Backyard birds come in all shapes and sizes.  They eat nuts, seeds, berries, fruit, and insects.  They welcome wintertime sprinklings of seeds in the snow.  You may think that birds are light eaters, but they are actually big eaters. 

Birds need a constant supply of food to produce the energy their bodies require in order to maintain a fast metabolism.  This fast metabolic rate allows them to fly.  They spend the majority of their time looking for and eating food.

Bird Seed

Bird seed may be purchased at your local supermarket.  The ready-made mixes usually contain a lot of wheat, buckwheat, milo and other filler seeds and grains.  Sunflower seeds come in two varieties: striped and smaller black oil seeds.  Even though some of the smaller birds have trouble cracking the sunflower seed's shell, most birds love it!  Plus it provides the birds with more fat and therefore more energy. 

If you create your own bird seed mix, check your feeder for leftovers and adjust the proportions to the birds' preferences.

Thistle

The favorite plant of the finch is the thistle and its seeds. They feed their nestlings on the immature fruit and the "floss" they produce. This floss comes from the flowers that have gone to seed and have left their fluffy seed heads behind.

Finches often use the floss from the thistles to structure and line their nests. If the thistles mature before the finches nest it provides them with fresh new floss. Sometimes the thistle heads never completely open and last year's floss is trapped which creates an extra treat for finches. An imported thistle "niger" seed, from Africa and Asia, is high in protein and fat. It has an added bonus value of not attracting squirrels or blackbirds.

BirdLodges.com Pop-Up Finch Thistle Feeder

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there are 54 million people across North America participating in bird feeding and wildlife watching in their own backyards.  Backyard bird feeding is a convenient way to enjoy wildlife and feel good.