An organized, clean, well-stocked feeding station adds a lot to our yard and benefits birds in the best possible ways.

Especially because we are still celebrating “National Bird Feeding Month”, let’s emphasize our feeding station and feeders, with an initial intent to appreciate all this simple addition to our yard does to focus some portion of our daily attention to birds that come to feed and drink and bathe, while providing you with a “daily dose of nature” above and beyond your trees, shrubs, and flowering plants. The birds add life to it all – moving, acting, reacting, lively animals that fly into view, share something of their looks and behavior, and add so much to our daily psyche.

Sometimes we overlook the importance of this regular interaction with nature, but let’s appreciate our feeder birds just a little more this week. At the same time, let’s take a second look at our feeding station and feeders. Does your feeding station add an attractive element to your yard? Do you like the look of your collection of feeders? Consider the hangers or posts you use? Do you have a hodge-podge of feeder styles, or do you have a designer’s touch with all feeders colored green, or red, or a rainbow of colors. Even a simple rearrangement of your feeders can add a little stimulation to your feeding station view outside your windows.

How does the area beneath the feeders look? Does it need to be cleaned up? Do you need a prompt to take some moments to do a thorough raking of seed shells and avian droppings at this point in the year, or do you keep on top of this often overlooked or postponed aspect of feeding birds. It’s best to keep your bird feeding area as tidy as possible, especially with the concern for the health of the birds in mind.

While we’re at it, how about your feeders? Is it time for a good cleaning again? If you’ve been keeping up with regular feeder washing, sometimes a quick rinse can be a plus in between true cleaning sessions. How about your water basin? A regular scrub can go a long way, and remember that it’s a good idea to give your cleaning brushes a good cleaning periodically too. I think a lot of us became more aware of “germs” during the peak of the covid epidemic, washing our hands much more often, wiping things down with sterile cleaning napkins, and other things. While we may have eased up on some of that practice, I think we all became more concerned with cleaning our bird feeders more often, along with the area underneath and around our feeding station.

One more thing you can do to add a little more appeal around your feeding station, especially as the weather warms enough for outdoor plants to flourish, is to add a couple decorative pots filled with blooming flowering plants. If you select plants that provide nectar-rich flowers for hummingbirds, so much the better.

Focus on Foods

We know that sometimes around this turning point of nature’s calendar, some people’s attention for feeding birds becomes a bit diminished, so let’s consider this point as we greet March’s days of promise – the promise of warmer, greener days with new birds arriving in our neighborhood – and let’s re-energize our daily bird feeding efforts. By keeping feeders stocked with seeds, nuts, and suet; nectar if you live west of the Gulf, and by providing fresh water regularly – all with daily checks of food and water levels – you stand a better chance of attracting more interesting birds more regularly, and that’s an important reason we feed birds, in addition to the obvious benefit of providing a nutritious, dependable food source for birds.

As birders, we take great pride in feeding birds and making our feeding station an integral and attractive part of our yard. It’s always worthwhile to step back and take a second look to appreciate how important our feeding station is to us, and to the birds that visit it.

Share your backyard birding experiences and photographs with The Birding Wire at editorstbw2@gmail.com