Attracting birds, how to attract them?

How to attract birds to your garden?

Having the visit of pretty birds at home, in your garden, is always so pleasant and so beautiful! Hearing their songs, witnessing their little swirling dances in the air and being able to admire them at any time of the day is wonderful.

10 Tips today offers you tips and tricks to attract birds to a garden and a birdhouse. Happy reading and above all happy bird watching!

1. Recipe for fat balls to attract birds

Do you know how to make homemade grease balls or suet to attract birds to your garden or even your balcony? Here’s how to make fat balls:

• Cook bacon and keep the cooking fat aside
• Then put the bacon fat in a small pot. (especially not plastic)
• Place the container of fat in the refrigerator and let the bacon fat set
• Put the fat in a saucer and add sunflower seeds and other bird seeds
• Hang outside to attract birds in the garden and on the balcony

This is what a fat ball or suet ball looks like for birds.

You can add other seeds and food of your choice depending on the types of birds you want to attract to the house. You can also use a small net to place the homemade suet in.

2. Install a feeding station (a feeder)

To attract birds to your garden or near your house, it is important to install a feeding station or simply a small feeder.

Birds live to feed. Birds are always looking for food. If you offer them a place where they can come and feed whenever they want, they will definitely come back often. A nice feeder with berries and seeds will already be a good start in successfully attracting birds.

If you don’t want to install a bird feeder then the recipe for homemade suet and fat balls suggested above is a good alternative.

You can also buy ready-made bird fat balls online. Like these for example:

3. Choose the place where you put the feeder

Do you know how to attract birds to a feeder? It’s fine to place one or more feeders, but that is not always enough to attract the birds. To successfully attract birds, you must:

• Install a feeder in a place where there are many plants and trees
• Install the feeder in a quiet and peaceful place
• Prioritize the back of the house for the installation of a manger

These bird feeder tips and tricks are also good for installing a birdhouse. Birds must be comfortable coming here to eat or sleep or you may not be able to attract birds to the garden.

4. Choose a good bird feeder

Before purchasing a bird feeder it is important to consider a few important points. Here are some features to check when buying:

• Choose a solid and resistant feeder
• Choose an easy-care feeder
• Choose an airtight feeder to keep the seeds dry
• Choosing the Right Size Feeder for Different Bird Species

Of course metal feeders are more expensive but they will last longer and withstand the weather.

Here is a very popular feeder online. This feeder is perfect for attracting a large number of bird species to your garden and above all it is very solid!

5. Maintain the feeder regularly

It is important to thoroughly clean your feeder, at least once every two or three weeks. You must remove the droppings and any bird seed that is no longer good.

Each season, dismantle your feeder and clean it completely with water, soap and a few drops of bleach to disinfect everything. Of course, don’t forget to rinse well before putting the seeds back in to remove all traces and smells of bleach.

6. Offer choice seeds to birds

You can offer birds black sunflower seeds, corn, white millet, canary seed, safflower, rapeseed and thistle. Avoid store-bought mixes because birds will waste a lot of food just foraging for what they like.

If you want to attract only one species of bird in particular then it is better to buy this type of seed only so as not to waste everything.

So which seeds for which birds?

• Black Sunflower Seeds: Chickadees, Grosbeaks, Woodpeckers, Goldfinches, Nuthatches
• Almond: tits, woodpeckers, nuthatches
• Corn seeds: finches, buntings, juncos, sparrows, tohis
• Crushed peanuts: woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, siskins, sparrows
• Wheat and barley seeds: almost all seed-eating birds
• Hazelnuts: Nuthatches, tits, woodpeckers

Here is an excellent mix of seeds to attract and bring birds to your garden all year round:

7. Provide good shelter for birds

Birds like trees and conifers because they can shelter there, rest there, perch there and place themselves there to observe their environment. If you can add trees to your yard, that will be perfect.

So which trees for which bird?

• Fir: partridges, tits, doves, grosbeaks.
• Oak: grosbeaks, blue jays, doves.
• Cherry tree: grosbeaks, waxwings, cardinals, blackbirds, tits.
• Cedar: all the little birds.
• Spruce: tits, sparrows, grosbeaks and other small birds.
• Apple tree: tits, waxwings, grosbeaks, finches.

Hardwoods, conifers and fruit shrubs are good trees to have in your home to attract birds to your yard and garden.

8. Install birdhouses

Birds love nesting boxes too. Moreover, some birds will like nesting boxes to shelter their nests. Having them in your yard is therefore another good way to attract birds.

You can of course buy one or more birdhouses online but you can make your own. It’s not that complicated to build a birdhouse. Here are the steps and dimensions to follow to make a nice little birdhouse offered by the 100things2do blog:

*source: 100things2do

If you have no manual talent then here is a nice little model of wooden birdhouse at a low price to buy online:

9. Offer water for the birds

In addition to food you can attract birds thanks to water basins for example. Birds quickly locate water points.

You can therefore install a pond or a free-standing or suspended water bath to attract birds who will come to drink there or simply wash there. A great way to attract even more bird species to the home garden.

Do you want to attract hummingbirds?

If you are instead looking for a recipe to attract hummingbirds then sugar water is the solution as you will discover in my new article right here: How to make homemade hummingbird nectar?

10. Keep predators away

Of course, if you want to attract a lot of birds to the garden and the backyard, it is better to keep predators very far away.

Install your feeders and nesting boxes as high as possible and check that nothing is too close to act as a bridge between the animals and your installation. Otherwise, it will be very easy for other animals to climb up to your feeders.