I put out feeders for the first time this past Fall. I live in Georgia. We have gotten a big flock of pine siskins. I began spreading the feeders out and scattering seed across a natural area that lines the back yard, to encourage social distancing. I've cleaned the feeders every couple of weeks, but have been less vigilant with suet cages. I have moved the feeder pole from one side of our window to the other periodically and raked up or covered heavily used ground. The birds have seemed healthy, but I found a dead siskins under the feeder today. Do you have a cleaning/maintenance routine you recommend?
My wife would laugh at the idea that I would give advice about cleaning. If it doesn't damage the components, through the dishwasher is a sure way to sanitize. Otherwise, disinfecting cleaner well rinsed after the cleaning.
I think you are doing a good job. In a huge invasion year, it is inevitable that you will have some bird death. There is a reason huge numbers of birds poured south. They cannot all survive this invasion winter.
@@birdingbetter7600 Strong disinfectants are dangerous though, since rests stick to the surface and may be ingested. And the birds have such small bodies, not like us with a huge Liver...! Virus get killed by ½ minute exposure o soap-and water washing! They have a sensitive fat layer that gets destroyed that quickly by ordinary soap-washing. Even natural, mild soap. I learnt this by natural researched natural doctors during the planedmic.And by an experienced old Biologic-Dynamic professional gardener.
I am new to bird feeding this year and I just love the entertainment they provide. I was super excited today because we have had a male and female cardinal for months at our feeder and today the couple showed up with their baby... which looks like its a girl... I was so thrilled beyond words... I live in New Jersey and grew up with a male cardinal inside our home, which fell out of the nest and we revived him and he would not leave. So his cage was always open and he would roam the home during the day, and as night fell he went straight into his cage a slept in it all night long. We had him for 22 years until he passed away... I was heart broken when he died.
"Removing your feeders actually INCREASES crowding because the birds will simply crowd around the fewer number of feeders in the area." This is actually a great perspective.
With some science colleagues we modeled the effect of removing birds from areas with encephalitis virus outbreak (the virus cycles in birds and mosquitos). We found that reducing the density of birds would INCREASE virus transmission to people because, as in the feeder situation, it concentrates where mosquitos feed and transmit virus.
Eh. I don’t know if this is an 100% factual information though. I as well as most climate and nature scientists would agree bird feeders are way more for our enjoyment than for the birds. The single best thing you can do is plant native plants to your region. Then add a water source. Adding bird feeders is fine but not necessary in most situations.
Thanks so much for your perspective! I enjoy my birds so much and now my husband and daughters can identify our visitors and appreciate their behaviors. We recognize our regular nesting pairs, rare visitors, and overall it's been so valuable to our family!
Thank you so much for this. I just thought it was the strangest thing, all of a sudden. there are articles to take down the feeders. This is common sense!
What’s the best solution for cleaning Against Salmonella? It’s May 2023 & I planned to take down my feeders in April. But this year, I just couldn’t. I do enjoy watching all the birds I see each day…and a few squirrel too I sad to say. But this year I’ve kept it up. But with warmer spring, it seems there’s more feces both on platform & watering bowl. I’ve used Alcohol to clean but I’m worried about alcohol being too harsh. What’s the best solution for cleaning Against Salmonella?
I live in Texas yeah that bad part that recently got hit by that 🥶 anyways I have 3 bird feeders I purchased at wall mart they look like round gazebos because the long ones (from home depot) break easily. I don't know about live camera set up or i would have a cam, have any bird people seen that silver slightly bigger hummingbird that flies as if it teleports? Me and mom seen it from inside our home, actually is my second time 👀 this amazing breed when the sun reflects off his feathers it looks like if bird was a silver metal one. Thanks for feeding these amazing 🐦 I use salt free pumping seed kernels and salt free sunflower kernels. (They love them, and why not I pay $50 on the pumpkin and $40 for sunflower) I spoil them.
Hello! Do you have any recommendations on this with the current mortality event in the midantlantic states? The birds in my very urban area are super reliant on feeders, and I'd hate to see them go hungry. But the event *is* affecting my area. If it would be safe to keep feeders out with regular cleaning, how often should it be done? I really want to keep my bird friends safe and full and happy.
Love your information 💞 Here in Nebraska when we had such a bitter cold in February I had so many finches.I counted well over 100 every day. House, purple, yellow. Plus so many other birds.I have never had so many at one time😀. Thank you for explaining why. A couple weeks ago I saw a sharp-shinned hawk. Now my front feeders are virtually empty nothing is coming to them except the Blue Jays and a nut hatch. I’ve always had House finches. My backyard feeders are still busy. Many yellow finches but not many house finches. Any ideas as to why they haven’t returned? I’ve had the feeders there for 6 years and they were always busy with birds. 🙁 thank you for great content! I just found you and subscribed 😀😃
As soon as there is a bit of budding by shrubs and trees, finches seem to switch to eating buds. After a winter of mostly seeds, green buds provide a lot of needed vitamins and minerals. If birds are really hungry a hawk will not keep them away for long.
