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Now that you have birds visiting your backyard, you want to make sure you take good care of them.

A few things you can do to keep your backyard birds healthy and happy include:

Housekeeping for Your Guests

Provide Clean Water

Keep their feeders clean

Birds can pass around sickness just like we can, so it's good to keep the feeders clean - every so often, empty out the seed and wash them out, even do a little sterilizing with diluted bleach solution. Below is information from PRBO Conservation Science on Feeder Safety:

Tips for Keeping Birds Safe at Feeders

  • SHAKE OUT FEEDERS well before refilling (scrape when necessary).
  • SCRUB OUT FEEDERS with 1:9 bleach/water solution, to prevent the spread of avian diseases.
  • WATCH FOR SIGNS OF DISEASE (growths on feet and bills) and wash and remove feeders for a few weeks if diseased birds are observed at your feeder. Visit the Project Feeder Watch website for information on detecting diseased birds at your feeder.
  • Clean your hummingbird feeder, every time you fill it, with a mild solution of dishwashing liquid and hot water, using a bottle brush and toothbrush to really clean out the crevices.
  • Refill your hummingbird feeder if it's cloudy (likely every several days in hot, humid weather). If there is often unused solution, consider a smaller feeder.
  • Hummingbirds need consistently filled stations; if you go away a lot, don't keep a feeder.

Keep the ground below their feeders clean

Don't attract Undesirables

Keep Out Nest Parasites

Cowbirds are a native species that lay their eggs in other birds' nests, such as wrens and warblers, and when their chicks hatch, they push the other eggs or chicks out of the nest. The increase in Cowbird population in agricultural areas where there is lots of grain for them to eat has had a large impact on the populations of songbirds, so make sure your feeders are not inviting cowbirds into your habitat. Avoid millet, and avoid platform feeders - tube feeders are best.

Discourage Non-native species

Starlings, English Sparrows, etc.

Keep Cats Indoors

You'd be surprised at the impact of housecats on songbird populations. You really would. There have been studies done that show that cats, both domestic and feral, kill an estimated 4.4 million songbirds daily in the United States alone. Even well-fed cats kill birds - it is their instinct to catch and kill birds, and other small animals, such as small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects. One way you can help protect your backyard birds is to keep your cats indoors. Bells don't help as cats simply learn to stalk quietly without ringing the bell, and in addition, prey animals don't associate bells with predators - at least the first time around (which is usually the only time around for the bird).

Another way you can protect songbirds from cats is careful feeder placement - keep it close to shelter for the birds, but far enough from places (the ground, branches, fences) where a cat cannot easily leap. Some groups suggest that if you cannot guarantee a cat-free zone for bird feeders, you should not put feeders out to attract them. Consider taking your new hobby to the local park, instead.

Don't Attract Predators

Besides cats, birds have other natural (and unnatural) predators that you should try not to attract to your yard. "Un-covered compost piles and pet food dishes may be attracting native (packrats, skunks, raccoons, coyotes) and non-native predators (cats and roof rats) that prey on birds." (from the PRBO article referenced below, "Helping Birds at your Bird Feeder")

Seasonal Considerations

Keep them "Fat and Happy" through the Winter Months

Remind them to Migrate

Other Things to Think About

Don't Use Pesticides

Keep your lawn green and Green at the same time

Buy Organic

Grow Native Plants

Install Nest Boxes

Take Care, but Don't Give Up!

Lest you start to feel that all these concerns mean that you shouldn't be feeding birds after all, please read this article by the scientists at Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology from Birdscope Magazine, In Defense of Bird Feeding.

We don't want to contribute to any problems for the birds we love to watch, that's for certain, but we shouldn't worry too much about disturbing the balance by feeding them. Birds are naturally opportunistic feeders who seek many food sources, including your backyard bird feeders. Birds have natural instincts for migration that a full bird feeder in your backyard will not deter (and in fact you may be supplying a needed source of energy for that very migration!) Birds have predators and get diseases in the wild, whether or not you feed them, but you can do your part to make sure you are helping, not harming by doing a few simple things to keep your backyard habitat healthy.

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Now that they're here, what kind are they?
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