Attracting The Winter Birds

IN making plans for attracting the winter birds, one needs to consider four things: the kinds of food to be used; methods of exposing it; means of shelter from the severity of the weather; and the protection of the birds from their enemies. A study of the habits of the birds which we expect to attract will give the clue to the successful solution of the problems involved in these considerations. As regards their food, our winter birds may be grouped in two classes, insect-eating birds, such as the chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches; and seed-eating birds, such as the sparrows and juncos. In general animal food will attract the first class and vegetable food the second, but insect-eating birds often eat vegetable food, and seed-eating birds often eat animal food.

Foods preferred

As far as possible one should put out the kinds of food which birds prefer, if one would be most successful; but in times of great hunger birds will eat many foods which under ordinary circumstances would not be attractive to them. The various records to which the author has had access indicate that the same species, in different localities, may prefer different kinds of food. Following are some of the preferences shown by the birds as reported by different observers : -

" The chickadee preferred the raw pork rinds to the suet. However, nothing seems to tempt the appetite of these birds like the seeds of the sunflower."- A. C. Dike.

" The white-breasted nuthatch ate everything from cracked corn to suet, but seemed particularly fond of walnut meats." - Edwin C. Brown.

" Hungry birds will eat many things that do not belong strictly to bird-diet; but two articles I have found will suffice for all species, suet in good-sized lumps, that will not be torn to shreds too soon for the woodpeckers and all other tree-trunk-climbing birds, and any one of the various dog-biscuits, broken into pieces of various sizes, ranging from that of a chestnut, which jays and nuthatches love to pound up to suit their tastes, to crumbs that tempt the junco, tree sparrow, purple finch, snow-flake, and even the robins and bluebirds ; and the chickadee will take both meat and bread." - Mabel Osgood Wright.

"The woodpeckers eat nothing but suet, while the juncos eat nothing but crumbs and seeds. The birds have a decided preference for doughnut-crumbs, although they are very fond of breadcrumbs. The brown creeper likes crumbs and suet, while the chickadees and nuthatches, although they will eat anything I give them, like nuts and squash-seeds best. I crack nuts for them and give them shells and all, while I simply break the squash-seeds in two." - Samuel D. Iiobbins.

" There is no better food to attract jays than chestnuts. Whole corn comes next and afterwards meat.

" A first-class bird-food is the berry of the myrtle, bayberries; practically all birds eat them.