Butterfly And Bird Feeders

Butterfly and bird feeders attract lovely critters to your yard. Your primary ways of supplying food are with appropriate flowers and with bird feeders.

Many flowers attract both butterflies and hummingbirds. You can plant herbs such as sage and thyme. Also try catnip, hyssop, or lavender. Try other plants such as butterfly bush and bee balm. Phlox, purple coneflower, and sedum make good choices, as well. And you have numerous other options that will help to attract butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard.

Hummingbirds also like hummingbird feeders. You can boil together one part sugar to four parts water. Let the solution cool completely before adding it to the feeder. Contrary to popular opinion, you don't have to add red food coloring to the sugar water to attract hummingbirds. Some experts even discourage red food coloring. You should clean out the feeder once per week with hot, soapy water. You should rinse the feeder with boiling water. Then refill it with a fresh batch of sugar water. Even if the hummingbirds did not drink all the sugar water from the previous week, you should replace it. If you leave it longer, it can ferment and harm the birds. If you find they aren't drinking much, don't fill the feeders as high.

Hanging bird feeders attract other types of birds (finches, for example). Some songbirds prefer platform feeders, and others are most likely to eat right off the ground. When placing bird feeders, you should consider some of the following suggestions. Place bird feeders a few feet away from shrubbery or trees. Dense foliage gives birds a place to hide from predators. They may not want to feed in areas where they are more open to attack. Secondly, a location shielded from wind will probably help to attract birds to the feeder. If winds typically come from a certain direction, place the bird feeders on the opposite side of your house; the building will help to break the wind.

Depending on how you stock your feeders, you can attract different types of songbirds. If you want to buy only one type of seed that will attract the largest variety of birds, black-oil sunflower seeds will be your best choice. Chickadees, finches, woodpeckers, blue jays, cardinals, and sparrows all prefer sunflower. Mixed seed is also a popular choice, but it works best either sprinkled on the ground or offered in a platform feeder (as opposed to a tube feeder). Fruit can also attract birds such as robins and mockingbirds. In this case, try sliced apples or bananas, or even raisins.

By planting appropriate flowers, you may be able to entice butterflies and hummingbirds into your yard. Installing hummingbird feeders will provide an extra food source beyond nectar. Bird feeders should attract songbirds. Take care to place them out of the wind, in an area where they can hide from predators in bushes or trees. Choose your feed based on what varieties of birds you would like to attract. Then sit back and watch as interesting creatures visit your yard.