Wild birds need high-calorie foods like peanuts, mealworms and sunflower seeds to fuel their bodies during winter and stay warm. Peanuts, mealworms and sunflower seeds provide such vital energy.
Provide fatty food sources like suet, which comes in the shape of rings, bars or cakes for chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers to enjoy.
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Black-oil sunflower seeds
Black-oil sunflower seeds are easy for birds to open, providing essential fat for winter survival. They can be offered in hopper, platform or tray feeders or scattered on the ground; for an added cost hulled versions can also reduce mess under feeders while saving money over time when feeding many birds at once.
Unsalted peanut butter, which can be spread on branches or placed inside a suet cage, and fruit such as apples, oranges, melons or bananas provide additional good fat sources that provide vitamins and minerals difficult to find during winter.
Peanuts
Peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) provide birds with protein, fat and calories. As part of the legume family (such as beans and peas), peanuts also feature symbiotic bacteria that fix nitrogen into their roots reducing chemical fertilizer use and improving soil quality.
Wild birds that enjoy this high-energy food source include black-capped chickadees, nuthatches, titmice and woodpeckers. You can provide these birds with feeders full of shelled peanuts or “peanut hearts,” the small chips left when broken halves have been separated into halves.
Shelled, dry-roasted and unsalted peanuts provide essential winter energy to many birds. You’ll find these peanuts at some big-box hardware stores as well as specially designed feeders designed to serve them. Or they can simply be spread onto trees or put inside pinecone crevices for consumption by these creatures!
Fruit
As winter nears, birds need high-calorie foods to conserve energy and stay warm. Seeds, nuts, and suet are among the top choices; fruit is also beneficial. You can offer dried cranberries, currants or raisins soaked in water and placed on a platform feeder or suet cake as winter approaches.
Peanut butter is another tasty option, provided it is unsalted as salt can be harmful to birds. Grated cheese also attracts some species, like chickadees and woodpeckers. If possible, grow trees or shrubs that produce winter berry crops to provide additional food sources and draw winter birds into your yard. It can be both rewarding and exciting!
Suet
Wild birds that feed on suet can use animal fat as energy source to maintain body heat and keep warm during chilly periods. Furthermore, this food provides high amounts of energy.
Suet, which is made of rendered beef or sheep fat with all meat and tendon removed, can be mixed with various ingredients to attract winter birds. This may include bird seed, grain, dried insects, honey, nut hearts or bits of fruit.
Bread and crackers do not provide sufficient plant oils or other vital nutrients that birds require, while molasses may upset their stomachs and be harmful. As an alternative, try offering winter finches nyjer or millet as sources of energy.
Grains
Winter birds need protein to support their high metabolic rates, so providing grain-based foods as food sources is an ideal way to support them.
Black-oil sunflower seeds attract many species, including cardinals, grosbeaks and chickadees. If squirrels are raiding your feeders too often, safflower seed might be a better option; finches in particular like Nyjer thistle seed as an addition.
Avoid mixed bird feeds containing oats and milo, which aren’t eaten by wild birds, and bread, which doesn’t provide enough plant oils and whole grains that winter birds need for survival. A specialty mix designed specifically to attract specific species could be an effective way to start backyard bird feeding; you could even hang up a suet feeder full of compressed raw fat often studded with seeds or peanut butter that attracts woodpeckers, titmice and jays!
