Feeding the winter birds.
What kind of feed to winter birds? Bird’s winter feed must be high-energy feed. It will help birds to cope with the frost and winds in winter when it is hard to find food from the nature.
Different kind of fats, peanuts, sunflower seeds , fat-seed mixtures and pellets make the high-energy bird feed.
•You should, however, serve different kind of nutrition to birds; every bird will find the best suitable food.
•Do not offer only grain, grains are not very high-energy food by themselves. In 100g wheat and corn there are 1400 kJ. Oat 1600 kJ. Birds don’t usually eat rye, rice or barley.
•Serve fat, nuts and seeds. In 100g pork/beef fat there are 3600 kJ, 2400kJ in sunflower seeds and 2400 kJ in peanuts.
Notice that smaller birds are not able to eat the whole seeds or peanuts, but you must serve them crashed or in form of pellets.
•Do not serve spoilt food to birds. Do not give mouldy buns or bread or salted food to birds.
•Put some sand near the feeding place. Sand helps the bird to grind the food in the gizzard.
•Notice that whole peanuts will attract squirrels, crows, magpies and pheasants into the feeding place and they drive smaller birds away.
Bird’s favourite food:
Titmouses: Fat, fat-seed mixtures (bars, balls, pellets), pelletized and crushed peanuts and sunflower seeds.
Bullfinch, greenfinch, finch, brambling, hawfinch, goldfinch, redpoll: Sunflower seeds, whole and crushed, peanut pellets and crushed peanuts, hayseeds and other seeds from the nature.
Yellowhammer: Oat, peeled sunflower seeds, millet.
Sparrow, small sparrow: Sunflower seeds, peanut pellets and crushed peanuts, oat, millet, breadcrumbs, fat-seed mixtures (bars, balls, pellets).
Blackbird: Sunflower seeds, peanuts in form of pellets or crushed, fats, breadcrumbs, fruits and berries.
Crows: Sunflower seeds, peanuts, fats, breadcrumbs.