The-Artistic-Garden's Blog

Foods to Attract More Wild Birds for Your Enjoyment

Many of us LOVE attracting wild birds to our backyards and surrounding property just for the joy of watching them. I’m one of those people. I’ve had bird feeders in my yard for many, many years and have filled my feeders with hundreds, now probably thousands, of pounds of Black Oiler sunflower seeds (my wild bird food of choice) too. I’ve also had good luck attracting birds with safflower seeds – loved by gold finches (and to deter the squirrels) – and suet placed in suet cages that all the birds gobble up.

But sometimes, people do have trouble attracting more than just a few birds, and wonder what else they can try. Well … here’s some ideas you probably haven’t heard about, and a couple you probably have, but maybe were skeptical to try.

Grape Jelly

Grape jelly, fed in a VERY SMALL portion like a tablespoon full at most, is favored by wild birds such as woodpeckers, orioles, tanagers, finches and many others, too.

Again I will stress – please only feed a spoonful. Place in a small shallow dish or you can use a jar lid.

The sugar content in the grape jelly makes it a high-energy food for feeder birds. But … don’t overdo it, as the sugar content is not at a normal level for the birds, let alone the artificial coloring.

Oh … and it looks like grape jelly is the #1 jelly of choice to feed. However, try other fruit jellies. You may find that another flavor will also attract lots of birds. I mean … what’s wrong with trying flavors like raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, or currant?

Note: Many experts will argue that feeding grape jelly is a bad thing to do. And I can see why, because as I stated above, grape jelly and its sugar content isn’t “normal” for wild birds. However, I don’t see why a little jelly fed occasionally, especially in the beginning stages of trying to attract more feathered friends onto your property, is a horribly bad thing to do.

Here’s a link to an informative post on “Laura’s Birding Blog” discussing this very topic on the pros and cons of feeding jelly.

Fruits

Feeding fruit is probably the more commonly suggested method to help attract wild birds. But, with the rising cost of fruit these days, especially for those of us that don’t live in regions close to fruit growers and orchards, many of us may not be able to keep a constant supply of fresh orange halves, pomegranate halves or apple halves available for the birds. But perhaps occasionally you can try putting out fruit. All types of birds enjoy fruit. Even grapes will be eaten.

You can secure the fruit halves or sections to the side of a tree by pounding a long nail into the tree, and then pushing the fruit onto the nail (yes, you may have to wiggle it a bit to get it past the nail head); or place it in a suet basket. There are other methods, like piercing the fruit with a dowel and then hanging the dowel, which has a rope loop secured to both ends of the dowel.

As long as you can secure the fruit in some way to help the birds get to the fleshy part, and to keep it from getting carried away by other predators … you’ll be good to go.

Berries

Whether picked fresh berries, or store bought ones – even those that are a bit shriveled up but not bad enough to throw out – will be appreciated by your feathered friends and will of course help attract more to your property.

Berries that wild birds seem to love are: wild grapes, pokeberries, sassafras berries, and even sumac berries. If you’re like me and really don’t have access to wild berries, then use store-bought ones.

Store-bought berries to feed can be: blueberries, raspberries, and cherries.

Mama Mia! Try Pasta!

“Pasta?” you say. “You’ve got to be kidding!”

Nope, I’m not. I’ve read about many people feeding SMALL AMOUNTS of plain boiled pasta with success. Many birds, from titmice to woodpeckers will chow down on pasta. If you decide to give this food a try, I will suggest trying to offer it during drier weather.

Please …. just don’t include the spaghetti sauce and meatballs!

Eggshells

The calcium in eggshells is beneficial for female birds during the nesting season. But your wild bird friends will also benefit from the extra calciuim during the winter months. So save up some eggshells – make sure to rinse them out in the sink first – and then place them in a shallow pan. Bake the eggshells in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes. This “purifying” method eliminates any chance that your wild birds will be exposed to harmful bacteria that could be passed on from domestic chickens.

You can place crushed eggshells in a small dish, scattered on your garden soil, or even sprinkled on your sidewalk or patio. You’ll soon find that the birds will be happily nibbling up the eggshell pieces.

My Favorite Peanut Butter Suet Recipe

Before I end this post, I thought I’d place a link to my easy homemade bird suet recipe. I’ve received some nice feedback via private email from people who have tried it and are now getting more birds in their yards. Plus, they remark how easy it is to make and how much cheaper it is than buying store bought.

I hope you give one or more of these foods a try, and that you’re able to attract more wild birds in no time.

A Really Cool Wind Chime Project

Hi everyone. I often come across really creative and not too hard to do garden art projects that I’d love to try to make, and I also know there must be lots of you out there who do have the the time and would like to make something new and unique.

