Permies Poll: Do you intentionally feed wild birds?

I have grown rather fond of my local woodland birds over this past year.

I have been on a quest to befriend wild pigeons and I have befriended a few different creatures so far!

Pigeons, crows, and mourning doves have become frequent visitors to my yard. I only keep one small feeder stocked with seed and I broadcast some food each day through the yard. I have not run into any 'pests' that have proved any issues but I do see a rather healthy squirrel population come through from time to time. Robins, finches, chickadees, blue jays, and other birds come through frequently. I've always had a small community of European starlings living in my eaves so they just benefit regardless from convenient feed. .

Shell-on raw peanuts and whole corn are a favorite of the larger wild birds.


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An unintended consequence of having bird feed out are the creatures that exist that like to stow away food for later.

I have so many sunflowers growing all over my property I have been thinning them! My poor onion patch has now turned into a sunflower patch with the amount of flowers popping up. I have not intentionally planted a sunflower this year and I have a whole bunch.

We keep bird feeders out through the winter.  Feed is increased after ice and snow storms. We use both seed and suet cakes.

I plant stuff that I think they will like up on the wilder areas of the land, like hawthorn. But I don't give them actual food.

More like 'teaching them to fish' rather than 'giving them a fish'.

Does that count?

I think it does Burra! I also plant soft fruit to try and decoy them from my own fruit crops - doesn't always work though!

Timothy Norton wrote:This installment of the Permies Poll series has been inspired by seeing all sorts of birdfeeders around the countryside.



We recently had a younger black bear hit some birdfeeders in a nearby town so now the question has come up. Do you try and feed wild birds?

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Share your thoughts and experiences!

Yes, but since I have bears in summer and squirrels all year round, I do not use feeders. It is spread on the bare ground, bee3n doing it this way for years. Suet cakes are useless. I use actual suet that I buy by the 40lb box at the store (cheaper) and keep it in a freezer till needed. I put small amount out at a time during the summer due to heat and the bears. My woodpeckers actual fly to me telling me they need more suet. They can be pretty annoying with their yacking "feed me feed me feed me". They also feed the suet to their little ones.

Yes but only in the winter. Sunflowers and home rendered suet from deer and elk mixed with Sunflowers. The suet mix is poured into large holes drilled into logs and then the logs are hung as feeders.

Marc Dube wrote:Yes but only in the winter. Sunflowers and home rendered suet from deer and elk mixed with Sunflowers. The suet mix is poured into large holes drilled into logs and then the logs are hung as feeders.

The good old fashion way....

I leave out sunflower seeds and water. In town. In the winter. It's a long, cold winter.

I like to grow things some will use as well that are also nice to look at in winter. Highbush cranberries, wintergreen etc.

J Katrak wrote:I leave out sunflower seeds and water. In town. In the winter. It's a long, cold winter.

I like to grow things some will use as well that are also nice to look at in winter. Highbush cranberries, wintergreen etc.

I do oilers (sunflowers), corn and suet, all year around. In summer I get birds, squirrels, coons, occasional porcupine, bears. Winter birds, grouse, deer, squirrels, ermine, bobcat (didn't know mommy was a female until she brought her first little ones 2 years ago.)

I live in the city, but near several stands of preserved-ish forest and "green islands" and I definitely feed birds-- but only the fruit eaters!! I hang out two nectar feeders and any fruit that has passed its prime gets cut in half and placed on a high platform.
The hummingbirds (and their friends the bats) stay here year round and also help keep the bug population down. The other nectar-eating birds are gorgeous (mostly tanager types, in every color but purple or white) and I really enjoy having them show up, even though they're generally hooligans who like to fight with the hummingbirds.
We have lots of pigeons and other birds that already spend lots of time in my yard without feeding grain. The other birds are bug eaters, and by proving good habitat and hunting grounds for them I have plenty of bug hunters helping me to be in the garden. I also don't want to encourage slow birds to be on the ground too much- don't want them scratching up my seeds, but we also have a lot of feral or just prowling cats. We are already prime hunting grounds for the local hawks-- the smaller fruit birds are agile scrappers, they have nothing to fear from hawks, but I've been working in the garden when a hawk took down doves before. They're welcome to hunt here, but it's all them!

John F Dean wrote:We keep bird feeders out through the winter.  Feed is increased after ice and snow storms. We use both seed and suet cakes.

We used to keep a variety of feeders stocked year round: a workshop-made roofed platform feeder (above a squirrel baffle), a tube feeder filled with black sunflower seed, a perforated steel peanut feeder, and a suet block holder.

But several years ago a bear or two got the seed scent and knocked down the platform feeder and,  by the next year, the sunflower seed feeder. It took me a couple of years to give up on repairs. Now we keep out only the peanut and suet feeders in summer and wait for hibernation before feeding sunflower seed. (That seems to be what draws bears.) So far there's been no more bear damage.

At my new place I fed the birds last winter.  I had a bag of bird seed to use on the ice, to make a mon slip surface.  The birds noticed, of course, so I began putting a little berm on the 2x4 deck railing.  They soon knew what time I got up, and were always on hand.

In general, I try to grow food for birds to harvest, but I do feed them in a couple cases.

When it is snowy out and they have no other food sources, I will cook barley and other seed on the wood stove and keep the sugary tea for future compost teas, then toss the spent grain over my upper terrace. Watching them flock and eat is nice, but I spread the seed around to make it available to more birds with less close contact for disease transmission.

The other circumstance I toss out bird seed is when establishing an ecosystem on recently disturbed ground. Bringing in birds to eat gets their manure and microbe inoculation. They also help moderate pests that will inevitably go through population surges as succession progresses.

We feed the cats and the guinea fowl.  The birds attend to clean up.  Native doves have now taken to tucking in for a feed.

I plant mulberry trees so the answer is yes...

I was giving GMO sunflower seeds to them, but decided I don't want to do that anymore...      Trying to grow more for them...     I have tried growing standard sunflowers but insects have taken them down.

Dennis Goyette wrote:

J Katrak wrote:I leave out sunflower seeds and water. In town. In the winter. It's a long, cold winter.

I like to grow things some will use as well that are also nice to look at in winter. Highbush cranberries, wintergreen etc.

I do oilers (sunflowers), corn and suet, all year around. In summer I get birds, squirrels, coons, occasional porcupine, bears. Winter birds, grouse, deer, squirrels, ermine, bobcat (didn't know mommy was a female until she brought her first little ones 2 years ago.)

I forgot about the moose as well.....young ones in spring and summer.... in the winter, they come up to the hills/higher country as the snow gets deeper. It's easy to spot their tracks since they are several feet apart and the deer stay away from the deep snow and stick to the trails they make packing the snow down....

Yes!   I feed the birds!  It makes me happy they they come and visit.  They also give me and early heads up at the season change.