Planning On Setting up a Bird Feeding Station In Your Garden?
If you really appreciate how beautiful birds are and would like to look at them up close in nature, you need to learn the techniques that birdwatchers use – making themselves unobtrusive as they get close to watch them.
If you don’t have that kind of patience, there’s a great alternative – turn your garden into a bird feeding paradise. They will come into your garden, get use to humans and you’ll be right there to watch them.
Installing birdfeeders on your porch and outside windows is fast becoming a trend. Birds can have a tough time surviving, especially during the cold months. These little feathered guys can be an asset to any garden and many homes, helping to support a naturally balanced environment.
The birdfeeders you put out are not a primary source of food for your winged friends. They need a variety of food that they can only find out in nature.
What you provide in your garden can only be a much needed source of fun food. Basically, to successfully create a bird feeding area in your garden, you need to put out foods that they wouldn’t normally find out in the open in your area.
Try to make it easy on them. Don’t just put one large feeder out there. When the big birds congregate there, the little ones won’t know how to get in.
Try to disperse activity by setting out half-dozen theatres all over your garden and in trees. You will have lots of bird activity all over and there’ll be plenty of room for everybody. Birdfeeders enrich your home environment and help our feathered friends keep chirping!
If you’re trying to cater for the widest possible audience, choose black oil sunflower. They are a favorite. You probably need to clean your feeders under hot water at least once a week.
You, your family and guests will have the pleasure of observing birds of the area in their natural habitat, a fascinating activity for kids as well as the local kitty population!
If you’re planning on installing a birdfeeder, you need to make sure that it’s safe for the birds. There should be no hiding places for cats or anything around.
Suspending feeders from the eaves above a window in the dining, living or bedrooms can give your family a nice observation point for watching them.
In the garden, you’ll want to scope out a tree with a branch which, while affording a nice view of the bird’s doings, is well out of reach of the ever-curious kitty, keeping the birdies safe and kitties endlessly mesmerized with their unattainable meal.
Hummingbird feeders and wild bird seed will undoubtedly attract many birds you might never see otherwise. It’s also important that you ensure that your feeders are well-supplied at all times.
Once you’ve established several stations around your home and garden, you’ll soon realize that your friends will become regular visitors. It will enrich your life – and the local bird population! What bird in its right mind would turn down a free, healthy meal they can count on?
Your reward lies in knowing that ‘your’ birds will have the best chance at good health, while helping you maintain a good environmental balance in your immediate vicinity.
Of course, they do have their treats – a cherry tree is a perfect example. The solution to keeping your precious crop is easy. When you tie shiny objects from the branches, the enticing cherry tree becomes a scarecrow. You get to make cherry pie and your bird friends are nonetheless well nourished!
You may want to get a pair of binoculars to allow closer observation. This is fun as well as educational for both kids and adults.
Birdfeeder-Project That Benefits You And The Birds
One wonderful activity that parents and kids can do together is to build your own birdfeeders. It’s quite easy and can be a great project. It’s totally up to you, you can start from scratch or you can invest in a kit that will allow you to build your house, but with the basics all there.
Simple feeders can be made from everyday household items such as an egg carton or milk jug. To make a feeder from egg cartons all you need to do is cut the lid off of the egg carton and fill each little section with food; the birds will just love that.
Just put holes in the corners of the egg cartons, attach strings to each corner, tie the strings together in the middle and hang the feeder at a safe location from a tree.
There are many other easy to use household items that can be used like an empty milk carton. Cut the carton open, leaving a bottom “trough” to put the food in and then tie a string around the handle so you can hang the feeder from a tree.
Using two liter plastic bottles also works very well. Either option will provide the birds with some tasty snacks and provide you and your family with a fun activity.
If you are looking for something fancier and / or your kids are a bit older, finding a pre fabricated kit can allow you to build a feeder that will look very nice hanging in your backyard.
These kits are readily available from hardware stores, crafting stores or even online. There are several shapes and sizes to choose from. Once you’ve picked out and built your kit you can then paint and decorate it any way you choose.
Identifying the species of birds in your area will help you pick out the best feed to provide to your birds. Some species can be a little picky so it’s nice to focus in on the types of birds natural to where you live.
You don’t have to get fancy to have a lot of fun feeding the birds in your backyard. Both you and your kids can spend some great, fun times together and also learn a little bit more about nature along the way, what could be better than that?
There are many fun projects you can do with your kids like to think about helping our feathery friends.
You can find some plans for feeders, get pre fabricated ones or you can just do it yourself with some simple household supplies. Either way you and your children can have a lot of fun and even provide some nice decorations for your backyard.
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Birdhouse Plans
Birds can most certainly find a place to nest on their own, but what fun is that? If you want to attract birds to your property, why not provide a home or two for our friends?
If you have the right stuff, you can have all types of beautiful birds in your yard for your own personal enjoyment. You can go out and buy them, or you can find birdhouse plans to build them on your own. If you are looking to attract birds and are feeling crafty, this can help satisfy both of these wants in your life.
Birdhouse plans are everywhere, but not all of them are going to be right. Use your knowledge of birds into consideration when you make a choice and think about predators. In general, to keep anything but the birds you want from getting into the house is to make sure the hole of entry is small and round.
The hole has to be big enough for the bird, but not much bigger. You should also have a perch as they will generally not move into it if it does not have one. This allows them to survey the area before they take off and will aid young ones when they leave to take their first flight.
Size will not matter too much but you do not want to go to small. Birds won’t need a lot of room, but they do have to have room to build an adequate nest for their eggs. They will seek shelter just about anywhere, but if you want them to nest in your birdhouse, give them enough room to do so.
If you make a large house, make sure it is sectioned. There should be solid dividers inside with just one entry for each space.
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Many times people go and find the best birdhouse plans they can, but end up with something other than birds in them if there are bats around.
Bats will like the birdhouse as well if it finds it. Instead of allowing this to happen, think about getting some bat houses to have on your property. These are different than birdhouses and will be hung differently.
While you do not want to hang them near your home, having them nearby can keep bats from roosting in your birdhouses near your house. Put them up a few weeks before the birdhouses and hopefully they will settle in these and won’t bother the birds.
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Squirrels and other animals can be a huge problem for birds and birdfeeders. They also can cause trouble for birdhouses. Make sure to position your birdhouse to keep squirrels away. This may mean a metal pole and other types of deterrents.
They will also get into your birdfeeders so keep that in mind when mounting them. You can also find squirrel feed to put out if you are having a huge problem so that they leave the birds alone. It might draw more squirrels, so consider this before you decide.
