In the bitter cold, fill your feeders daily

Backyard songbirds will be in for tough times without your help. Snow could be on the ground through the remainder of the month, making it very difficult for the birds to obtain natural sources of food.

Female Northern Cardinal

The AccuWeather forecast as of 8 p.m. Tuesday called for freezing temperatures for the next seven days. The Weather Channel says the frigid spell will last at least through January 30. What's more, birds will wake up to mornings of near-zero temperatures for most of this week. As a result, there will be little melting of the snow we received on Tuesday.

I can't remember more than a few occasions when snow stayed on the ground for such a long a time. The previous occasions were in that awful winter of 1993-94; the second was the winter of 2003.

Here is the AccuWeather forecast for the next seven days:

Birds will depend on you more than ever to stay healthy during these days. Make life easier for them by keeping your feeders fully stocked at all times with seed or suet.

Black oil sunflower seed

During the coldest days, birds need to build up stores of energy to get them through bitterly cold nights. When snow is on the ground, they must spend a lot of their energy during the day searching for a dwindling supply of seeds and berries from shrubs and perennials. Moreover, days are short this time of year, giving them less time for food gathering. This leaves birds with less energy for the night. 

That's where you come in. By offering seed and suet, you give birds an easier time obtaining nutritious food. Black oil sunflower seed, or a seed mix rich in black oil, helps them most. Look for a blend that contains 50 percent black oil sunflower seed, 40 percent in white millet and the remaining 10 percent as peanuts or safflower seed. Black oil is high in fat. You can also use sunflower chips, which are shelled and leave less mess beneath your feeders. Another option is a mix of seed containing dried fruit and berries.

White millet

Make sure any seed you buy is of high quality. Many big-box stores sell seed mixes containing red millet or milo. Few birds eat this seed. You'll find it is left on the ground, uneaten. These stores sell this seed because it adds weight to the package. It's less expensive, but you'll find that you may have to buy more of it to keep your feeders replenished. The Bird House does not sell red millet or milo.

Don't forget suet. It's rich in fat. We recommend peanut butter suet, almond suet or a mix of suet containing fruit, nuts and berries. Blueberry suet also works well with berry-loving birds. Insect suet has protein as well as fat. If you're interested in discouraging squirrels at your suet feeder, buy natural beef suet or hot pepper cakes. For some reason squirrels find pure beef suet unpalatable. Hot pepper suet is just too spicy for their taste, but most birds have so few taste buds that the pepper goes unnoticed.

Red millet seed--Do not use

Make sure your feeders are stocked by the time birds awaken in the morning. That's when they are most hungry. If you're an early riser, replenish your feeders then. Otherwise, fill them at night so they'll be ready for the morning. One cautionary note: don't spread seed on the ground at night. That could attract rodents that you don't need.

Also keep in mind that during these freezing spells, water for drinking will be scarce. The usual ponds and puddles will be frozen over. Even slow-flowing streams may freeze up. Consider buying a heated bird bath; they don't cost much electricity to run and they are easy to set up.

Stand-alone and deck-mounted heated birdbaths

The Bird House has several types of heated birdbaths. Some are upright. Others are to be placed on the ground. Still others can be attached to a deck, a post or a fence. We also carry heating units that can be added to your existing birdbath.

Another way of helping birds through the night is by setting out roosting pockets. One or more small birds can take refuge in one of these pockets during winter nights. The pockets are especially important in new subdivisions that lack large evergreens where birds can gather. You can hang a roosting pocket from even the smallest of deciduous trees.

Roosting pocket

So in sum: Please do what you can to help your backyard songbirds these days. You will be rewarded when spring arrives.