Any perspective or advice about birds fighting over the food and getting injured? I tried more feeders with more holes. Spending it out over flat areas to give more space. And letting it run out so they aren’t all dependent on it every day. It doesn’t seem to help much. I’ve seen more and more injuries and even found a dead one under the window feeder. Then I saw one bird pin down another in that exact spot and think that’s what must have happened to the dead one. I don’t want to breed violence, lol. Any ideas?
Thanks for this advice. After watching your video, I'm realizing that not only will birds just move to other feeders, they may move to contaminated feeders if those people are not aware of the problem. Do you have a suggestion on keeping an area clean for ground feeders? I tried raking and it just doesn't do anything! I have grass and some bare dirt/ concrete under mine. Obviously I can sweep a little. Anything else? Does spraying with a hose just spread the bacteria? Or would it help? Thanks!
I've had two dead crows and found two crows the last five days that couldn't fly. I fed the two birds electrolights with a syringe in the mouth and one can now fly and get around. The other I found today on its back gave it electrolights and is now walking and standing.
What do you think about the west coast recommendations by state fish and wildlife departments in Washington, Oregon, California and now Idaho to remove feeders?
I think it is an easy answer to give. Saying take down all feeders is like saying stay in your house no matter what until the pandemic is over. You have to balance both positive and negative aspects of taking down feeder and appreciate that the birds will just move to other feeders. On balance, I recommend that you do not take down your feeders.
A game warden just came and threatened to give me a fine because I leave a handful of seed on my porch railing so the chipmunk and squirrels don’t eat my plants. Can I really be fined for this? I don’t have any bird feeders but he said I’m not allowed too. He said he would come back once a week and fine us because my sister said we won’t stop giving them a handful of seed a day. Is this true? How can I be fined for this?
Here's a question you may or may not know the answer to, but can pets or people contract salmonella from infected bird seed? I ask because one of our dogs eats the bird seed that reaches the ground from our deck feeders.
I don't know for certain, but many pets across the country come in contact with spilled seed. If it was a major issue I think that there would be health alerts.
I have found 3 dead birds at my feeders in the past couple weeks. We got window decals that stopped the window strikes. But I found another one today 3 days later. We have 10 to 30 birds in our back yard at a time. Do you thing it’s just a normal thing considering the volume?
@@birdingbetter7600 , indeed. I know my garden has been a sanctuary during all this. Grateful to be living in a home with an outdoors to escape to during the worst of the lockdown
I suggest cleaning them every day if you are able to do that. Any disinfecting cleaner is effective (bacteria are really pretty easy to kill on plastic/metal surfaces).
Agreed ! If everyone took down their bird feeder, birds would just start scavenging , they would start getting into ..contaminated pools, septic systems , garbages ect...
ALL of these negatives that you bring up are resolved by native gardening. Plus there are many more positives w native gardening. Focus on planting true natives (not cultivars) and you'll have more birds AND more pollinators.
Geoff, You failed to mention the not so little fact that avian salmonellosis can easily spread from bird to bird in a flock and larger populations flocks belong to. You also didn't bother to mention the huge wave of avian salmonellosis affecting the mortality rates of Pine Siskins in the southern and western US this past winter. Don't you think that's important information to share? Most bird feeders available on the open market harbor bacteria-laced droppings on their surfaces birds will be exposed to, IN BETWEEN FEEDER CLEANINGS!. These surfaces can include smaller areas like flat top caps of seed or thistle tubes, or relatively flat roofs of hopper-style feeders. Bottom line, if birds can perch directly on these contaminated droppings on feeder surfaces then this always adds up to exposure for them to the harmful bacteria the droppings can contain, including salmonella. There are no inherent qualities in any recommended bleach solution that magically ZAP the salmonella out of droppings deposited on feeder surfaces after it's been sanitized. So, even if you're a responsible backyard birder, if your feeders harbor salmonella-laced droppings your garden birds can be exposed to in between cleanings, then unfortunately this can lead to birds becoming infected with salmonellosis , and then spread it from bird to bird. Most often people that feed wild animals are seen as interfering with nature. But, somehow a pass is issued to all those that feed WILD BIRDS across the planet. Backyard birding is a man-made hobby with too much man-made, avian disease-causing error built in. Please name another wild creature we nurse along like is done with the supplemental feeding of wild birds. Feeding wildlife is discouraged because it will concentrate animals into 1 area, and enable the transmission of diseases to people and other wildlife. But, as you did mention in your video, this is exactly what occurs when feeding birds in backyards. Birds of different species visiting bird feeders intermingle with each other as they never would in the wild, and this opens the door for them to pass diseases across species. So, how can feeding other forms of wildlife not be ok when it comes to the disease threats for them and people, but somehow it's ok for birds that visit garden bird feeders. The argument you make that we owe it to these garden birds through supplemental feeding to make up to them for the loss of their food sources and habitat because of urban sprawl is weak, in