Spring tips
Place your oriole feeders out no later than May 1st. Offer nectar, fresh oranges or grape jelly.
Get your hummingbird feeders out no later than April 15th.
Stock your feeders with plenty of black-oil sunflower or mixes that contain at least 50% black-oil sunflower. Breeding takes a lot of energy!
Place suet out for woodpecker during this busy time. Don’t be surprised if scarlet tanagers, warblers and other insectivores take to it, as well.
Provide fresh mealworms for eastern bluebirds and Carolina/ house wrens. Set them out in a shallow dish hanging from your pole system or tree limb.
Fill a suet cage with natural fiber nesting material (dog hair works great) to help birds build their nests. DO NOT use dryer lint. And the first rain, the nest will dissolve!
Summer tips
With fledglings taking wing, your feeders will have more mouths to feed. Keep your backyard buffet stocked with plenty of fresh, energy-rich seed, suet and meal worms.
Watch for fledglings at your feeders. Look for their “horns” – downy natal plumes that often remain on the tops of their heads.
Don’t let Baltimore orioles’ fool you. After hitting your feeders, it may seem like they’ve disappeared. Nope. They’ve switched to feeding insects to their young – and themselves. Soon enough, they’ll be back at your feeder before heading south.
If you have suet out…keep it out! Woodpeckers, nuthatches, wrens and other insectivores will use it to augment the bounty of bugs provided by nature.
Enjoy the bright yellow plumage of male American Goldfinches by keeping your finch feeders well stocked.
Keep your bird baths clean and filled with fresh water.
Promote healthy feeding by maintain the ground beneath your feeders. Rake up seed shells and other debris or cover it with a layer of fresh mulch.
Fall tips
Summer’s fledglings are often the last to leave. So, keep 0riole feeders out until Oct. 1 and hummingbird feeders out until the first frost.
Black-capped chickadees, tufted titmice and blue jays will be preparing for cold weather by caching seeds. Chickadees can hide as many as 300 seeds in a single day! So, stock your feeders with fresh black-oil sunflower seed and consider adding peanuts both in and out of the shell.
Don’t deadhead your flowers. Keeping them intact will provide critical seeds for wild birds in fall.
Consider doing less fall yard clean up. Messy yards are good habitat for insects and a great way to attract more wild birds.
Clean out all nesting material from breeding season and re-position holes in convertible boxes to help birds conserve heat once inside.
Winter tips
Cold temperatures force wild birds to expend more energy to keep warm, but less daylight shortens their time to forage for food. So, stock your feeders with fresh seed, keep the suet cakes out and make sure fat-laden peanuts are part of your backyard menu.
Keep water accessible by adding a heated bird bath or a heating element to your existing bird bath. Ice-free water is critical to wild birds in winter for both drinking and bathing.
Consider adding plastic domes to your feeders to keep the ice, sleet and snow off your seed, ensuring birds have easy access to it.