Selecting the right food for birds in winter

Backyard songbirds need hearty diets to carry them through harsh winter months when snow covers the ground. They need a lot of energy to help them survive cold, windy nights. That means they need food rich in fats and calories. Several types of food fits that bill. Here are few suggestions to consider:

Black oil sunflower seed

Sunflower seed. Black oil sunflower is ideal. It's high in fat and protein, and most birds can easily crack the thin shell. You also might want to onsider sunflower chips which have no shell and leave less mess beneath your feeders. The birds also can spend more time eating and less time opening a sunflower shell; chickadees will appreciate that. Striped sunflower seed is much larger and harder to crack. Only a few birds, such as nuthatches, cardinals, grosbeaks, blue jays and woodpeckers, have beaks able to break into the kernels of striped sunflower seed. 

Sunflower seed can be placed in a hanging tube-style feeder or a platform feeder for the delight of cardinals and chickadees, or it can be scattered on the pavement or a snow-free surface for ground-feeding birds such as sparrows and juncos (or "snow birds" as they sometimes are called). If sunflower seed is placed on the ground, expect visits from squirrels.

White millet

White Millet. Another favorite seed is white millet, a small, round, yellow-colored seed. Mourning Doves, sparrows and juncos are among the birds that enjoy white millet. Scatter the seed on the ground, or place it in a ground-level platform feeder or in a hanging feeder.

Peanuts. Shelled peanuts are a favorite with cardinals, chickadees, titmice, blue jays, nuthatches and woodpeckers. Make sure to put these in a squirrel-resistent feeder, or you'll find that your biggest consumer will be squirrels. Blue jays and titmice love unshelled peanuts.

Safflower seed

Safflower Seed. If you don't like pesky starlings, grackles or squirrels, try safflower seed. It has a thick, hard shell but some birds have beaks well suited to crack open the seed. Cardinals, House Finches, Mourning Doves and native sparrows love safflower. Starlings, squirrels and House Sparrows avoid it.

Nyjer. Commonly referred to as "thistle," Nyjer is rich in nutritious oil. Served from tube feeders, Nyjer is ideal for finches, especially goldfinches (although you may not recognize the latter at first; the males have shed their bright yellow features for a muted wintertime olive). To give goldfinches more protein, consider using a seed blend of Nyjer and finely chipped sunflower seed. You may even find a junco at your Nyjer feeder. These habitual ground-feeders have begun looking upward to find treats.

Shelled Corn. Corn is eaten by pheasants, geese, crows, cardinals, Mourning Doves and House Sparrows. Beware, though if you live in a rural area. Corn is also a favorite of raccoons and deer, critters that most you might not want to attract.

SEED MIXES

Having a difficult time choosing? Seed mixes are a sure bet. The Bird House has several blends that suit a variety of different kinds of birds. For winter, we recommend blends that contain 50 percent black oil sunflower, 40 percent white millet and 10 percent as peanuts or safflower seed. Feed blends that contain dried fruit or berries are especially useful at this time of year. Robins, waxwings and catbirds love—and need—these nutritious treats.

SUET

 

Upside-down suet feeder

Woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees, jays, wrens and starlings love suet, which is rendered beef fat, sometimes with natural additives such as peanuts, nuts, berries, fruit or dried insects. To keep starlings away, offer suet in a feeder that requires birds to eat upside down. Woodpeckers, chickadees and nuthatches will access it easily, but starlings won't.

OTHER FOODS

Peanut butter is a nutritious food during the winter. It can be smeared onto the bark of trees for nuthatches and woodpeckers. Mealworms are excellent sources of protein. Most birds will devour them. Unfortunately live mealworms die quickly in cold weather, so you might try dried mealworms instead.


CAUTION!

Never, never, never buy a seed mix containing red milo. Few birds eat red milo. Big-box stores like to include it in seed mixes because it's a filler that adds weight to the product. Buy it, fill your feeder and watch the birds toss it out. You'll find the red milo on the ground, untouched. You may think you're getting a bargain by buying these seed mixes, but they actually won't save you much money at all. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. You can spot red milo by the red tinge to the seed, which is about the same size as white millet.


Red Milo. It's about the same size as white millet.

The National Audubon Society warns against feeding bread to birds. Bread has little nutrition, especially in winter when fat is the essential need. Apart from starlings, pigeons and House Sparrows, the only critters that seem to love bread are rats, mice and raccoons.

And if you scatter food on the ground for birds, make sure you place only enough for one daytime's worth. You don't want to attract unwanted guests such as mice, opossum or skunks. If the food runs out as evening approaches, don't place any more on the ground until morning.