Seed Choice: What Do Backyard Birds Eat?

White Breasted Nuthatch Eating Sunflower Chips
White-Breasted Nuthatch

To choose birdseed for your bird feeders, first decide which birds you want to attract. Then offer seed they like to get more birds to your feeders! In this post I share the seed and other food I put in my feeders, followed by a list of which birds eats which seed and other food.

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

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Best Way to Hang Suet Feeders

Male Downy Woodpecker Eating Suet
Male Downy Woodpecker Eating Suet

There are many ways to hang suet feeders. But what is the best way? My approach to offering suet to birds evolved over several years. Through a lot of trial and error with feeder type and placement, I’ve learned a lot along the way and where to hang them. My current suet set-up has been working wonderfully for season after season. Now I don’t have to stress over it at all. It just works.

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Birds & Trees: A Tree Falls in the Yard

A Large Pine Tree Falls Across the Back Yard

Each time I enter a home count in eBird, I include a note that the location is a “Suburban Wooded Back Yard.” The many mature trees in our yard are after all a part of the attraction for the birds that come here. Unfortunately over the past year or two, this description is starting to fray. Our lovely large trees keep falling in unusual numbers and each time this happens, it not only affects the yard’s human owners but also the birds and other creatures that live here. Over this past weekend another very large tree fell. This one in particular is going to have real repercussions for bird life in our back yard.

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