For many birdwatchers, winter is not the most exciting season. However, this time of year is full of songbirds and woodpeckers who could use extra help.
Humans have caused habitat loss for almost as long as we have existed; fragmentary pieces of suitable habitat are too far apart. Increasingly more prominent is how climate change affects wintering birds. Rising heat is altering what’s left of their natural environment. These two factors, habitat loss and climate change, amplify each other, getting us to where we are now.
Some birds are better at living in winter weather but still deal with loss of cover (due to leaf fall), exhausted supplies of foraging goodies and leaving fewer bugs out with a shorter time to look for food. Cold causes birds to burn much more energy than they typically do, losing up to 75% of their body weight overnight when conditions are extreme.
To stay warm, these little guys need all the help they can get. Full bird feeders mean full bellies and more energy storage. To help, we can fill our feeders with foods that are high in fat and energy, such as roasted, unsalted peanuts, suet, and sunflower seeds.
Setting up and maintaining clean bird feeders is fundamental, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Simply setting out a plant saucer and putting seed in it is perfect, but if you want to go the extra mile, you have tons of options. Different feeder types include hoppers, tubes, platforms, metal mesh, towers, suet, nectar, and more!
You can hang feeders from branches, attach them to balconies, place them on the ground, or hang them from garden poles. Depending on the birds you want to attract, you can choose different feeders, placements, and food varieties. For example, tube and hopper feeders have enough room to support most songbirds, but they couldn’t hold a Steller’s jay; if you wanted to attract nuthatches, bushtits, and woodpeckers, you would put out a suet feeder.
Be wary of squirrels stealing all your bird seed. In the birding world, there’s something called the 5-7-9 rule that will help you keep pesky squirrels off of your feeders: The general idea is that your average squirrel can jump five feet straight up, seven feet across, and nine feet across when jumping from above.
To help put together a feeder with this rule in mind, you can use a squirrel baffle, a bell-shaped piece of metal that keeps them from climbing up the garden pole. Following those parameters, squirrels are sure to not get on your feeder, but if that takes up too much space, you can offer alternative feeders with dried corn cobs to direct them away from your main feeder.
Over the past couple of months, you may or may not have heard about the spike in bird flu (HPAI H5N1) cases. This flare has some folks worried about whether or not it is safe to put feeders out.
To find out more on the topic, I reached out to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and received a response from Hugh Powell, senior science editor for Cornell’s allaboutbirds.org and Living Bird magazine. In my email, I asked about recommendations for feeders in areas with livestock.
“We’re not experts on avian influenza here at the Cornell Lab, so I can’t really give you guidance on that,” he said. Although Powell was not able to provide advice on this topic, he did inform me that it was a complicated issue that doesn’t necessarily have a universal answer across all cases.
“There’s a generally low incidence of avian influenza among birds that visit feeders; and at the same time flocking birds such as European starlings can carry avian influenza and can be easily drawn into livestock operations whether bird feeders are up or not,” said Powell. He directed me to several resources from the USDA, where I was able to learn more about the spread.
Generally, keeping your feeder up is alright, but is a potential risk if you keep poultry. USGS reports that domestic ducks, geese, and chickens are most likely to contract avian influenza from infected tools, clothes, and food. Not to say that wild birds do not spread H5N1, birds, especially waterfowl, are often asymptomatic spreaders of the disease. This outbreak has been more deadly to wild birds than past occurrences, with juvenile cackling geese here in the valley being especially susceptible. You can help by reporting sick or dead wild birds to ODFW by calling 1-866-968-2600. For domestic birds, you can report to the Oregon State Veterinarian at 503-986-4711 or by email at AHHotline@oda.oregon.gov. Keep your animals safe by following basic biosecurity techniques like limiting visitors and checking your birds for symptoms. To learn more about protecting your animals, check out the USDA’s Defend the Flock program online.
All that being said, it is crucial to keep things clean, especially for those of you who live near or with domestic farm animals. To clean your feeder, empty any leftover seed and dirt into the trash then use dish soap and water to scrub off any detritus. Rinse well and mix a solution of nine parts water to one part bleach; make sure you have enough to submerge your feeder. Let sit for 10 minutes and rinse again. Your feeder should be fully dry before you put it back out.
Happy birding!
This article originally appeared in the January 2025 edition of The Commuter.
