Millions of people love to attract birds in the summer time or spring.It’s always a joy to see and hear the activity from the competing birds around a feeder, and what looks like playful splashing in a birdbath.
But in the winter time many of the local birds don’t migrate away, and so we like to make some effort to be sure they have enough food and drink to get by in the winter time.The winter is tough on birds because their natural food sources are not as abundant and are often hidden by snow cover or ice.
One of the easiest things we can do is to put out a suet feeder. Suet is favored as a bird food since it’s a high energy product (high caloric content) that is made from rendered fat and combined with other bird favorites like corn and cracked peanuts.Usually you’ll find these sold in prepared cakes that is similar in volume and size to a large sandwich.It’s easy to set the suet out in an open area available to your local birds, but the traditional way to put out suet is to use a simple cage feeder that can be hung and will help keep squirrels away. These can be a simple cage, or often they are combined with a hopper feeder to create a total feeding solutions.
Suet cakes will last quite a while, but after the temperatures rise above seventy degrees you will find that they can start to go rancid, so don’t leave them out year round. And there are other types of suet cakes that may be better suited to your needs that keep better or repel pests.
Just as important is making sure that the birds have access to liquid water.Typically birdbaths will have a flat open design that gives the birds confidence that they won’t fall into the water.But a design like that is going to dissipate heat quickly and be one of the first things to freeze.
An easy solution to this problem is to get a bird bath that has a heater built into the base, but if you already have a bird bath the way to keep it unfrozen is to buy a separate heater. There are many types of bird bath de icer, with sizes and shapes to fit most any bird bath.Be careful when trying to use one of these with a plastic birdbath that the heater doesn’t run so hot it ruins the birdbath.