Feed Your Backyard Birds in the Fall and Winter
Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of braving the Colorado winter to go wildlife watching you could simply bring nature to you while you sit in the warm comfort of your home?
Help your local wild birds survive the winter months
Black Capped Chickadee is a common Colorado winter bird. Find it’s favorite spot in your yard and place the feeder there. This will add life and personality to your garden in the cold winter months. Photo Credit: Gary Hartley, NPS
With fall and winter around the corner, the wildlife here in Colorado is starting to make their preparations for winter. Just like you have your checklist to help prep your home for colder temperatures, Colorado winter birds are starting to look for places to survive the snowy months. Make your garden a haven for winter birds and bring some of Colorado’s wildlife right into your backyard.
If you’ve already been feeding birds in the spring and summer, you can bet that those birds have become accustomed to their daily meal. Don’t take their food source away right when it counts the most: in the winter. And if you don’t have any bird feeders yet, this is your time to help out these little birds survive the winter. They’ll stick around and be appreciative in the spring as well.
Dark Eyed Juncos can be spotted in Colorado all winter long. Find their favorite perch or fence post and place a feeder, house or bath/water close by to make that area extra special.
Photo credit: NPS/Alicia Lafever
Picking the perfect spot for your bird-feeder
To find the perfect spot, take a look out the window you are most likely to bird-watch from and pick a spot within that area of sight.
Next, spend a few days watching how the birds navigate through your yard. Do they have a favorite place on your fence where they like to sit and sing their song and clean their feathers? A favorite bush, tree or a special area of the garden where the birds naturally gather? This is where you want to put your feeder. Make the area that they already love even more irresistible.
Blue Jays are often spotted in Colorado in the winter. Make sure to hang your feeder out of range of local predators, like your cat. Photo credit: David Hypes, NPS
A few things to keep in mind if this is your first time hanging bird feeders:
- Hang them high enough so that neighborhood cats and other predators can’t scoop them up when they land for a bite to eat.
- Don’t hang then near your windows as the birds may get injured or worse if they overshoot the bird-feeder and smash into your window.
- Make sure the area isn’t too open. Birds like to feel protected when they eat and will often gather their seed and seek cover in a nearby bush or shrub.
- Clean the feeder every now and again to make sure bacteria or disease isn’t building up and harming the birds. A little lemon juice or vinegar is an excellent natural solution to getting rid of bacteria if you don’t want to use bleach or store-bought disinfectant.
Before you know it, you’ll have your personal winter apiary right in your own backyard. All you have to do now is just sit back and enjoy the show.
