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Monday, February 9. 2026

Winter, summer, all year?

If so, how and why?

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation at 14:24 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0)

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Humming birds all year (two feeders)
scrub jays late winter early spring (oeanuts, raw, in the shell)
we live in inland souther california

#1 jake on 2026-02-09 15:12 (Reply)

We have corn laying around from feeding livestock so the birds, raccoons and other species have plenty available year round.

#2 Farmer John on 2026-02-09 18:15 (Reply)

We have feeders in the yard, near the house, and bird houses along the perimeter. We do this because we like to see the different birds that are in the area. Some are seasonal, e.g.; hummingbirds, others are here year round. Btw, I'm in Maine.

#3 stevew on 2026-02-09 19:38 (Reply)

I feed the birds year round but especially during the frigid cold winter days in Michigan. With the sterile yards of suburbia I feel obligated to mitigate the loss of their habitat. I’m honored I have ability to do so

#4 Judy Elia on 2026-02-09 20:58 (Reply)

all year, Philippines, left over rice. enjoy their company

#5 Capt John on 2026-02-09 21:17 (Reply)

I feed about 40# of black oil and 40# of mixed blend every 10-12 days in winter months and the same every 2 weeks in the other seasons, feeders, platform and ground. I love to watch them. live in the western foothills of the Adirondacks. right now I have around 4 dozen mourning doves, the same in blue jays and evening grosbeaks. Chickadees and nuthatches feed from hand when it's below zero juncoes, titmice cardinals hairy and downy wood peckers an assortment of sparrows. I have a fallow pasture that I put scraps for the ravens. they see me in the yard and fly overhead hoping ill head up the field to give them a treat.

#6 Joe on 2026-02-10 08:13 (Reply)

Yes. I think I watched Mary Poppins VHS tape and the 'Feed the Birds' song about 100 times growing up.

#7 eeyore on 2026-02-10 08:15 (Reply)

Up here in northern MI I feed year round. Suet, black oil sunflower seeds, and a mixed seed feed. Put out hummingbird feeders in the Spring when I know they're moving north. I do have to put my feeders up each evening or the raccoons will get at them, and in the Spring the bears try to get at them also.

#8 John Venlet on 2026-02-10 08:31 (Reply)

I feed them year round in Missouri even though we live at the woods.. Hummingbirds when they come north, black oil sunflower, in winter out of the shell pieces that are obscenely expensive so just a couple of cups per day suet and mealworms, also very expensive. When no snow or bad weather away from house as I don't want to fall down a steep hill getting to feeders. This last big snow on patio but what a mess. Love to see the seasonal birds that come through too.

#9 JC on 2026-02-10 08:46 (Reply)

You can easily grow your own meal worms. I have when I was younger & had a variety of reptiles which ate every one I'd give them. Luck wild birds got a big treat.Growing meal worms at home is relatively easy and can be done using a simple setup like a plastic container with bedding made from grains. You need to provide moisture with vegetable scraps and maintain a warm environment for them to thrive and reproduce. Lots of info. online now. Back in the late 50's early '60's there was not a lot of how to information out there. Pet shops wouldn't tell you how. That was their domain. Just be aware. The adult beetles fly. Cover the the container with screen.

#9.1 Dennis Sullivan (Link) on 2026-02-10 09:43 (Reply)

Have thought of doing so but spouse would freak out at the thought!

#9.1.1 JC on 2026-02-10 12:50 (Reply)

Black oil sunflower seed in a flat hanging tray and an enclosed-tube purple-finch feeder, a hanging suet-feeder, two tables for Nutrish dry cat-food, peanuts and crackers, and red bowls for cheap dry cat-food - all inside a cat-proof hog-wire pen.

The Nutrish is tiny pellets and bluebirds love it. (As do starlings.) Suet is for downy and red-bellied woodpeckers (and is poached by starlings). Peanuts lure titmousies and jays, robins like the bowls as do bluebirds. (Red seems to attract them.) Wrens, nuthatches, and the odd cardinal or ruby-crowned kinglet pop in and out, along with catbirds, mockingbirds and towhees.

Starlings gobble everything and need deporting as illegal aliens. Robins are gobblers, too, but I like robins. That and they operate as a sort of safety-in-numbers guard for the bluebirds.

Feeding bluebirds gets expensive due to the illegals, but are worth it.

#10 Codfanglers on 2026-02-10 09:36 (Reply)

Like a farmer of wild birds.

#10.1 Bird Dog on 2026-02-10 10:54 (Reply)

Here in WNC, I have a 2x6 top rail (horizontal) on my deck. Every day I spread Pennington Wild Bird Seed on it to feed the cardinals, chicadees, titmice, and mourning doves. I can sit in my recliner in the living room and watch them fight over the seeds. The cardinals are very aggressive.

#11 snopercod on 2026-02-10 16:24 (Reply)

Wintertime only, because of the migrating species coming here, and the lack of insects and forage. I get premium wild bird seed with dried fruit and nuts in addition to the regular seed. I have Droll Yankee bird feeders which I've re-purposed when they fell apart, installing new large 4 ft long tubes. I call them Droll-a-paloozas, they're really big, but once filled, they're good for a couple of weeks. I stagger-layer the feed with the premium wild bird, safflower seed, and black oil sunflower, so there's variety as the feed lowers in the feeder. I also put out suet and mealworm cakes. Sometimes I'll have as many as 20 cardinals around one of my feeders, male and female. We have about 7 or 8 feed stations around the yard.

I do hummingbirds in summer when I think about it, but this is more labor intensive and I'm generally busy with other things that time of year.

#12 Aggie on 2026-02-11 12:30 (Reply)

Meant to add, (Central Texas) I also put out a roosting box in the winter when we get our northers and it stays really cold for a few days. But I have yet to see the birds using it, don't know why. When we had Freeze-a-mageddon here in 2021, a lot of birds just froze to death, even with food. I had little corpses all over the yard, tucked up in the stone wall, in the grass, really sad.
Any suggestions on making the roosting box more attractive, please advise. It's got a 2" entry hole, numerous perches inside, and an incandescent light tucked in a separate wooden box underneath to provide heat.

#12.1 Aggie on 2026-02-11 12:38 (Reply)

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Monday, February 9. 2026

Do you feed birds?