The do's and don'ts of caring for the birds in your yard this winter
For survival in Midwest winters, birds need food, shelter, and water. Birds can survive the cold if they find enough to eat; but because birds' bill structures vary, not all birds can eat the same thing.
And no bird can survive without adequate shelter, both day and night, or without water, even during the deepest freezes. You can help following these twelve tips:
1. DO offer a variety of foods. The usual seeds -- black oil sunflower seeds and chips, safflower seed, and peanuts -- meet the needs of most. Add fruit like finely chopped apples and rehydrated chopped raisins to help non-seed eaters like bluebirds. Pure suet, higher in fat than blends, as well as peanut butter smeared at the base of tree trunks offer high-carb foods birds need to survive the cold.
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2. DON'T feed stale bread, cookies, crackers, popcorn, potato chips, any kind of baked goods or processed foods or pet food. Birds can't digest them, so they can literally starve eating them. Also avoid anything with salt, including bacon fat.
3. DO situate food offerings across a broad area of the yard to limit birds from congregating, increasing risk of disease. Simultaneously, offer foods both high and low, in covered or open feeders, perhaps even under low spreading evergreen branches. All feeder locations, however, should provide nearby protection from predators like cats and hawks.
4. DON'T ignore feeder sanitation. Keep feeders free from mold and contamination. Wash with a 10% bleach solution at least once a month; rinse thoroughly. Then rinse again. Put moldy, buggy, or mouse-contaminated seed in the trash. Regularly rake up and discard spilled seed and hulls from under feeders to avoid mold and disease.
5. DO provide daytime shelter. No bird wants to venture across barren expanse without ready protection. Evergreen shrubs and trees serve best. But if the yard lacks them, build one or more brush piles, stacking storm-downed or pruned limbs crosshatch fashion, offering an escape from both the elements and predators. Create a windbreak from discarded Christmas trees.
6. DON'T rid the yard of all fallen leaves. Instead rake them under shrubs, along fencerows, or into the garden. Leaves hold eggs of moths and butterflies and provide birds their only reliable natural source of winter protein.
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7. DO provide nighttime shelter. Again, evergreens make the best natural shelter, but alternatives include roost boxes (nest boxes with vent holes closed) for cavity-loving birds like titmice, chickadees, downy woodpeckers, and bluebirds. Roost sites in a carport or under a covered patio or deck protect birds against the elements.
8. DON'T cut down ornamental grass clumps and frost-killed perennial stalks until spring green shows. They provide shelter against wind and precipitation and seed for foraging,
9. DO provide water. To keep water unfrozen, equip a bird bath or bubbling rock with a submersible heater appropriate for the reservoir size.
10. DON'T put additives of any kind in the water. No salts, no antifreeze, not even the antifreeze labeled "safe for wildlife." No chemical is safe for birds' feathers. Damaged feathers equal dead birds.
11. DO plan to plant next spring. Add new (or more) native evergreens as well as native berry and seed producing trees and shrubs. Check indiananativeplants.org for a directory of native plant resources.
12. DON'T neglect to intentionally choose additional native plants that provide food and shelter for birds. In future winters, your yard will better meet birds' survival needs.
For more information about birds and bird habitat, see Sharon Sorenson's books How Birds Behave, Birds in the Yard Month by Month, and Planting Native to Attract Birds to Your Yard. Check her website at birdsintheyard.com, follow daily bird activity on Facebook at SharonSorensonBirdLady, or email her at chshsoren@gmail.com.