When snow and frigid temperatures sweep in, we have the luxury of cozying up in our warm, heated homes. And, if you’re like me, you probably look out at the birds in the freezing cold and wish you could help them. The good news is that birds have adapted to handle the frigid weather in winter.
Birds in winter have a few strategies for staying warm, such as packing on body fat, fluffing up their feathers, staying active, and shivering. However, food is the most important thing for birds in winter, as they need consistent calorie input to maintain their body temperature.
While birds can survive on their own in winter, we can boost their chances of survival and make the season less harsh for them by helping them out. This is especially important if you live in urban or rural agricultural areas, as these places may have limited natural food resources for the local birds. Read on to learn 15 ways you can help the birds in your backyard have a better winter.
15 Tips for Helping Birds in Winter
15. Keep a Stocked Birdfeeder
As mentioned above, birds need consistent calorie input to stay warm. Because of this, they actively scavenge for food throughout much of the day. Being active helps them stay warm, but it also burns calories.
By supplying a stocked feeder, you can help your winged friends conserve their energy and maintain a high-calorie intake. That way, their energy is spent maintaining their internal warmth, rather than having to search for food. This is one of the best ways you can help birds in winter, especially on extremely cold days.
14. Provide Food in the Morning and Afternoon
There are two times of the day when birds need to eat the most: the morning and the afternoon. Birds in winter don’t forage for food during the night. Consequently, they need to consume enough calories before dark to maintain their body temperature through the night.
By morning, their energy reserves are low or depleted from shivering and maintaining their warmth. They need to start eating right away to build their energy reserves.
For these reasons, it’s important to stock your feeder in the morning and in the afternoon before dusk. Alternatively, these are the best times to scatter seed if you don’t have a birdfeeder.
13. Scatter Food on The Ground , birds in winter
Not all birds in winter like to visit a hanging feeder. Several birds, such as Mourning Doves, Dark-eye Juncos, and sparrows, prefer to forage on the ground.
In addition to stocking your feeders, provide a platform feeder (even a wood stump would do), or scatter some seed on the ground. This will attract more winter birds to your backyard. Plus, it will feed the nearby squirrels, who also enjoy extra food in the winter. And it might help prevent them from trying to get to the hanging bird feeder.
12. Birds in Winter Need High-Energy Food
It’s best to offer birds in winter high-protein and fatty foods that will give them lasting energy. Some of the best foods to provide for winter birds include suet, peanuts, black oil sunflower seeds, and mealworms.
These foods are easy to eat, high in fat, and rich in protein. As such, they are the perfect meal for hungry and active birds.
11. Offer Fresh Fruit
Along with high-protein foods, you can set out fresh fruit to give the birds in winter an extra energy boost. You can set out oranges, apples, grapes, or berries. Dried fruit works as well, such as dried cranberries or raisins. To give the winter birds a little hydration, consider soaking the dried fruit for about an hour beforehand.
Before setting out large fruit like oranges or apples, cut them up or halve them so they’re easier for the birds to eat. Another idea is to make your own peanut butter balls with seeds and dried fruit. By doing this, you provide your backyard winter birds with a high-energy food they’ll love!
10. Provide Water for Birds in Winter
When the temperature dips below freezing and local waterways freeze, it can be hard for birds to find drinkable water. For that reason, providing water for birds in winter can help them thrive.
Heated bird baths are the most common method of providing water for winter birds. You can purchase a separate heater for your existing bird bath or buy a small heated bird bath.
If you don’t have a bird bath, you can set out a heavy-duty plant saucer or a small bowl with shallow water. You can place rocks in the bowl to make it easier for the birds to access the water. Because the water will freeze, you can have another plant saucer or bowl ready. Once the first one freezes, you can bring it in to thaw and replace it with the other one.
9. Provide Roosting Cavities
To escape the chilly weather, some birds will roost in cavities overnight. These birds include chickadees, tufted titmice, woodpeckers, nuthatches, bluebirds, and wrens. You can provide a warm roosting cavity in your backyard for birds in winter by setting up birdhouses.
Most folks bring their birdhouse in for the winter. However, leaving it out provides warm shelter for cavity roosting birds in winter. It’s important to clean it out in the fall after the breeding season before leaving it as a roosting cavity.
If you have any dead trees on your property (that aren’t a safety hazard), leave them for the cavity roosting birds. Woodpeckers will excavate holes in them for nesting. These cavities are then re-used by a variety of birds in winter.
8. Plant Shrubs and Leave Brush Piles
Another way that birds stay warm and survive the winter is by seeking shelter from the wind. A common place they seek shelter is in dense shrubs and brush piles. These also provide them with a safe place to rest, digest, and preen their feathers, away from predators.
