Location Tips If You Use Bird Feeders 

Locate your bird feeders in such a way as to avoid window hits. Here are some strategies to keep birds from hitting your windows:

• Position bird feeders far away enough from the house so birds have plenty of room to fly, even if panicked by a predator such as a hawk swooping through.
• Erect bird feeders next to a window, so if a bird does hit, it will not do so with enough momentum to hurt itself.
• Place bird feeders opposite a windowless part of your house.
• Keep screens on your windows.
• Keep drapes and blinds closed.

How to Provide Food for Birds Without Using a Feeder 

Other ways to provide birds with the food they need is to keep an untidy garden over winter. Leave seed-heads in place; build brush piles; and provide safe places for bugs to overwinter. Allow ornamental grasses to remain uncut, leave dead branches where they fall, and create piles of un-mulched leaves. Birds eat bugs. The more bugs you have in your yard, the more food birds will have. Generally speaking, the more variety you have in your landscape, the better it is for birds.

Avoid dead-heading seed-producing flowers and grasses until spring. Leave old berries, fruit, and nuts in place. For many perennials, dead foliage left in place helps insulate them for winter, and the seeds are a food source for many songbirds. I love watching my goldfinches eating coneflower seeds and my chickadees picking the seeds out of my dead sunflowers. Cedar waxwings come through and feast on my pokeberries. I have a small acreage, but we leave the grass un-mowed in certain areas. The tall grass provides both food and shelter.

Brush and leaf piles are very attractive to birds. If you can find a corner of your yard for a brush and/or leaf pile, it will provide a spot where birds can find both food and shelter. It is fun to watch birds scratching and kicking the leaves around in their search for food and insects in the areas I leave unattended. It’s a great way to spot robins and sparrows, just look for the dancing leaves.

A note of caution: If you start feeding birds, you must keep it up during the harshest weather. Once the birds begin to rely on you for food in their daily routine. Suddenly suspending it when temperatures are at their worst could be fatal. Birds may expend energy to visit your yard every day, and if they expend that energy for nothing, it is a potentially costly trip for them. Once you start helping, keep helping, because they are now dependent on your assistance.

The Important of Water in Helping Birds Prepare for Cold Weather

When temperatures drop below freezing, melted water is a very important way to help birds. Adding water to the landscape is an easy way to attract a variety of birds.

There are a number of heated bird baths available commercially. Most of these are electric and require a cord connecting to an outlet somewhere. Some are battery operated. A few are solar-powered. If you like to have a dedicated water source, a heated birdbath is an option.

I do not recommend concrete birdbaths. The do not work very well in freezing weather because they are difficult to empty once the water freezes over. Only use concrete birdbaths if you have a safe way of heating them.

Avoid making birds perch on ice or icy surfaces to access water. If you break the ice on a pond, provide a perch for birds to access the water without falling in or getting stuck.

Whatever the water source, ensure it is shallow enough that birds won’t be injured or drown if they accidentally fall in. Make sure it has a nice rim or projection on which they can perch. I use an old frying pan that is easy to empty and refill.