5 summer bird feeding tips
Birds you feed all year are the same birds you will end up feeding come the summer months, with a small change in their dietary needs, like insects and fruits.
Effective summer bird feeding tips to prioritize would be to feed mealworms to birds in a tray or on the ground. Fruits can be offered yet these will go in a dish. Continue to feed seed mixes to wild birds with less suet offered until it gets colder. Meanwhile, cut the lawn regularly to assist ground feeding birds.
While spring and winter is the time to prioritize feeding wild birds in your yard, of course you can continue to feed birds through summer as wild birds still come to rely on available bird feeders all year round.
What you will end up doing is feeding wild birds in summer on what they were fed on in spring, with a few differences to consider.
When providing peanuts in or out of feeders for wild birds to freely take, bear in mind too large chunks of peanuts that are fed to chicks by their mothers in the nest or bird house, will risk choking the young.
To overcome this hazard, its advisable to crush whole peanuts or hearts into small bite-size chunks to prevent this kind of choking hazard.
Despite some differences about feeding suet to wild birds in summertime, of course you can feed birds suet in the summer, while baring in mind it will be eaten less.
In fact, on my bird feeding station, I've noticed mostly House Sparrows eating all the seeds, then only visiting the suet fat balls when the seeds ran out. As soon as I re-filled the seed feeders, sure enough the birds ignored my suet feeders again.
Bird feeders will continue to be the device to dispense all kinds of bird feed in birds, and you really should use bird feeders in summer - as most wild birds will continue to use them without restrictions.
Some enclosed bird feeders are sure overheat and perhaps guarantee the bird feed will begin to rot sooner, thus its up to you to change bird feed as often as you can.
I will say while regular peanut or suet feeders can be kept cool because their open, clear plastic tubes that hold seeds or nectar for Hummingbird or Oriole nectar, are indeed difficult to keep cool - unless you can find a way to keep the temperature down outside.
What to feed wild birds in summer will boil down to dried or live mealworms, plus some fruits with seeds and even suet continued to be fed to your backyard birds.
1. Dried or live mealworms take priority
Of the larger number of common backyard birds who primarily eat seeds or nuts throughout the year, these wild birds so happen to be insect-eating birds that will come about more in the summer.
What you'll find then you'd need to prioritize dried mealworms to feed these insect-eating birds, who will want dried mealworms fed to them out in the open.
Come to think about it, insect-eating wild birds also tend to be ground feeding birds, thus its worth throwing some mealworms on the lawn.
Dried mealworms aren't really bird feeder-friendly bird feed either though dried mealworm feeders do exist.
With that in mind though the only way to feed dried mealworms to birds in summer is on top of an open platform bird feeder or pole mounted tray.
Both small or large size wild birds can then access these protein-rich mealworms, of which an open platform will make it easy on them all.
Of course there is the concern of direct sun spoiling mealworms out in the open, though believe it when I say nothing beats making bird feed available out of feeders.
Orioles to Finches, American Robins to Bluebirds, Sparrows, Chickadees, Warblers, Blue Jays, California Towhees, Wrens, Dark-Eyed Junco, Gray Catbird and Indigo Bunting among others - will all prioritize mealworms in summer.
2. Fruits offered to some
Not that many but some common backyard birds will want to feed on fruits offered to them, which will be in place of what wild birds forage for in the wild.
Usually eaten in fall through winter months by most, fruits are still something most fruit-eating birds will take when provided on the bird table.
Fruits can be eaten all year round mind with specifically American Robins, Orioles, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Carolina Chickadees, and Gray Catbirds - along with the Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks who eat small fruits heavily in summer months.
Orioles in particularly are big summer eating birds with their diet changing from nectar in spring to citrus fruits like gape jelly and oranges that can be put on a platform.
Orange wedges to apples can be fed to suet eating birds in an actual suet feeder, as it will preserve the fruits for longer while protecting the surface fruits would normally leak on to, like a wooden platform feeder.
When feeding fruits to wild birds in summer do prioritize a shaded area while changing out fruits often, long before they begin to rot.
Fruits of all kinds can be put in a heavy ceramic dish for balance in a shaded spot on a deck railing, wall or if you like, on the ground.
Bugs will eventually come to the exposed fruits which you'd have to keep an eye on.
3. Seed mix up all year
One wild bird feed we continue to provide our birds in summer time is always a mix of seeds, of which you must continue to feed birds them as normal.
You should put bird seeds out in summer and when doing so, put the seeds in the clear tube seed feeder suspended on a pole or branch, as you always have.
Absolutely do bird seeds heat up in what is a sun absorbing seed bird feeder, yet bird seeds are one type of bird feed that can stand up to the heat and humidity.
With that, you must still think about using more or less bird seeds that will be eaten by birds in a timely manner. Don't provide bird seeds in seed feeders for longer than you have to, as you'd still want to avoid seeds spoiling under the summer sun.
While wild birds will prioritize your dried mealworms more in summer, seeds will still be eaten as normal.
Seeds can in fact be fed to birds out of confined seed feeders when they could be eaten more quickly if fed to birds on top of a platform bird feeder - or if you like when you throw some seeds on the open lit up lawn.
4. Cut grass to feed in lawn
Great summer feeding tip I can provide too is to prioritize mowing your grass in order to make space for what are primarily ground feeding birds.
Birds like American Robins like to feed in well lit up open lawns, and in doing so will only forage on low cut grass.
Birds do forage on long grass only it will be difficult for you to observe them as they feed if it is indeed kept long - yet danger could lie ahead with cats ready to pounce.
Cut the grass short as you can then you'd be able to observe summer feeding birds taking advantage of feeding naturally on the ground.
Wild birds who will be eating all kinds of insects and earthworms on your lawn will be doing you a favor, as they swallow up what are nuisance bugs who do your garden harm.
With a well kept garden lawn, ground feeding birds will take advantage of bird feeder food spilled below - as they will eat what bird feeder birds throw on the ground.
5. Locate water near feeding area
When wild birds feed some will want to take water in a way to assist their digestion after eating. Rather than send them too far away, it would be a good idea to provide wild birds a fresh water source... but not too close to bird feeders.
How you'd provide a water source to wild birds is with a purpose made bird bath.
Bird baths on a stand are usually utilized by backyard birders, yet you can also hang a bird bath on a bracket or simply make a bird bath with use of a simple wide dish or shallow dinner tray to put up on a wall or outdoor table.
Bird baths can also be hung off the deck if it is seen but you really want to avoid the sun.
Ideally you'd want to situate this water source in a well lit up area under the bright sky, yet out of direct sun when the shade would be an ideal location.
Push this bird bath close to bird feeders as you can, but not to close as will become a mess of bird poop.
You can provide a way to get wild birds attention at bird feeders when it appears no birds are visiting.
Its possible to turn on a device that produces running water in your bird bath. Solar fountain features will do the trick yet a leaky water bottle suspended above a bird bath is a far cheaper option.
Independent bird baths situated away but still close to bird feeder must be used - even if its on a stand, suspended or on the ground - while a wild bird waterer can be hung alongside bird feeders hung up on a pole or tree branch.
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