Fall Backyard Birding Tips

As fall proceeds, the plants slowly die off and the trees lose their leaves, decreasing the amount of natural cover that songbirds use for protection from predators and roosting. Natural foods slowly decline as seed heads are eaten by birds or blown in the wind, insects hibernate or are killed with the first frost. Berries are often abundant in the fall on plants and shrubs and provide excellent food for birds. Overall, however, with cooler weather and less daylight, feeding opportunities for birds are diminished. The number of feeders in the backyard should be increased to help the birds along. Water, as always, is very important, so keep the baths full of fresh water. Here are some tips for backyard birding in the fall:

1)    Increase the number of feeders in your yard to compensate for the lower levels of available natural food.

2)    Offer a wide variety of foods to attract the greatest variety of birds. A tube feeder filled with sunflower, another tube filled with nyjer, a hopper / ground feeder with millet and sunflower and a couple of suet feeders will attract a large variety of birds.

3)    Fall is a good time of year to put new nesting boxes up. The boxes will weather over the winter and look more natural in the spring.

4)    Consider putting a roosting box up in your yard. A roosting box provides shelter for the birds. A roosting box looks like a nesting box, but with the entrance hole on the bottom instead of the top. There are also several perches inside for the birds to cling to. Having the entrance hole at the bottom of the box helps to contain the collective bird body heat that rises to the top of the box.

5)    Keep the bird bath clean and filled with fresh water. I use a bristled vegetable brush to scrub the baths free of debris and algae.

6)    If you have the room, offer a couple of bird baths at different heights and locations. I have two pedestal baths in different areas of the garden and two ground level baths partially under shrubs for cover and shade. Try to keep the baths away from the feeders.

7)    Take a good look around the garden. Not everything has grown as well as we would have  liked and some plantings surprised us and grew beyond expectations. Make notes for next spring about which plants & shrubs were successful and which were not. Maybe some plants need to be moved into the sun because a tree in the yard has grown and now throws a larger shadow. Maybe the neighbor has put in a new fence affecting the number of hours of sunlight that hits your border garden. Do the plantings in your yard provide enough cover? Be aware of the changes and take action next spring.

8)    With nesting season over, you can take the bird houses down. I like to leave them up all year, as they provide shelter during cold and bad weather.

9)    Remember, fall is migration time. Be on the lookout for migrating birds that don’t take up residence during the summer. Be alert!