Is Your Garden For The Birds?

One of the things you might like best about your garden is the variety of wild birds that frequent it. Even on the coldest days of winter, there is always something interesting going on outside your window. Not your experience? Then read on to learn how you can improve your outdoor space to make it “for the birds!” It comes down to providing three simple things: shelter, food, and water.

Offering a bird feeder and keeping it filled will dramatically increase the number of birds in your garden. Just starting out? Choose any hopper feeder and fill it with black oil sunflower seed. This combination will attract the widest variety of birds including cardinals, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, blue jays, finches, doves, and sparrows! Squirrels a problem? Select a squirrel-resistant feeder and fill it with pure safflower seed (instead of sunflower seed). Birds still like this food, but squirrels will not eat it! Hoping for a certain species? Adding the specific style of feeder to meet a specific species’ preference is a great way to attract a specific bird. Check out 6 winter birds you can attract in Northeast Ohio plus the food and feeders that meet their needs.

Tube feeders filled with Nyjer® seed (commonly known as “thistle”) will attract bright yellow goldfinches, redpolls, pine siskins, and other small species of finch. Wreath peanut feeders designed to hold whole peanuts in the shell or other peanut feeders designed to hold peanut pieces or peanut mixes, will draw woodpeckers, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches and, especially, blue jays. Suet is another food that’s particularly attractive to woodpeckers and, sometimes, robins and bluebirds. A simple tray or platform feeder is excellent for offering bits of fruit or mealworms to discerning bluebirds, robins, orioles, and mockingbirds.

The hummingbird, found in Northeast Ohio from mid-April through mid-October, enjoys nectar. There are many sizes and shapes of hummingbird feeders, and all work well. Note that nectar will spoil if left out for more than a week, so it’s best to select a feeder that holds a small enough amount of nectar that the birds will use it up within a few days. Orioles also feed on nectar but, due to their larger size, you might want to use a feeder designed especially for orioles.

Petitti’s own signature brands of Cardinal Mix, Finch Mix, Songbird Mix, and Wild Bird Mix are of excellent quality, designed to attract Northeast Ohio bird species, and nicely complement our full selection of bird foods and bird feeders from trusted brands.