Backyard birds
Know who’s at the feeder, and what they need
Which feeder and which seed bring which birds, water in every season, keeping feeders clean, squirrels and other visitors, and telling one bird from another: short answers for people who keep a feeder. Every one is traced to the bird counts, wildlife agencies and studies behind it, named so you can go and look.
Field guide, first pages
Five subjects the first guides start with.
Feeders and seed
Which feeder and which seed bring which birds, and how much to put out.
Water all year
Baths, heaters and shallow dishes, from a hot afternoon to a frozen morning.
Clean feeders
How often, with what, and the signs of a sick bird to watch for.
Who is that bird?
Telling look-alikes apart by size, marks, song and season.
Squirrels and other visitors
Squirrels, hawks, cats and bears: what keeps them off, from the sources.
From the sources to the page
The route every guide takes before it goes up.
Counts and agencies first
We read the long-running bird counts, the wildlife and agriculture agencies and the studies first, and write second.
Sources in the open
The bottom of every guide names what it drew on, ready for you to check.
Numbers with dates
Every figure carries the date we took it from its source.
Disagreements shown
When two sources differ about a seed, a feeder or a bird’s range, you get both views.
Corrections noted
Spot an error and write in: the guide is corrected and the fix is dated at the bottom.
Our backyard rules
- Nothing for sale here: no ads and no affiliate links
- We never tell anyone to handle or move a wild bird, nest, egg or feather
- Bird flu notes cite the USDA or your state’s wildlife agency
- Every fix dated on the guide it changed
Corinne Tilden is the pen name our small team writes under. More about Feederside