Want birds? Attract them with food

Of the 41 million Americans who watch birds, some stalwart souls venture out early mornings to the closest wetlands.

Others prefer their air-conditioned home, scouting birds they’ve lured through feeders, water features and birdhouses. Others simply hang a suet feeder and put out a pie pan full of water and watch the birds descend.

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Lowe's

Yellow feeders with perches add color to the yard.

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Lowe's

Wooden feeders with suet cakes provide a great source of energy for a variety of birds.

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Pike Nurseries

Ceramic tube feeders by JJ Potts are made on a potter’s wheel and no two are alike.

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In Georgia, you can find plenty of beautiful and entertaining birds in your own backyard year-round. It’s fun to get kids involved from choosing feeders, to cooking hummingbird nectar, to identifying feathery visitors.

Luckily, we also have an equally diverse selection of places to shop for supplies: specialty stores such as Wild Birds Unlimited and the Wild Bird Centers, and neighborhood hardware stores that offer good selections of bird feeders, seed and suet. Even big-box stores such as Lowe’s, Home Depot, Petsmart and Petco cater to birders.

With this topic, shopping locally is best. People who love birds, from store-owners to local birding groups, know their stuff, and it’s fun to explore our specific birding environment with them.

FEEDER CHOICES

Food and feeders are the first step to attracting birds to your backyard. You can buy feeders that dispense seeds, suet, peanuts or corn. Hummingbirds need feeders that dispense sugar-water nectar.

Suet feeders

Inexpensive and easy to set up, suet feeders provide a great source of energy for a variety of birds. While it’s hot out, be sure to get no-melt suet, or you’ll end up with melted fat on your lawn below the feeder (just as unattractive as it sounds).

Recycled aluminum feeders retail for $35.99 at Wild Birds Unlimited, Peachtree City (www.wbu.com/fayette) and at other metro Wild Bird Unlimited stores. Basic suet feeders also are available at big-box and hardware stores.

Hopper feeders

Some birds, such as woodpeckers and nuthatches, like to cling to feeders while others — cardinals, blue jays, finches and Carolina chickadees — prefer to perch. Hopper feeders have ideal perches and hold a lot of seed, which means you don’t have to fill them as often.

One type of hopper feeder is made of plastic milk jugs and bags that have been recycled. The smallest size is $34.99 and the largest is $54.99, at Wild Birds Unlimited, Peachtree City (www.wbu.com/fayette) and other metro stores.

Tube feeders

This popular style is usually a clear plastic tube with lots of places for birds to perch and dine. Ceramic tube feeders by JJ Potts are individually thrown on a potter’s wheel, and no two pieces are alike. The JJ Potts feeders come in many colors, and are $44.99 at Pike Nurseries.

MORE FEEDER CHOICES

Nyjer or thistle feeders

This is one feeder that will be squirrel-free: Squirrels don’t eat thistle or Nyjer seed. When goldfinches nest this time of year, these are good feeders to have around.

The MobiMesh Nyjer Feeder retails for $27.99 at Wild Bird Centers, including the Dunwoody location (wildbird.com/stores/dun).

Combo feeders

With places for seed and suet, these feeders make for lively gathering places. You can also get feeders with multiple tubes and fill each tube with a different seed. A combo hopper/suet feeder retails for $15.98 at Lowe’s and Lowes.com

HUMMINGBIRD FEEDERS

Hummingbirds can be attracted to your backyard with plantings of salvia, impatiens and lantana. Here are three feeder styles:

Basic feeder

The bright colors give this feeder visual flair. It’s a common style, and is often the choice of beginning birders. It holds 24 ounces of nectar and has three portals.

It retails for $9.98 at Lowe’s or Lowes.com. Many stores carry similar models.

Blown-glass single feeder

Windy Wing’s beautiful hand-blown glass single feeder adds an elegant element to your landscape. Group several together for a colorful display. They retail for $14.99 at Pike Nurseries.

Happy 8 feeder

Droll Yankees’ Happy 8 has eight feeding ports. Easy to disassemble, it’s a dream to clean, and its nectar guard tips prevent bees and wasps from getting to the nectar.

The Happy 8 retails for $27.99. Droll Yankees products are carried at Wild Birds Unlimited, Wild Bird Centers, Pike Nurseries, Hastings Garden Centers and many hardware stores.

JUST FOR FUN

Watch closely

Zoo Atlanta has Panda Cam. You can have BirdCam. Wingscape’s BirdCam is motion-activated and weatherproof. Its digital camera captures bird photos and videos, and gives you an up-close look at your backyard birds. Information at www.wingscapes.com.

The Wingscape Birdcam is $249 at Wild Bird Centers, including the Dunwoody location (wildbird.com/stores/dun).

Chickadee calling

Announce your birding hobby with a ringtone of your favorite bird’s song on your cellphone. Feathertalk has the sounds of more than 300 bird species in its library.

Ringtones are $2.95 apiece at www.feathertalk.com.