There is no better place than your backyard to begin birdwatching if you have the space. Normally if you offer descent bird food you will attract some birds. The type and amount of birds can vary depending on where you are located. If you are living more in the city, the birds you attract may be different than if you are in the suburbs or country. Still, it is a great place to start the hobby and to begin to understand bird behaviors and to ID birds.

So, what’s first? Well, get some  bird feeders and add some food. This does not have to be too expensive, it can be started rather economically. One thing you can do is just make some homemade feeders. There are plenty videos or instructions online on using peanut butter or suet you buy at the grocery store and drilling holes in some branches and filling them. You can also grab some pinecones, add some string, and coat the pine cones with peanut butter. See the article I posted from Birds & Blooms for more ideas (http://buteoinspirations.com/what-foods-to-feed-birds-from-the-kitchen/).  Also planting specific types of plants or bushes in your yard is a great way to feed birds that can last from year to year. 

If you want actual feeders, you can go to a local Walmart, Job Lot or local Bird Store and buy some cheaper types of feeders to start. Nylon bags that hold Thistle/Niger/Nyjer

 seed, suet cages for suet, and smaller plastic type feeders for sunflower or larger type seeds will work. Eventually, though these types of feeders don’t always hold up to seasonal use, weather, squirrel or chipmunks. So later you may want to invest in some better built models that can last or that feed specific types of birds. Once you have feeders you will need some descent types of bird food. This is where most times your money will go. Bird food can be bought at Walmart or other big box stores or you can go to a local Audubon or specialty bird store. These specific specialty places can give really great advice where you can discuss your backyard habitat and goals with someone who works there. 

Keep in mind that like most things, most likely if bird food is cheap then it is a type of food that is mostly “fillers”. The best bet to start off with is just plain old sunflower seeds. This will attract the widest variety of birds and actually keep some of the unwanted birds like European Starlings away. You can buy “black oiled” and “striped”. The black oil has a thinner shell and is easier for some birds to open- making it a good choice to start. The striped variety are harder to open. If you worry about the seed shells you can offer shelled sunflower or sunflower chips. But is more expensive and they can spoil faster than the shelled version, also troublesome birds like House Sparrows and Starlings and Blackbirds find them easier to eat. Nyjer or thistle seed is a more specific food source for many types of Finches, Buntings, Winter Siskins, and Redpolls. This small needle like seed can be offered in a sock or a specialized feeder. In addition, feeders should not be filled to the top because unused seed may spoil on the bottom and be ignored.

The other food type to start with is suet. Suet blocks can be placed in inexpensive type cages and can attract a variety of birds, especially woodpeckers. There are different varieties of suet cakes that can contain berries, nuts, seeds or insects or hot pepper. These are made to attract different birds’ types and or in case of the hot pepper deter pests. Keep in mind suet cakes in the summer may go bad from the heat so they should be monitored.

The next thing is setting up your feeders and determining where you will put them. You can use tree branches, poles that you install, hang from wires, or add deck poles. There can be a multitude of options and it all depends on your location. One thing I would recommend is to at least place feeders in an area that is easily seen from a window so you can enjoy the birds and start learning how to identify them. Changes to location also may need to be changed ig you find that squirrels and chipmunks have easy access.

This is a very beginner start to bird feeding. There are so many more options and varieties of seed, feeders, locations, and pest control to review and go over. The best thing to do is start. Start with at least 1 to 2 feeders. The birds will find you; you will be surprised on how fast they do. They may even let you know when you need to refill the feeders. 🙂