Seeding Strategy: Bird Feeder Best Practices

Evergreen has long been in tune with bird-lovers, and nothing demonstrates that more clearly than the first 65 pages of our Spring-Summer 2011 Evergreen Garden catalog. Among the many bird-related products that we sell, bird feeders have been a longstanding favorite, and we offer a wide variety of styles to suit any kind of décor.

We know that those who specialize in birding products expect not only great design, but a high level of accurate function. Evergreen strives to provide these things, plus the information to support these products, to help you show your birding customers that you’re a birding expert as well.

If you go to a restaurant, you tend to prefer certain foods (perhaps even a regular dish?) and certain seating locations (inside booth or outside table?). When it comes to our feathered friends, each type of bird has certain preferences as to what they like to eat and where they like to eat it. We’ve prepared a couple of helpful references on this for you.

Seeds and the Birds they Attract
First is a straight-forward chart showing many types of birds and the different kinds of seed they prefer. If you want certain birds to show up, try to attract them by stocking your feeder with the seeds that they most enjoy. You'll notice a lot of overlap between birds and seed types. Use this information to your advantage!

(Click on the image above the enlarge the chart, the use the Back button to return to the blog.)

Bird Feeder Type and Location Preferences
We've noticed that certain kinds of birds tend to prefer to eat in specific locations or in certain ways. The table below will give you tips on what kind of feeder to use and where to place it for best results.

Bird	Feeder Location
Buntings	will use hanging feeders or feed on the ground
Cardinal	tube or hopper feeder
Catbird	fruit on platform feeder - lower is better
Chickadee	tube or hopper feeder
Doves	feed on the ground
Goldfinch	tube, suet or Nyjer in seed sock
Grosbeaks	tube, platform or platform feeder
Jays	tube feeder, peanut feeder, platform feeder
Juncos	suet or feed seed on ground
Mockingbird	suet or platform feeder
Nuthatches	tube, platform, suet
Orioles	fruit, sugar water
Pine Siskins	tube, seed sock, suet
Purple Finch/House Finch	tube or hopper feeder
Quail	feed on the ground
Red-winged Blackbirds	tube, hopper or platform feeders
Sparrows	feed on the ground or low platform
Thrushes	feed on the ground or low platform
Towhees	tube or on ground
Woodpeckers	tube, peanut feeders, suet
Wrens	suet

To help you identify each of these types of bird or seed, we suggest you check with online resources such as Google or Wikipedia. The Audobon Society also has great information about birds of all kinds, such as their Frequently Asked Questions page.

Shop all of our beautiful bird gifts at www.myevergreen.com

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