How To Save Money On Wild Birdseed

When it comes to luring in wild birds into your yard, buying different types of seeds can get expensive. And, if money is tight, sometimes feeding your wild feathered friends can fall to the back burner. So, how do you save money on wild birdseed instead of trying to buy the expensive stuff all year round? Here are some helpful tips and suggestions that you can try:

1. Buy Bulk: A lot of time mixes and seeds can be bought in different size bags and the larger bags have a better price per pound. Buying bigger bags can also mean that you have more seed on hand and you won't have to buy as frequently.

2. Grow A Birdseed Garden: Believe it or not, but birdseed is very easy to grow and the natural seed will attract even more birds than filled feeders. How do you do this? We have a special two-part blog that shows you exactly what to plant to draw in wild birds and keep them coming back. Saving some of these seeds when they fall off can also help you save up some free seed for the winter or times when you can't affort to purchase a bag.

3. Buy Better Seed: Higher quality seed such as hulled sunflower chips might be more expensive, but they will also not be overfilled with filler seeds that only a few birds will eat. Instead, they are filled with higher quality seed that all birds love and you won't waste as much seed.

4. Offer Alternatives: A lot of birds will eat more than just birdseed.

Consider adding in nectar, chopped fruit, bread scraps, or other types of food to your feeders in addition to or in replacement of seeds.

5. Shop Around: Watch for sales on bird seed at some local feed stores and when the "birdwatching" season (Spring and Fall) are over. Sometimes you can find great deals on stores that are trying to clear out their shelves for new items.

6. Use Efficient Feeders: Watch your bird feeders and how much seed is being emptied. You might be surprised to find out that you're feeding more than just birds - such as squirrels, deer, raccoons, and so on. You can purchase feeders with built in cages or smaller feeding ports so that it will deter some of the non-feathered feeders.

Hopefully these tips will help you to save money on bird seed so that you can still enjoy your wild bird friends throughout the year - even if money is tight.

What You Should Plant In Your Yard To Attract Birds

Believe it or not, but the different types of flowers in your yard can have an effect on what type of birds visit you. Now, you need to start planning out your yard in the winter so that you are prepared and ready when Spring rolls around to start planing your yard with beautiful flowers and flowering shurbs. But how do you even get started?

The first place that you want to start with with trees and bushes. These are the places that birds will roost and sit when they are looking for new things to do, eat, and see. Bushes that produce flowers will help to provide both a hiding place as well as a food source for birds, as they attract insects too. Trees that produce large leaves will help to provide a good shady place to hide and those that produce fruits, nuts, or flowers will offer food for them as well.

When it comes to flowers, there are plenty of beautiful choices that you can pick from - in fact, there are so many that it can be hard to pick sometimes. One of the staples that you will want to plant every year are daisies. There are several varieties to choose from and they all offer a very nutritious, yummy seed that birds love. Just remember that when the daisies stop blooming, don't pinch off the dead blooms - leave them there. These provide a very yummy treat for finches, sparrows, cardinals, and towhes.

Zinnias are also an excellent choice to plant because birds also love their

seeds. Plus, this is probably one of the easiest flowers to grow. It offers a wide variety of colors, and they blooms are very large. Plus, it will entice tons of butterflies into your garden and yard as well - which not only provide food for birds but they also help to polinate flowers and keep them growing and blooming year after year. I would recommend planting several different patches of zinnias throughout your yard so that you can enjoy different birds and butterflies constantly.

Want to lure hummingbirds into your yard? It's not that hard, if you know what to plant. One of the main things that you need to know is that, just like a bull, hummingbirds are attracted to red. They will check out any spec of red in a landscape - from flowers to cars to feeders to a scarf around your neck. So, plant plenty of red flowers in your yard and try to find bushes that produce red flowers as well. There are tons of beautiful hybrid flowers that now come in red but they might not offer the nectar that hummingbirds crave, so make sure that you're going with some heirloom flowers that will attract them for the nectar while adding in some red to pull them in. Some of the best flowers for hummingbirds include: fuchsias, coral bells, bee balm, hybiscus, and petunias. They also love trumpet-shaped flowers and will investigate anything that resembles this shape. If they find nectar there, they'll come back again and again.

How To Attract Breeding Birds In The Fall - Pt 2

Now that you know what foods to offer the birds when you set out feed, what are some other ways that you can attract birds to your yard in the fall and winter? Easy, offer them a water source. Fresh, unfrozed water is sometimes harder to come by than food for birds during the winter months. So, if you can offer them water, they will always remember that they can go there.

For those that live in areas that get a lot of snow or freezing temps, it's a good idea to find a heated bird bath that will keep the water from freezing up. There are some that look like large rocks that sit on the ground with a heater built in the bottom. Others look like normal bird baths with a heater in the bottom of the bowl and a plug in at the base that will hide it from the weather. There are also heating elements that you can buy that will soak in the bird bath itself and turn on when the water starts to freeze.

Always keep in mind that offering water to your birds that will not freeze over throughout the winter will mean more to them than anything else.

So how about feeders? I mean, we haven't talked about that yet right? A specific feeder design isn't really as vital to getting birds to your yard as you might think. You can spend as much, or as little, as you want on feeders. As long as they offer the food in a way that birds can get it, they will work. Here are some of the different ways that you can offer food that will appeal to different kinds of birds:

1. Spread the feed on the ground: Some sparrows and other birds enjoy eating on or near the ground. So, you will find that throwing out a handfull or two will bring in those birds that love to feed off the ground.

2. Hanging feeders: When you purchase hanging feeders, you want to make sure that they are placed somewhere that water will not build up in the bottom and rot the food. There are plenty of different types of hanging feeders that will really be beneficial to the birds and will bring you in different types of birds. If you are trying to attract specific birds, such as finches, make sure that you purchase the feeders that are designed for them.

3. Homemade feeders: Believe it or not, but birds don't look for designer labels. Some of the very best feeders can be made right at home. In fact, one excellent design is to hollow out a coconut leaving a round hole in two sides (about an inch in diameter or so), wrap it with small wire, and suspend it from a tree. Smaller birds especially will love this one and it's a fun project to make with kids. You can also sink a post in the ground, put a platform on the top with molding around the edges to keep the seeds on with a small area at each end for water to run off, and you have another cheap, homemade bird feeder.

Remember that it doesn't matter what types of bird feeders you have in your yard - as long as you keep them filled and keep a fresh, unfrozen water source, you'll attract breeding birds all year long. Make sure that you read the first part of this blog to ensure that you are planting the right things in your yard to attract more wild birds.