Pileated woodpecker Photo by Helen Engle

Feeders can draw color to your winter landscape

There’s nothing like the red, yellow or blue feathers of a bird drawn to a backyard feeder to brighten up winter’s monochromatic landscape.

Even the natural forage purists among us, knowing full well that birds can do without our help, will hang a suet cake or two just to see that flash of color and animation during these short, gray days.

Contrary to a popular notion, you can start and stop feeding birds in the winter without harming them. The only rationale is for your own viewing consistency, since it takes time for birds to find your offerings each time.

Birds do not become dependent on one winter feeding station. Most visit a number of foraging spots – natural and supplemental – in their daily search for food. When they find that newly hung suet cake, it’s no different than their discovery of a newly dead tree full of bugs.

If you invite these colorful guests to a dinner party in your yard, however, be a responsible host by following a few rules of thumb:

• Keep feeders clean, dry and free of mold to prevent disease among birds; about every other week or so remove all feed, wash feeders in a 10 percent bleach solution, and allow to dry completely.

• Clean up spilled seed from the ground if ground-feeding birds aren’t keeping up with it; too much piling up in wet conditions will grow mold and fungus that can harm birds. Avoid “bargain” seed mixes, which birds will sort through for their favorites and only create more waste.

• Place feeders where you can watch birds without being so close that your movements scare them away or they fly into windows; keep feeders either more than 15 feet or less than two feet away from windows.

• Prevent window collisions by attaching netting, streamers, or other materials on the outside of the glass, rubbing soap over the glass to dull it, or closing curtains at least partially.

• Place feeders near escape cover and high enough so that cats or other predators can’t turn them into their own feeders; this is a delicate balance, since too much cover too close can allow a cat to ambush a bird.

• Keep the number of feeders to a minimum to avoid concentrating too many birds in a small area, leaving them vulnerable to stress, disease and predation.

• Use feeders designed to limit access by non-native competitors, like starlings or eastern gray squirrels. For example, provide thistle or sunflower seed in hanging tube feeders with small holes that only goldfinches, pine siskins, juncos and other small birds can use; offer suet in a covered cage that requires woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches and others to feed hanging upside down (excluding less acrobatic birds like starlings.)