my opinion. Not all wild birds visit garden feeders, so how are they surviving in the wild? Partners in flight estimate that there has been a decline of 80% in Pine Siskin populations since 1970. So, if backyard bird feeding has become so popular since then, then why aren't their numbers significantly less in decline? Bird feeders that harbor bacteria-laced droppings birds will be exposed to in between cleanings is a topic that's rarely discussed. Also a topic that's rarely discussed is the fact that not all that participate in the hobby do so responsibly. You may very well be a responsible backyard birder and diligent about feeder and garden maintenance, while your backyard birding neighbor a few doors down may not bother with feeder and garden maintenance, at all. Like it, or not, chances are pretty much 100% that your garden birds are dining in both backyards. So, this is the mixed bag of bacteria-laced feeders and gardens birds are up against every day, season in and season out in this country. So, it's important to consider the BIG picture of backyard birding, and not ignore the fact that a significant e percentage of people participate in the hobby irresponsibly and don't give a snap of their finger as to the avian disease threats their bacteria-laced feeders and gardens continously pose year-round to backyard bird populations.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. Bird feeding is a major, and I would argue positive, activity throughout the US and Canada. It is not going away now matter what I say about it. So, the reality is that if 50% of homeowners took down their feeders, siskins would crowd into the remaining feeders. It wouldn't solve the problem, and wold likely make it worse. This year, siskins were dying both because of salmonellosis and due to starvation. The desperation of birds to get at food was clear in my yard and in other yards that I visited. Siskins are irruptive and very hard to census in the winter. Breeding Bird Survey for the US and Canada show a modest decline of Pine Siskins between 1980 and 2000 but no declines since 2000. BBS data is our best census data. There is no direct link between death from disease in the winter and breeding populations of siskins or any other feeder bird (except perhaps House Finches during the mycoplasma epizootic). I stand by the views I expressed in the video.
@@birdingbetter7600 I definitely agree that backyard birding is a major activity in the US and Canada, and no matter how much negative press the hobby may get , it's not going to go away. Yes, the North American Breeding Bird Survey is one of the gold standards for taking yearly measurements of breeding bird populations across the US and Canada. They recently determined that 700 million birds across 31 species have vanished since 1970 across all habitats. The researcher's estimated losses are only in breeding populations so they consider them to be conservative, meaning total bird losses could actually be much higher than they reported. Waterfowl and raptors have made recoveries, according to the same yearly studies. At the end of the day, this all goes back to man's interference through agricultural practices, urban sprawl, etc. affecting the decline in much of these bird populations through losses of their habitat, and food sources. Backyard birding isn't going away. It's a 4 billion dollar a year industry in the US, so there's some staying power there. But, I believe the hobby dovetails into man's collective blundering of bird losses across the planet, in that basically human interference including backyard birding has been disastrous for birds. I believe the hobby is in the disastrous mix because surely you would agree that many participate in the hobby irresponsibly, and take little to no measures to protect the health of their garden birds through feeder and garden environment maintenance. Like it, or not, backyard birds are exposed year-round to clean, as well as very unsanitary, dropping-covered feeders and garden environments. Backyard birding is a man-made hobby, with too much man-made, avian disease-causing error built in. And, you really don't have to have an irruptive migration to have Pine Siskins and Gold Finches massing on feeders by the dozens in the winter months in the southern and western US provoking the spread of avian salmonellosis in these populations. Irruptive migrations only make the disease threat worse in that there is just exponentially more birds thrown in to the disease threat mix. It's very much akin to more people contracting covid-19 leads to increased rates of the spread of the disease. As I previously mentioned, yearly scientific study done by the BBS has determined in recent years that mankind is responsible for the much of the decline bird populations in North America through agricultural practices, urban sprawl, etc. So, contending that mankind collectively knows what they're doing when it comes to preserving and indeed enhancing the health and growth of backyard birding populations through participation in the massive, unregulated backyard birding hobby, is crazy, in my opinion. Travis Wilcoxen did an extensive study for 3 years of the positive and negative aspects of supplemental feeding of birds at forested sites. The study certainly determined that supplemental feeding had positive impacts on the health of the studied bird populations, as well as the prevalence of avian diseases the supplemental feeding caused in a percentage of these same birds. Overall, the effect was determined to be neutral on these studied bird populations. This was a controlled study that determined these positive and negative impacts. I argue that backyard birding is a massive, unregulated, and uncontrolled experiment, and that the health impacts the hobby has on the mortality rates of garden birds cannot be accurately determined.
Minimizing Microwave (cell phone, iPads etc))radiation around your house and garden will also help birds tremendously. Switch them off as much as possible,also wireless phones, baby-watchers, WiFi, "Smart" meters... Good for you, too!
