Birding & Feeders

Winter Bird Feeding: How to Help Birds Through the Cold

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Winter is when feeders get the most visitors. Birds need lots of calories to stay warm through long, cold nights.

Offer high-energy food

Suet – pure fat, ideal for woodpeckers, nuthatches, and chickadees. Raw suet can spoil above freezing, so rendered suet cakes are better in warm spells.
Black-oil sunflower – high in fat and accepted by most feeder birds.
Peanuts (unsalted, unroasted or roasted without seasoning) – for jays, woodpeckers, titmice.
Millet on the ground for juncos and sparrows, which prefer to feed low.

Keep water open

Liquid water is scarce in freezing weather. A heated birdbath or birdbath de-icer is one of the best things you can add. Don't add antifreeze or salt to water. See heated birdbaths

Provide shelter

Leave dense evergreens, brush piles, and dead flower stalks. Some birds roost in nest boxes during winter.

Keep feeders full and clean

Clear snow and ice from feeders and ports.
Damp seed clumps and molds; replace it.
Rake up hulls under feeders to reduce disease.

Do birds become dependent?

Research on chickadees has found that birds with feeder access still get most of their food from natural sources, so taking a trip won't doom them.