Simply For The Birds

Suet is comprised of animal fat and other ingredients such as raisins, currants, dates, bird seed, chopped peanuts, bread crumbs and sunflower seeds. Suet provides a supply of energy to help birds survive through the winter months by generating body heat.  Use wire suet feeders for low maintenance.

Suet can be used year round to aid in breeding and nesting season and during nesting season.

Whether you live in a house with a yard or an apartment with a deck, you can enjoy watching the birds if you provide them with the essentials.  Food, shelter and a source of water. 

Apartment residents can use deck mounted birdbaths, window bird feeders and hanging birdhouses to bring the birds what they need. 

If you want to put up a Purple Martin bird house, you must do it just right or you will never attract them.  Once they do come, they will continue to come year after year unless some change is made in your situation that discourages their return.

Here is a brief overview of what is required to draw Purple Martins to your house:

• Place house in center of the most open space available – 30 to 120 feet from your house

• There shouldn’t be any trees taller than the Purple Martin house closer than 40-60 feet

• Mount the houses on poles 10 to 20 feet high

• Boat docks make excellent locations for mounting martin houses.

If you are serious about bringing Purple Martins to your yard, do your research first before mounting the houses.  It will pay off in the end.

If there are lots of chickadees in your area, you can get a birdhouse for these birds.  There are different chickadee bird houses to choose from so you can get the one that you like.  There are ordinary looking birdhouses and there are more whimsical houses that are really fun to look at.  But all the houses are just as functional as any house.

You just have to make sure that they have the right size nesting cavity and entry hole.  Some houses have side openings so you can clean them out easily.  The birdhouses should be mounted at least 6-10 feet off the ground.  You can use a post or back mount to secure them on a tree.

If you want more birds to feed from your bird feeder, get the platform bird feeders.  You can put birdseeds, fruits and even bread on the feeder.  Since they are flat, the birds can easily get the food they want.  And they can perch on the edges of the feeder.
 
They have removable perforated metal bottoms so you can easily clean the feeder.  It can hold about 2 quarts of birdseeds or other foods.  It also includes a hanging cord so you can hang them from a tree or from a ledge on your patio.  You will definitely attract all kinds of birds on your feeder.  And you might see other little critters like squirrels as well.

If you would like to do your part to clean up the environment, purchase recycled plastic bird products.  You can find recycled bird houses and bird feeders on the market today.  Rubicon, Gadjit and Woodlink are a few manufacturers of these products. These products are resistant to splintering, chipping, rotting, discoloring, impervious to insects and easy to clean.

To help prevent the spread of disease among the birds, take a bleach solution and scrub down feeders and bird houses made with the recycled products.  Be sure to rinse well. 

Thank you for helping the environment.

Looking for a new hobby?  Why not use National Bird Feeding Month as a reason to start one? Feeding the birds can be very rewarding for you and your family, as well as beneficial to the birds. You can start out with a hopper or tube feeder, a bag of bird seed and be on your way to an inexpensive entertaining pastime.  Before you know it, you will be looking for another style of feeder and seed to attract different species of birds to your backyard or garden.

Watch your love of birds grow into a lifelong hobby that you can pass on to your children and grandchildren.