Stock up on seed because frigid weather is coming

Backyard birds will need to survive another bout of near-zero weather next week.

AccuWeather forecasts overnight temperatures dipping to as low as 6 degrees next Wednesday. Daytime highs from Tuesday on will remain below freezing level.

Birds will need your help next week. Many of their natural sources of food are dwindling and the short winter days leave less time for food-gathering. You can make things easier for them by setting out a banquet of seed and suet. Make sure your feeders are fully stocked during the coming week.

You'll find that during the coldest days, birds eat a lot from feeders. They need to build up stores of energy to get them through the bitterly cold nights. Chickadees, for instance, eat enough food to gain about 10 percent of their body weight in fat each day. They burn off the fat during the night. Even so they go into a torpor, turning down their body temperature as much as 20 degrees. At dawn, they shiver themselves awake and then zip off to eat a breakfast that will enable them to withstand another cold day.

For many birds, a seed mix rich in black oil sunflower seed is the best. Look for a blend containing 50 percent black oil seed, 40 percent white millet and remaining 10 percent as peanuts or safflower. Black oil is high in fat. You also can buy straight sunflower seed, as well as shelled sunflower chips. Another alternative is to use suet, which consists of rendered beef fat. During winter, suet containing peanuts, nuts or fruit is a good choice.

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