So, I make note of each site where I found the project for my future reference. Plus.. you know … I can’t think-up every project in the world either, and passing along links to other people’s projects stays in line with my main reason for this blog – that I want to share fun and creative stuff with everyone.

Well, this coffee cup/tea mug wind chime project is just one of those projects that caught my eye.

This DIY project requires just a few items that may already be laying around in your craft box and garage, or are easy to find in a craft and hardware store, and without having to drill a hole in the cup … you’ll have a fabulous new garden art accessory to hang outside.

This idea comes from Kathy’s “Crafty Chica” blog. Read the entire post here: http://thecraftychica.blogspot.com/2008/04/tea-mug-wind-chime.html

Bird Suet Recipes With Peanut Butter as an Ingredient are Not Dangerous

I received a comment from Consuelo on a previous post about making your own bird suet. She wanted to share information she’d found about peanut butter being potentially dangerous to certain bird species. Peanut butter is one of the ingredients I recommend using for the suet recipe.

I’d like to add a more detailed response to her comment here in a post, so that it properly addresses this subject and provides more information for those of you who perhaps have landed here, looking for information about “potential hazards of using peanut butter in a bird suet recipe”.

If You Are Really Concerned About a Bird Choking On Peanut Butter …Then Do Not Feed Peanut Butter All By Itself! Add a Gritty Ingredient as Well

Through my research to determine if what Consuelo shared was correct information or not, and of course to educate myself about the “hazards of feeding peanut butter to birds”, the bottom line from all trusted authority sites is:

There is no documented evidence that birds will choke (or die) from ingesting peanut butter all by itself. However, mixing peanut butter with grit or cornmeal or oatmeal will break up the stickiness and can give peace of mind to those who might be
concerned.

My recipe calls for cornmeal. So, in my humble opinion, there is nothing “dangerous” about any bird suet cake that has peanut butter as an ingredient if that cake also has a “gritty” ingredient, too.

More Resource Links With Information About Peanut Butter in Bird Suet Recipes

Everyone, please take a look at the following information I have uncovered from very reliable sources. Come to your own conclusions, but I believe you need not worry one bit about adding peanut butter into a recipe for making suet cakes.

Here are just a few of the better links I discovered with not only information about peanut butter in suet, but other great bird feeding information as well:

• Bird Feeding Basics from the National Audubon Society. Please look at the topic: “Mix peanut butter and corn meal”
• Backyard Bird Feeding from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Conservation Library. Look about 3/4′s of the way down to: “Can birds choke on peanut butter?”
• Feeding the Birds from the Massachusetts Audubon Society. About 1/3 of the way down, look for the topic: “Peanut Butter”.

There … with the above information I’ve provided I do hope the issue of feeding peanut butter to our backyard birds, whether it’s an ingredient in a store bought suet cake or in a homemade bird suet recipe, will no longer be a concern for anyone. Happy birding!

For Those of You Wondering About How Large
a Hypertufa or Concrete Sculpture Can Be …

I get asked just how large you can make a hypertufa or concrete garden art object more than a couple times each month, and my standard answer to everyone is simply, “As large as YOU are capable of making it.”

I’m not trying to be smart or curt with that reply, but honestly, my answer is the truth. After all, if you can dream up the idea, and you have the skills and know-how to figure out how you’re going to construct the frame on which to apply your ‘tufa or concrete recipe … then by all means, go ahead and tackle the project. The size factor is basically not a big stumbling block if you know what you’re doing.

But the core issue is: do you know how to properly construct a super-sturdy frame (also called a form) that is capable of not only providing the proper surface on which you’ll be applying your wet recipe, but will of course remain firmly connected over time? Yes, you could argue that once a hypertufa or concrete mixture is cured, it pretty much has the framework “sealed” in quite well. But, depending upon the intricacy of your form – do you have slender appendages coming out from the central frame, as one example – you really ought not rely solely on the rock-hard nature of your cured recipe to be the only “glue” that bonds everything together.

So … as a bit of inspiration for you today, I thought I’d share a photo from the website of Little and Lewis, who are maestros in the art of sculpting with concrete.

If you’re not familiar with their work, I’d certainly take a little time to peruse their site. You will certainly see garden art items that ought to make you say, “Wow!”

This concrete sculpture certainly shows that large and grand is possible! It just takes the creativity to conceive the idea, and the wherewithal to construct it. Simple, huh?

And please note that this sculpture is 5-feet tall by 4-feet wide. That’s quite an impressive size. I am sure the people who commissioned this sculpture and arbor installation are in love with it.

So, for those of you that are bored with making smaller and simpler type hypertufa or concrete objects, perhaps a sculpture or other object even one third the size of the Little and Lewis 5-foot tall sculpture could be in the works for your next garden art project.

Let your imagination flow. Good luck!