Tips for Feeding Winter Birds

It's winter now, with snow covering the ground. The temperature is well below freezing, which is a difficult time for our feathered friends. I have been a bird feeder for years. I love to watch the birds hop around happily pecking away at the latest food treat I put out for them. Even my three-year-old granddaughter loves to watch the birds. She is especially fond of the bright red cardinals. 

Once the birds learn where feeding stations are they become regulars, and groups fly in together to fill up for the cold day. It's sort of like a group of people who gather regularly at the local coffee shop each day. Once you have attracted birds to your feeding stations, you will have visitors nearly all day long, which requires a good deal of food.

When I first started feeding the winter birds, I was spending quite a bit buying wild bird seed and special treats.

I'm retired now and trying to manage living on a fixed income, so in order to continue feeding the birds each winter, I realized that I would have to cut back on my trips to the bird shop. I started improvising, making my own bird food and treats. Every time I put out one of my creations, I would sit at my window watching how the birds reacted. Sometimes they gobbled up everything, and other times they pecked around and then flew away.

 For those of you who love bird watching and feeding the winter birds, here are a few of the homemade bird food concoctions and treats I have come up with. I believe I'm saving a good deal of money, and the birds seem to be happy with my offerings.

• Peanut Butter (a bird staple at my house).  I find the biggest, cheapest jar of peanut butter I can.  Birds love peanut butter and I have discovered several ways to "enhance" it.  
• Mix a little cornmeal in the peanut butter to thicken it and spread it on a tree trunk or limb.
• Mix peanut butter and a little grape jelly. Put it in a dish on the ground beneath the recycled Christmas tree. Birds have a sweet tooth and love grape jelly-at least mine do.
• Add nuts and fruit to the peanut butter. I like to use raisins (soaked in water), any type of nut you have available, and chopped apples (leave the peel on).
• Stale cake and biscuits provide a rich source of fat, so any leftovers go to the birds.
• Cooked rice and pasta are packed with starch. Again, mix with peanut butter and smear on a tree
• Combine peanuts (I chop them), toasted bread crumbs, and dried oats and cranberries in a disposable pan. You can scatter this on the ground below your feeders or sprinkle on a platform feeder.

I do like to give my birds seeds too.  I buy black oil sunflower seeds that I put in a tubular feeder.  My suggestion is don't buy seeds at the local grocery store or discount store.  A good deal of the mix is not for the birds specifically in your area.  Almost all birds like sunflower seeds and I feel that the black oil sunflower seeds are the best.  You will probably have to go to a bird shop for this, but it lasts a long time. 

Bird watching is relaxing and fun.  It is a wonderful stress reliever.  With a little creativity, you can feed the winter birds and spend very little money.  Please share with us if you have bird food recipes of your own.  Happy bird watching! 

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Kimberly Johns

Kimberly has been on the CareOne Debt Management Plan (DMP) for just under a year. Kimberly is very active in the Community Forums, some of you may recognize her Community user name; Tiquie. Recently retired, she is going to share how she and her husband manage the financial challenges of living on a fixed income. The John's have found some really creative and fun ways to offset the limitations of a retirement income, which Kimberly is generously planning to share in her My Journey Out of Debt blog! Compensated Blogger for CareOne Debt Relief Services.