The other day we posted about some of the different types of bird food that you can use for feeding the birds in winter. Below are some handy winter wild bird care tips that you can use to help your birds be fed and happy throughout the winter and keep them coming back for more.
Winter Wild Bird Care Tip 1 – Refill Feeders Every Day
Fill the feeders each day during the winter. However, you should only put as much seed in the feeders that your birds will eat before the sun goes down. This is very important when you have a problem with animals such as bears, deer, and raccoons. When you are putting out just enough that the birds will eat, you are going to keep the nocturnal animals from using the bird feeder for their food.
Winter Wild Bird Care Tip 2 – Stamp Down Snow
A lot of birds, including doves and juncos, won’t eat directly from the feeders. Rather they are going to eat beneath your feeder, snapping up the seeds dropped by other birds. In order to assist these birds, it’s a good idea to go out after snowfalls and stamp the snow down beneath the feeder. This is going to help the ground feeders to find the seeds a lot easier. It’s also a good idea to clean up any discarded hulls on a regular basis because removing the debris will give grass a better chance to come back once spring arrives.
Winter Wild Bird Care Tip 3 – Break Ice Up
If there’s an outside water feature on your property, go out every morning and make sure you’re breaking up the ice layer that could have formed on the water. A bird won’t have the weight or strength to be able to do it on its own, and it’ll need water each day. However, be careful when it’s a birdbath that you’re breaking ice in – your birdbath might be weakened due to the cold, and hitting it too hard could cause damage.
Winter Wild Bird Care Tip 4 – Refill Water
Even though you want to make sure that water features are free of ice, it’s also important to put fresh water in them. Water in your birdbath can become dirty from being constantly used. Even when it’s really cold, water inside birdbaths and bird waterers can develop bacteria or algae.
Winter Wild Bird Care Tip 5 – Clean Your Bird Feeders
No matter what the season is, you want to make sure that you’re keeping your birdfeeders clean. When a feeder is dirty, it can transfer illnesses and diseases between birds. make sure that you are dumping discarded hulls and uneaten seeds. Then rinse off the feeder and use soapy, warm water to scrub it. No matter what the outside temperature or season is, allow it to dry before you put it back and fill it with seeds.
These are 6 winter bird feeding tips that you can use to help care for the wild birds that come to your feeders. We hope that you found our blog to be useful, and please comment below to let us know what you thought! You can also connect with us on Facebook.
