Well, now that the bustle of the winter holidays is over, had
you thought about gifts for
your birds?
It seems that getting presents for animals is popular these
days. We buy holiday gifts
for our dogs or cats. So why not buy gifts for the birds?
What to get them? Bird food, of course.
But what is bird food? It depends on what kind of bird you have
in mind. After all,
eagles, ostriches, woodpeckers and penguins are all birds, but
their foods are rather
different.
Well, small, seed-eating backyard birds, you say. Let’s buy them
seeds.
But even for the small seed-eaters on your list, like white-
throated sparrows, cardinals,
towhees, juncos, goldfinches, tufted titmice, chickadees and
others, you still need to
buy the right seed.
Mixes of bird seeds are often primarily the less desirable,
cheaper seeds, such as
sorghum, wheat or cracked corn. Premium bird seeds, from the
point-of-view of these
birds, will include sunflower seeds, niger thistle and white and
red proso millet.
How about making specialty mixes of seeds, or adding suet to
seeds to make a
casserole for cardinals or a concoction for chickadees?
It’s a cute thought. But a recipe for bird food is not at all
necessary. The plain seeds
are as good or better.
An interesting 4-H or school wildlife project is to let the
birds teach you what they like.
Buy various kinds of birdseed and put them out on the ground.
Under dense bushes is a
good place, where the birds can feed safely.
Put the various kinds of food in separate places, and then count
the numbers of each
kind of bird you find feeding on the seeds.
Do you need feeders for this experiment? No. A feeder isn’t
necessary for most small
seed-eaters. They’re adapted to feeding on the ground, although
some, like the
goldfinches, often prefer to feed up in the branches.
This is the last in this series of articles on backyard
wildlife. Did you like it? If you’d
like the series to continue, or if you’d like your questions
answered on other wildlife
topics, please call Dan Rahn at (912) 681-5189. Or fax (912) 871-
1657, e-mail
drahn@uga.cc.uga.edu
or write at P.O. Box 8112, Statesboro, Ga. 30460.
