How to get birds to your feeder

Not everyone is lucky enough to be blessed with bird song, but the presents of feeders can change all that, by attracting birds to your yard.

How to get birds to your feeders is making sure bird feeders are available, where there's food there birds. Cater to all birds willing to use a feeder by offering a suet, peanut, seed and an open tray feeder for less agile birds. Make it seen in the yard but maintain a quiet backyard with as little activity as possible.

Its a never ending quest for people to find genuine yet effective ways of attracting birds to our yards, but a number of bird feeders is certainly going to help.

Where birds still don't arrive to feeders generously offered up by you, it could be more time is needed - or indeed your neighborhood isn't frequented with wild birds as much.

In which case you'd need to develop your backyard into something more inviting with natural vegetation, including grass, trees and bushes - where insects, bugs and natural food found in nature is made available here.

Its not possible to attract birds to a concrete jungle of a backyard, with one not offering any type of plantation or natural coverage for birds to perch on as they inspect your feeders from a far.

Feeders can be offered up on a bird feeding station, but birds tend to not land directly on a feeder of any type until they've got a lay of the land.

Pets, people, kids playing and passing people and motoring traffic are all conditions that birds wish to avoid, but to perch high up undercover would see birds remain in place.

Get birds to your feeder with not one, but several feeders in place to cater for as many species as possible.

Setup one of a seed, nut, suet and an open tray to hold mealworms or all of the above, while an open or covered platform feeder can help hold the bird food in safety.

Allow me to go into more detail with tips of attracting birds to your feeder, by beginning with offering the correct wild bird food for the most common birds that frequent your yard.

Offer wanted bird food

As it happens, wild birds are much like people, preferring one diet over another, while favoring a certain type of food all together.

Its important then to only offer the bird food backyard birds are likely to take to over any other kind.

Most birds in our yards feed on a diet consisting of seeds, nuts or mealworms, or all of the above. How to get birds to your feeder then would mean laying out this food only, with an option to mix it with all forms of suet.

I would suggest then to prioritize bird seed with a general, all purpose wild bird seed mix to cater to more birds then ever.

On top of that peanuts are going to attract many birds, but at least among them, those birds that feed on seeds.

Ground feeding birds in our yards do feed on the above mentioned, but may prefer insects like they would in the wild. To which you can offer occasional dried mealworms, or the live mealworms if you wish.

Bird feeders are not compatible with mealworms, peanuts and seeds all together, thus its important to use one or all three types of bird feeders to hold all bird food listed.

Setup more than one feeder

That brings me to tell you to absolutely prioritize not one new bird feeder, but as many as you can possibly afford, and so too if you have the space.

Space for extra bird feeders would be made available on the bird feeding station, along with up to four brackets to hang feeders in safety.

That is not to say you should hang as many types of bird feeders as possible, nor should you hang feeders for the sake of it when you can guarantee you don't receive as many birds that would consume the feed before it expires.

Setup more then one bird feeder according to the number of birds that frequent your yard on a daily basis... knowing more birds may come in time.

Only then would you know that more feeders can be used, or indeed additional feeders would have to be removed to reduce waste.

Waste of wild bird feed is a real possibility but can be avoided if only you experiment by measuring how much bird food is eating out of your bird feeders per day, for a maximum of three days or so to avoid rot setting in the food.

Number of bird feeders to begin with should be three, one to hold seeds, peanuts and mealworms if you like. But a forth feeder must hold suet in any of its form, including fat balls, suet cakes or suet smushed in pine cones or a log.

Feeder in the elements

To get birds to come to your bird feeder, the bird feeders currently in use will have to be seen by wildlife, so be sure the feeders are out in the elements.

What that involves on your part is making sure any one bird feeder is visible in the yard from above - as birds pass by they can spot the feeder knowing there's food contained within.

Middle of the backyard should be sufficient enough but this can be contradicted because you still need to hang or place the bird feeders near vegetation, by up to 20 feet.

Birds like the security of natural coverage so trees, bushes or any type of vegetation will be enough to keep them satisfied.

What this can lead to is wild birds dropping down into your backyard, while exploring the environment from a far - before visiting any one bird feeder that they feel is a safe one.

Only when a large number of birds get used to visiting your yard as they remember where bird feeders are located, can you locate feeders within trees or by hanging off branches within the hedgerow.

Bird feeding stations call for space for the brackets to hang out afar, thus to begin with a feeding station or a bracket that is visible from all around, would get you off the ground running, so to speak.

Maintain a quiet yard

Of course there's not much use catering to all common wild birds with all their favorite food hanging in feeders, and so to making it visible if you are not quiet in the yard.

Birds can be quite timid around people and movement in general, especially Hummingbirds, so rather than see them feed the birds are likely to shoot off elsewhere.

Backyards, or certainly yards that are quite busy with activity must remain quite at the busiest of times to allow birds to feed in peace and quiet.

To locate your bird feeders as far back away from the house would certainly be a good start, but not if you only push the feeders to a noisy neighbors yard on the other side of the fence.

If you live alone then the issue of keeping the backyard quiet is not a problem, but to have young children or teenagers that play in the yard is not going to help.

What you can do is reduce noise at certain times of the day, thus stopping people entering the backyard at feeding time in the morning, while allowing the family out in the yard once the bird numbers reduce.

Noise is not going to stop feeding birds all together, but can reduce numbers. At least you can do in the meantime is keep the feeders out of sight of any disturbance.

Reduce activity in or out

Birds may just about adapt to a noisy backyard, but one with movement and activity around the clock is guaranteed to keep all wildlife well away.

Birds are not going to drop down to your yard whilst you and the family play outdoor backyard games, swim in the pool or are having a barbaque.

Certain, less shy bird species may do such as Blackbirds, Jays or Magpies, but for Robins, Hummingbirds, Chickadees and the rest, they will leave the yard well alone until quieter times.

Reduce activity in your yard as bird numbers will reduce in due course.

But its not just noise or disturbance outdoors either, as the activity heard or often seen in the house - and so to on the porch - can scare birds away.

Noise and so to activity would be seen through windows and doors, but made worse if the window and doors are open.

Along with the added activity of dogs barking, this will certainly not help with birds wishing to feed out of your feeders. With cats in and around bird feeders, it can only get worse as they're the biggest killer of our wild birds.

To summarize

It needn't be made too hard to get birds to use your feeder, as you only need to lay out the bird feed they crave, and the environment birds feel safe in.

How to get birds to your feeder then would begin with use of a plastic tube seed feeder, mesh peanut feeder, and an open, more accessible tray to hold mealworms.

You must always consider the use of a metal cage suet feeder to hold suet in any of its form - as its a big favorite with most common backyard birds that use feeders.

Having said that, to be inundated with birds such as Blackbirds or Jays would need a ground bird feeder, as these species don't tend to use hanging feeders for reasons of natural behavior, or are not capable of doing so.

Be sure to have one of a seed, peanut, suet and mealworm feeding tray then, including a ground feeder that doesn't need to hang. Platform feeder fits the bill but it can depend on available space.

Never use only the one bird feeder as three or four feeders is a must.

Locate the feeder out in the elements where it can be seen in your yard, by keeping your feeder undercover is guaranteed it going unnoticed.

To get birds to your feeder depends on you and your household. It would require peace and quiet as to not scare birds away, along with massively reduced activity out in the yard and as seen inside the home.

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