Migration season is on the way, and backyard bird feeders play a big role in these annual journeys. Why not welcome the birds to your yard with a new style of feeder, something you haven’t tried before? Here are some of the coolest new options out there:
Oriole Delight Feeder (available at Duncraft): Orioles love fruit, and you can lure them to your yard by offering oranges and grape jelly. Be sure to have your oriole feeder out at least two weeks before they’re expected in your area so they find your feeder as soon as they return.
Sunflower Suet Feeder (available at Doctors Foster and Smith): This pretty take on the traditional suet feeder holds suet cakes, donuts, or balls; it can also be used to offer seed cakes.
Stackable Suet and Seed Cakes (available at Wild Birds Unlimited): This simple feeder allows you to stack different kinds of suet and seed cakes together, attracting different varieties of birds with just one feeder.
Fly-Thru Mealworm Feeder (available at Duncraft): Bluebirds love mealworms! Other insect-loving species like mockingbirds and grosbeaks may visit too. If you decide to offer mealworms in your backyard, be sure to see SeEtta’s recent post on doing so safely.
Whimsy Hummingbird Hand Feeding Wand (available at Doctors Foster and Smith): Are your hummingbirds friendly enough to feed from your hand? Find out with this hand-held feeder – use the hook to hang it in your yard while hummingbirds get used to it, and then try holding it for them to enjoy an up-close feast!
Remember that any time you offer a new feeder in your yard, it may take wild birds awhile to find it and become used to it. If you still have no visitors to a new feeder after a few weeks, try moving it to a different location. Be patient, and the birds will come!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Any other hints for feeding orioles? Each year I hear their distictive calls from the nearby hedgerow but am not able to lure them to the yard feeder.
The most important tip I’ve come across is that it’s vital to have your oriole feeder out by the time the birds arrive – they’re unlikely to visit feeders put up later in the season. Try this post I wrote a few years ago for more info: http://birdsandbloomsblog.com/2011/03/05/baltimore-oriole-southeast/
You can feed them cheap grape jelly in small tuna-sized cans or Miracle Whip lids. Just fasten the container DOWN, or they’ll knock it right to the ground. Our local orioles go through several jars every year!
My orioles love grape jelly more than anything I put out. Make sure your feeder has an orange color on it. I usually make sure the roof is orange so they see it as they fly over.
I go through 10 jars of grape jelly each year. I have put oranges out, but they do not eat them. I have my feeder hanging from the overhang of my sun room and I can sit inside and watch them all summer long.
An eleventh way to attract bluebirds is to set out (or make) a squirrel feeder that has a lift up roof that you fill with peanuts. The bluebirds will fly in, prop the roof up with their head and take the peanuts. Poor squirrels don’t have a chance to get many peanuts since the bluebirds are fast. Now, does anyone have plans for a bluebird proof squirrel feeder?
I find that they eat the grape jelly quickly and if I want to add a treat for them I put out the little cups of Mandarin oranges that come in their own juice…. I go through cases of jelly and last year after hearing about the Mandarin orange cups being a hit 60 miles away I put them out and went through several late in the season! I have a box of 24 ready for them this year! OH and the Orioles are not the only birds in my back yard that LOVE that grape jelly. I have had a Robin that just goes out of her way to hoard the jelly from the finch, house, purple and yellow, hummers as well as a couple of jays and cardinals! I love sitting out on my covered swing and watching the whole thing I had to hang my nectar orange away from it so all the Oriels get a chance at both. Last year there were 4 pair that I know of. Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep the hawks from using my several feeders as buffets?
How do you keep the squirrels from eating all the grape jelly and/or oranges. Everytime I put suet out, the squirrels eat it before the birds can get to it. I don’t want the same thing to happen to the grape jelly. I live in an urban area in MN. but have a wooded yard- do orioles come to the city?