Feeding birds during this cold spell?.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Whats the best foods to leave out for the birds during this cold snap?.

Usually I just leave bread out (all year) but since I was a child I've always made an extra effort with food stuffs during frost and snow conditions like now.

Usually its meat fats, fruit and nuts (I always imagine the poor things can not dig for food on the hard ground).

Anything extra I should be providing?.

Btw, I live in a housing estate in North county Dublin so no other wild life around me (or that I know of).

littlebug

Have a look at the factsheet on "feeding wild birds" factsheet on www.birdwatchireland.ie http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Advice/Factsheets/tabid/386/Default.aspx

If you don't want to buy seeds or peanuts (man they get through them fast!) there's still plenty you can give them... fats, oatmeal, fruit, grated cheese etc...

ODD-JOB

Has anybody noticed how the birds are singing constantly throuhout the night .

being a nocturnal creature myself , i have noticed they were in full song all through the cold cold nights . unusual !

E39MSport

Do you live in a built up area? I've seen this in constantly lit areas but the birds around my way have all just settled down for the night. Not a peep out there and its almost completely dark.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

ODD-JOB wrote: »

Has anybody noticed how the birds are singing constantly throuhout the night .

being a nocturnal creature myself , i have noticed they were in full song all through the cold cold nights . unusual !

No!
In some Urban areas street lights can stimulate singing but even then it's hardly "full song" by any means and extremely little this time of year.
It's now felt that this singing after dark by some birds in urban areas shortens their lives.

JonathanAnon

Corinne Full Mariner wrote: »

Usually I just leave bread out (all year) but since I was a child I've always made an extra effort with food stuffs during frost and snow conditions like now.

Eanna Ni Mad-one said that feeding them bread is not a good idea. Something about it expanding in their stomachs and pretty much having an adverse affect on their health. Said it on with Mooney last year. Thanks for the suggestions about feeding, was just about to put a post about the same thing.

My additional question is how to distribute the Odlum's Fruit Porridge Feast without the rats getting at it. I'm not staying in this house for long so I dont want to invest in one of those hanging systems. Anything I could improvise with? Because I left a few small pieces of ham out yesterday on the window sill and my friendly little Robin had to fight with a rat (who will get the head thumped off him if I see him again). Last thing I want to do is attract rats.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I put the Oats mixed with fruit and seed on the bird tables and scattered on the ground. I just put enough out to do the birds a couple of hours, as I don't want to attract rats overnight. In 25 years in this house (rural) I have only once had a Rat at the bird food.
If you have Rats coming to food during the day then I'd seriously suggest you take action to get rid of them. They are bad news with many health issues associated with them.
If rats come to bird tables you are either leaving far too much food out or have an infestation that needs to be addressed.

Sundew

JonathanAnon wrote: »

I'm not staying in this house for long so I dont want to invest in one of those hanging systems. .

Why don't you get a window feeder that suctions to the window. I have 2 and the bluetits are having a field day out there at the mo easy to remove when your leaving the house!

Sundew

Also recommend putting out some apple halves. Our blackbirds and starlings love them!!!! Just beware the nasty crow doesn't fly off with it .

syklops

Cut a coconut in half and drill a hole in the top. Hang it somewhere that the birds can get to but the cats cant. Its very cheap, carbon neutral, and easy to put up and take down.

For an added boost to your birds, melt some lard in a pan. Add some crushed nuts like peanuts and mix together. Pour the goo into the coconut and stick in the freezer over night. When its hard and secure in the coconut hang outside.

This thing about bread(and rice) expanding in birds stomachs crept up a few years ago. I am not saying it is wrong, but I have to say I have my doubts. What do they feed birds in china with? Until a more authoritative bird anatomy expert than Eanna whats here-face says rice is bad for them, im going to continue with my doubts on the subject.

Zzippy

JonathanAnon wrote: »

My additional question is how to distribute the Odlum's Fruit Porridge Feast without the rats getting at it. I'm not staying in this house for long so I dont want to invest in one of those hanging systems. Anything I could improvise with? Because I left a few small pieces of ham out yesterday on the window sill and my friendly little Robin had to fight with a rat (who will get the head thumped off him if I see him again). Last thing I want to do is attract rats.