So, instead of burning your brush pile or pruning back your shrubs, leave them for the birds. If you don’t have any shrubs in your backyard, consider planting them for the future winter birds to seek shelter in.
7. Build a Brush Pile
If you don’t already have a brush pile or shrubs in your backyard, you can build your own brush pile. Building a brush pile could be a months-long endeavor, as you may have to build it up slowly over time.
Every time a windstorm comes and branches fall from nearby trees, gather them up and form a pile. Build it so the logs and branches overlap each other, forming lots of air pockets that serve as entrances and escape routes.
Eventually, you’ll have a nice-sized brush pile that birds will happily seek shelter in. This brush pile will also serve as a potential nest site for native birds, such as sparrows or the Northern Cardinal.
6. Plant Native Fruit-bearing Shrubs and Trees
Another long-term way to help birds in winter is to plant native fruit-bearing shrubs and trees. This is something you’ll want to plan for the coming spring, and it will benefit the local birds for years to come.
Research the native fruit shrubs and trees of your area that provide berries in the winter. In eastern North America, consider native hollies, chokecherry, spicebush, and elderberry.
Planting fruit-bearing shrubs and trees has numerous benefits. Along with providing food and shelter for birds in winter, they also attract more bird species to your backyard, such as robins and cedar waxwings.
5. Plant Native Plants and Evergreens
Along with fruit-bearing shrubs and trees, you can plant native perennials and evergreens to cultivate a winter habitat for birds. Native perennials, such as various grasses, coneflowers, and asters, supply natural seed resources for birds. These plants also offer shelter for insects, which will feed the birds and their nestlings in the coming spring.
Evergreens provide shelter for birds in winter seeking refuge from the cold. Birds, such as jays and doves, will roost in dense evergreens where they are more protected from the wind. By planting evergreens in your backyard, you’re providing more habitat for birds to thrive, no matter the season.
4. Leave Weed Patches for Birds in Winter
When it comes to helping birds in winter, you have to let go of what “the neighbors might think.” Let a patch of native plants and weeds grow, and don’t cut them back in the fall. Birds, such as finches and sparrows, will feast on the seed heads of grasses, thistle, and mullein throughout the winter.
It’s best to plant native plants, but you can also start by simply letting a patch of your yard “grow wild.” Sure, there may be some weeds, such as thistle, but these are natural resources for native birds. Plus, this wild patch will provide shelter for insects, as mentioned above.
3. Leave Your Garden Foliage
We often think we need to prep the garden for winter by cutting back the dead stalks and seed heads of our annuals and perennials. These seed heads can provide food for the local birds, which is one reason to leave them standing.
Another reason is that they will offer habitat for insects and larvae, including beneficial garden insects. By leaving your garden foliage as it is, you provide food for your backyard birds (seeds, insects, and larvae) and bring in more beneficial insects to your garden.
2. Leave Leaf Litter in Your Garden and Yard
To create a winter habitat for birds to thrive, you essentially have to mimic their natural environment (along with providing feed and water). This also includes leaving the leaves in your yard. Yes, we’re taught to rake the leaves each fall or else the “grass will die.” That may be true for some ecosystems, but for humid and damp winter ecosystems, this isn’t the case.
Leaving the leaves promotes a healthier soil ecology, which benefits a myriad of creatures, including birds. Leaves shelter insects and larvae during the winter, which native birds can dig into and find. Then, the following spring, there are more insects for your backyard birds to feed on.
1. Don’t use Pesticides or Herbicides in Your Yard
The whole point of helping birds in winter is to try to protect them from starvation and harm. Another way to do this is to stop using harmful chemicals in your yard, which devastate your soil ecology and insect population.
No insects or larvae means no birds. Spraying weeds also hurts the local bird population, who could depend on those weed seeds in the winter.
There are many reasons to stop using pesticides and herbicides. One of them is to protect your backyard birds from harmful chemical exposure and to avoid destroying the food they need to survive (insects, larvae, and seeds).
Help Birds in Winter Thrive by Providing Food, Shelter, and Water
Birds are a bright spot of life in the winter landscape. They gift us joy and beauty with their presence, and we can reciprocate by offering them what they need to survive: food, shelter, and water.
Birds are fully capable of surviving the winter. They certainly aren’t dependent on us to make it through the cold nights. But, with the loss of habitat and natural resources, it may be true that your bird seed could save a bird’s life this winter. Even in areas where natural resources abound, we can help them stay healthy and strong by keeping a stocked feeder, a heated bird bath, and a place to shelter from the cold.
