How to Feed the Birds During the Winter Without Dropping a Bomb on Birdseed

Many people worry about what the birds are going to eat during the winter months. Of course, they survived many years, centuries, even millennia without people feeding them, but undoubtedly, modern sprawl has robbed our avian friends of much of their feeding grounds.

Where once abundant fields with wild plants holding seeds into winter abounded, we now have parking lots, housing developments, and city blocks. We keep things trimmed so that plants never mature and set seeds. We tidy away fallen fruit, deadhead flowers, and dispose of excess vegetables from the garden.

Then, we buy birdfeed to ensure the birds can eat during the winter. We buy expensive bags of birdseed, put them in birdfeeders, and create a somewhat unnatural exchange and dependence. But, there are things we could do to improve the situation without spending a bomb on birdfeed every couple of weeks and keeping birds true to their nature as foragers.

Shrubbery, Vines, and Trees

Source: Sun Gro Horticulture/Youtube

It’s important to remember that, despite bags of birdseed being mostly composed of annual crops like sunflower and millet, birds like to eat from lots of large, perennial shrubs and trees. They love berries, cherries, and nuts, even versions inedible for humans. Try planting these in the yard somewhere.

• Holly bushes add some evergreen gloss to the landscape, can be snipped for natural Christmas decorations each year, and provide attractive berries for birds. The spiky foliage also provides a protected spot for birds to roost.
• Ivy can be invasive when not kept in check regularly, but it can also provide a lot of fodder for the fowl. The berries are good bird food, as are the insects that enjoy its dense foliage.
• Hawthorn trees are native to much of the US and are great food for wildlife, birds, and humans. Insects also like to feast on the fruit, and in turn, more birds will come for the insects. Haw berries can stay on the trees until February and March.
• Rose hedges can provide another great source of wintertime food for birds. The rose hips, which are great for tea and jam, stay on the rose plants into the depths of winter, so birds are able to forage for them when the pickings are slim.
• Spruce and pine trees are great for birds. They can find winter shelter in the evergreen boughs, and the seeds from the cones are beloved by goldfinches, nuthatches, and chickadees.

There are loads more shrubs, vines, and trees that can help provide winter feeding grounds for birds. Birch trees and mountain ash are great choices. Winter-blooming honeysuckle is another nice vine for people and birds. Shrubs like viburnum, cotoneaster, and pyracantha (firethorn) are notable shrubs to add to the mix.

Planting Crops for Birds

Source: Earther Academy/Youtube

The other way to provide a lot of wintertime food for birds without buying birdseed is to grow it in the garden. The secret is to let them grow, mature, and stay standing in the garden until springtime the following year. There are loads of flowers and grasses that work.

• Sunflower seeds are a mainstay in birdseed mixes at the store, but sunflowers are rugged, easy-to-grow plants that can beautify the garden in the summertime and feed the birds in the winter. Just grow them and either let them stand in the garden until the birds pick them clean or leave the sunflower heads out there for birds to visit. Keep one flowerhead for seeds to plant next year’s crop.
• Millet is a very common inclusion in bags of birdseed, and it can be planted in garden beds at the end of summer with enough time to go to seed by winter. The birds can pick it clean, and it can be cut in the spring to provide mulch. Save the seed off a couple of stalks to do it again next year.
• Coneflowers, or echinacea, are great to grow for the herbal tea garden, as well as for feeding birds like bluejays, cardinals, and goldfinches. They are perennials, so they’ll come back (and multiply) year after year.
• Black-eyed Susans, or rudbeckia, are another popular flower for ornamental gardens, and they are great for feeding lots of birds in the winter. Just remember to let them keep their flowerheads instead of deadheading them.

Another good thing to do is allow some common weeds to reach maturity and hang around into winter. Joe Pye weed, ironweed, and mullein are all great, common weeds to keep around for the birds.

Creating Wild Places at Home

While it’s great to keep our yards tidy so that the neighbors don’t get grumpy with us, that’s not to say we can’t cultivate tidy wild spaces to feed the birds. We can use shrubs and trees that birds love in our ornamental and food gardens. We can find corners of the yard or create raised beds dedicated to growing seeds for birds. It’s a much more ecological and less expensive option than growing birdseed elsewhere, harvesting it, bagging it, shipping it however many miles, putting it in a birdfeeder, and chasing the squirrels away.

Related Content:

• How to Make Bird Feeders From Recycled Materials
• 5 DIY Bird Feeders for the Home and Garden
• How to Help Birds During Colder Seasons
• Why Birds Are So Good for the Garden
• Park Sign Perfectly Sums Up Why We Should Not Feed Birds Bread – And What to Do Instead

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