near the ground where robins eat, and watch for spotty-chested juveniles. Mix in a little birdseed to jump-start the activity.

A final thought: Fruit feeding can be tricky. You may have to throw away several oranges and dishes of grape jelly before your birds catch on.Keep trying. It's worth the wait.

GOLDFINCH: Whether you see the beautiful American Goldfinch in the East or the lovely, smaller Lesser Goldfinch in the West, now is the time to attract them.

Finches love nyjer seed (usually called thistle), but nyjer can spoil quickly in the summer heat and humidity. Keep unused nyjer in a cool, dry place, and discard and replace seed in your feeder if it goes uneaten for a month.

Some people like to feed nyjer in a stainless-steel mesh feeder, but a thistle sock works well too, and both will discourage the dominant House Finch.

GAZEBO BIRDFEEDER CREATE AN ATTRACTIVE GARDEN OR YARD

Bird feeder craze is not mainly focused on the typical production of such devices but more on the availability of various option on styles, functions, and serviceability. Hence, today's kinds are all-embracing and extensive and presenting many choices.

Using decorative and creative bird feeder do not just create and attractive and appealing garden or backyard. You can also attract a diversity of birds to your backyard sanctuary, which can extensively boost your gratification of your environment at home.

For people who are fascinated with bird watching, the utilization of an attractive bird feeder is not just an added attraction but also increase the bustle in your yard. With the accommodating feather of a gazebo bird feeder, the amount of birds flocking in your bird feeding station increased.

Bird feeder are available in various types and sizes. One of the most attractive bird feeder available in the market today is the gazebo bird feeder.

Like real gazebos, the gazebo bird feeder is specially created to accommodate different types of of seed or other types of bird feeds. With its pavilion make up, gazebo bird feeder provide spacious and attractive shelter and food supplier for most kinds of birds. They can also provide remarkable venues for resting. And because they are specially patterned next to the real gazebo, this particular type of bird feeder is considered as a good example of a decorative mark in a given setting.

SUET FEEDERS, THE WINTER FEEDING STATION

Winter time and the trees have dropped their leaves, the insects and grubs are hiding in their natural hiding places, and if there is something out that a bird might eat it is often hidden.

A great choice for feeding birds in winter is a suet bird feeder let's look at a the advantages of suet. Why use suet, what is suet, and why use it in a winter time bird feeder?

Suet has advantages for uses in winter, it holds up in cold weather well and don't start to melt til temperatures above 70 degrees F. Suet has a lot of fat content so it has a lot of calories, and you can mix it with additional high energy foods such as peanuts to provide another protein source. A large suet cake will last for a relatively long time so you don't have to bother with constantly refilling the feeder.

Suet comes from raw beef or mutton fat, often made from the fat found around the loins and kidneys. It was a common material hundreds of years ago, settlers found many uses for it like making candles. The beef parts has to go through a process called rendering in order to be useful for most applications. Rendering is a process where the fat is cooked and the results is a wax like material that can be shaped and used in a variety of ways.

Once you have the raw suet, it is usually prepared in a block similar in shape to a sandwich. To this you can add other ingredients like bird seed and peanuts which are mixed in so they are embedded in the block. This results in a block of high energy food that will survive well in the wintertime. You should note it can spoil in the summer heat, so don't leave it out in summer. Most people will just purchase the suet blocks, but you can also find a variety of suet recipes which are tailored for different types birds.

Usually a suet feeder looks like a small wire cage feeder where the suet block is placed. This may be placed on the trunk of a tree or suspended from a branch. Another common style is a bird feeder that has the usual hopper for seed, and has suet cages on the sides to hold the cakes. Another way you can use suet it to smear it onto pine cones which can be hung from a branch.

Suet feeders are often used to attract many types of birds, including woodpeckers, goldfinches, cardinals, thrushes, jays, bluebirds and wrens. Often they will also attract starlings, which some people don't care for. If you don't want to attract starlings you might consider using a suet bird feeder that only allows access to the food from the bottom, since starlings can't hang upside down. If you end up having problems with squirrels in your feeder you need to make sure it can't be accessed by climbing, use baffles at the bottom of feeder, and place it seven feet away from anything a squirrel can jump from this will help keep them away.

Suet feeders come in a variety of styles, ranging from simple cage feeders that simply hang from a tree branch, to decorative styles that can be freestanding in your yard.

BIRD LEGS AND FEET ARE POWERFUL

I'm not talking about a barbecue drumstick here. I mean the make-up and design of birds legs. Birds legs and feet have several functions and it often depends on the species of bird. Many people believe birds bone are completely hollow, they are not. Because bird skeletons must be light enough to fly, the inside of each bone is filled with long, narrow marrow supports that gives the bone both strength and a lightweight structure. However, this also makes bird bones much more fragile than those of mammals. If the bones were to be completely hollow, there is a good chance that they would be so brittle that even flight itself would be dangerous.

Birds need powerful legs to aid in take off, landing and running. When it comes to legs and feet, virtually all species of birds have solid bones that are more dense. Birds need strong bones in their legs for the daily routines they are involved in.

Take a look at Raptors. A bird of prey can fly in excess of 100 miles and hour and catch it prey in flight. Falcons have been recorded diving (swooping) at speeds of 220 MPH. Can you imagine snatching another bird out of the air at that speed? Even if the other object is moving, its strong legs and good eyesight.

