How to Help Your Birds During Winter

You can help your birds stay warm by offering the right foods that have an attractive blond of fat, protein and carbohydrates.

High-fat Foods for Feeder Birds

• Offer Plus Blends with Jim’s Birdacious® Bark Butter Bits® and nuts to help birds, such as woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, wrens and others, maintain their high metabolic rate.
• Suet is a great winter food. A pure fat substance, suet provides high energy when insects are more difficult to find. We have many suet choices with additives such as fruits, nuts and insects to make them even tastier to the birds.

Nyjer® (thistle) for Finches

Nyjer is 50% fat and protein, and it’s a favorite of goldfinches, Pine Siskin and Purple and House Finches. Nyjer has a thin shell that small-billed birds can easily open - saving them time and energy as they eat their food. Specially designed to hold small seeds and accommodate small-billed birds, our EcoClean® Finch Feeders are the best feeders for offering Nyjer. They contain antimicrobial product protection, and their Quick-Clean® removable base makes them easy to clean.

Seed Blends for Ground-feeding Birds

Our Deluxe Blend is loaded with sunflower and safflower seeds and millet. Millet is high in carbohydrates and is especially good for attracting ground-feeding birds, such as native sparrows, juncos, towhees, quail and doves. Offer Deluxe Blend in a ground feeder like our EcoTough® Covered Ground Tray.

(Nyjer® is a registered trademark of the Wild Bird Feeding Industry.)

Energy-packed Cylinders

Cylinders, like the Nutty for Nuts, are long-lasting allowing you fewer trips to fill the feeder. The birds stay longer eating at the feeder instead of grabbing a morsel and quickly flying away to eat it elsewhere. Nutty for Nuts is packed with high-calorie peanut and tree nut energy to help the birds stay warmer. There are no shells, providing a quick energy snack for birds and no mess for you.

Open Water = Warm Birds

Water sources in winter are a wonderful way to attract a variety of birds, such as the American Robin, that don’t normally visit feeders. They provide a reliable source of water for bathing and drinking. Bathing is especially important in cold weather to keep feathers in top condition. Available drinking water allows birds to maintain a healthy metabolism to stay warm. Use a heated bird bath or add a heater to your existing plastic, metal or stone bird bath. This will help make some water, available even on the coldest day.