Osprey dive into the water feet first to grab a fish. Bald eagles snatch a fish from water without ripping a leg off or loosing flight. Those are some powerful legs and feet. What about an owl or hawk that may snatch a rabbit, snake or squirrel as they swoop toward the earth? And do it quick and with powerful bone breaking force.

PURPLE MARTINS HOUSE PLACEMENT

A large number of North American maintain purple martins housing. Unfortunately, many of these people are unable to attract breeding martins. The advice given here will increase your chance of attracting martins.

Houses placed too close to the wood line or in yards that are too enclosed. The main reason people fail to attract martins is because they don't place their houses in proper purple martin habitat. Besides preferring their houses to be placed within thirty to hundred feet of human housing, purple martins also have very specific aerial space requirements. The air space immediately around the housing, should be unobstructed from trees in at least a couple of directions, so that they can fly on a straight path to and from the housing. There should be no trees taller than the martin housing within 40 feet of it, but 60 feet is better. The farther the martin housing is placed from trees the better. If your yard is not in this 40-foot rule, try mounting the housing higher relative to the trees, moving the martin housing to a more open space, or, as a last resort, trim or remove some of the trees.

Purple martins have been known to build their nest in cavities of dead or dying trees, holes in cliffs, or just about anywhere from three to thirty feet high. But the most popular nesting place for the purple martin is in your own back yard in the houses you construct for them. However since the purple martin is now facing the threat of having their homes appropriated by starlings, people have altered the design of the martin birdhouse so that it has a lidded or crescent shape doorway. This makes it more difficult for the larger birds to squat in side these martin birdhouse and take over. Martin nests are made from leaves, grass, straw and twigs and the eggs are white and unmarked.

Many people build purple martin houses to attract martins early in the spring, which are generally well liked by the birds. They prefer the condominium or villas type houses. Most people like to paint there bird house white as white keeps the house cooler and is attractive to the birds. Aluminum and plastic is used also in the commercially built bird house, but wood is by far the best choice for keeping cool. The best height to mount your bird house is from fifteen to twenty feet in the air, but lower heights to ten feet will work in wide open spaces. Always protect your housing from predators, don't assume that because you never see any predators they're not around raccoons, snakes, and owls raids birdhouses at night. Most success in occupancy occur when the house are placed closer to human houses (within 100' and away from tree lines at least 40').

BIRD WATCHING IN THE BACK YARD

From my brothers James I have inherited a love of watching birds in the back yard. Under his patio roof, suspended above the indoor-outdoor carpet, he hung a hopper bird feeder that attracted the bravest creatures, those unfazed by their own reflection in the sliding glass door, the noises of the television, or the sudden movements and sounds of the peoples inside.

Beyond that, he had a bird bath in the middle of a bed of azaleas, and beyond that an old-time colony of martin houses, made from gourds my uncle had grown and dried and hung from a pipe-metal stand he had fabricated and painted white the same color as the house. “They eat the mosquitoes, man,” he’d remind me about why the martins were so important.

My version is a multi-tiered feeder that was a gift from friends in Memphis—hanging from a post along my back deck. I can watch the birds from the kitchen table and I’m always cheered by the redbirds, as brother James called them. Today at lunch I saw a woodpecker amidst the familiar flock of sparrows, finches, wrens, and doves (who are too big to perch on the feeder and so wait with the squirrels and chipmunks for leftovers rain down). The other day my father spotted a bluebird on our fence in the back yard and remarked on the rarity of it.

At breakfast today my son discovered a cardinal that had flown into our glass door and was lying on it back, apparently near death, on the back step. It was barely conscious and panting rapidly. I felt instantly desperate: How could we save it? What if it was a mother with babies or eggs to care for? What about its mate? My wife Betty pointed out there was little we could do and that we had to wait until after we finish breakfast to decide anyway.

By the time breakfast was over it was upright and one step lower, breathing more normally with it wing splayed out beside it. By lunchtime it was gone. My son assumed a full recovery—Betty and I were less optimistic. But maybe it managed to hop down into the azaleas bush to heal. Maybe it wing was only bruised. Maybe it had already sent it young on their way. Maybe a cat had found it. We had lots to consider at the lunch table, thanks to James.

WHAT FEEDER TO CONSIDER FOR BIRD WATCHING

Putting a bird feeder in your garden is a very kind thing to do. It is getting harder and harder for birds to find food in urban areas not only in winter, but all year round, so bird feeders can often save their lives. They are also great for birdwatching, especially if you leave the bird feeder in the same place for a long period time so that the birds start to remember where it is.

But what type of bird feeder should you get? The simplest bird feeders are just tray type for you to put food on, but the food you put on these is easily stolen by squirrels, they will keep coming back for more and burying it all over your garden. You should consider a hopper feeder, where the food is inside a hopper that dispense the seeds as the birds feed on them, or perhaps putting a squirrel baffle at the bottom of the feeder to prevent squirrel from accessing it. However, both of these options can be impractical if you want to feed larger birds, so you need to consider whether it’s really worth it or if you might as well just put out more food.

The other thing you should think about is what you’re going to put in your bird feeder. Obviously this depends mainly on what kind of birds you expect to attract. Most birds will prefer seeds such as millet, but meat-eating birds will prefer ‘suet’ and a few birds like hummingbirds want a mixture of sugar and water. Some birds also like to eat fruit, so you might try leaving pieces of apple or orange in the mixture as well. If you’re not sure which birds will come, then the best thing to do is to have a little of everything at first, and then see what is popular.