I've seen the mesh bags from washing detergent used, the ones where you put the detergent tablets in them and put them in the wash. The mesh is big enough that some will fall out on to the ground, but it contains most grains and nuts and allows birds to get at them easily, plus the drawstring on top allows it to be hung from a washing line or tree branch.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Right. I've researched this and the most plausible opionions are:
Uncooked rice will not expand in the stomach. Uncooked rice expands by absorbing hot (usually boiling) water. Though the water doesn't have to be boiling for absorption to take place, absorbtion slows greatly at normal avian body temperatures. So, even if the water was available in the bird's stomach, it would take hours, perhaps days, for the rice to expand significantly. Acid in the stomach would break down the rice and pass it through to the next stage of digestion long before this became an issue. Moreover, birds just don't drink a lot of water, because the weight makes it harder for them to fly. And what little water they do drink passes through their digestive system much faster than the rice. But, even if the water and the rice stayed there in the stomach for long enough for full absorbtion to take place, the total volume of the rice and water does not increase when the rice absorbs the water. If you had 2 teaspoons of water and 1 teaspoon of uncooked rice in a bird's stomach, when the rice absorbs the water, you would have, at most, 3 teaspoons of "cooked" rice, the same total volume as before the water was absorbed. Whether it's water, uncooked rice, cooked rice, or any combination of the three, 3 teaspoons is 3 teaspoons. If a bird's stomach can hold 2 teaspoons of water and 1 teaspoon of uncooked rice without exploding, then it can also hold 3 teaspoons of cooked rice.

Travel to Southwest Louisiana during rice planting season. Hundred of millions of blackbirds overwinter down there, waiting for the rice farmers to plant before they fly north to become pests in corn and soybean fields in the Midwest. Rice is planted by broadcasting from an airplane. When the blackbirds hear a plane flying over, they will actually follow the plane to the field being planted, and as soon as the seed (which is the rice grain itself, essentially identical to "uncooked rice") is dumped in the field, the blackbirds will land and will literally pick the field clean. As you can imagine, this is quite an inconvenience to hundreds of rice farmers in Southwest Louisiana. They would very much like to eradicate blackbirds. If you could kill them by simply letting them eat all the rice they wanted to, until they exploded, then you would see tens of thousands of dead blackbirds lying in every rice field in the area.
Birds have been eating "uncooked" grains for as long as mankind has been growing them (and even before that, birds were eating the wild pre-cursors to such grains for millions of years). Except for predatory birds, uncooked grains and similar seeds make up the majority of most birds' diets. In fact, most "bird feed" is composed mostly of a variety of these uncooked grains. All of these grains will expand when soaked in water for a sufficient period of time (though the length of time decreases as the temperature of the water increases). And yet, birds don't die from eating uncooked grains. If they did, they wouldn't be around anymore.

The only issue around feeding bread to birds is the questionable nutritional value of bread as opposed to nuts, seeds, and fats.

Half-cocked

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Eanna Ni Mad-one said that feeding them bread is not a good idea. Something about it expanding in their stomachs and pretty much having an adverse affect on their health.

I think the main problem with bread is that it fills birds stomachs without providing enough energy/nutrition for them. I always soak the bread first to take care of any 'swelling' problems before they eat it and leave it out along with other foodstuffs so that the birds aren't stuffing themselves exclusively on it. As we eat wholemeal bread, our scraps are probably a bit better for birds than white bread.

syklops

Terrell Lazy Rebellion wrote: »

Right. I've researched this and the most plausible opionions are:
Uncooked rice will not expand in the stomach. Uncooked rice expands by absorbing hot (usually boiling) water. Though the water doesn't have to be boiling for absorption to take place, absorbtion slows greatly at normal avian body temperatures. So, even if the water was available in the bird's stomach, it would take hours, perhaps days, for the rice to expand significantly. Acid in the stomach would break down the rice and pass it through to the next stage of digestion long before this became an issue. Moreover, birds just don't drink a lot of water, because the weight makes it harder for them to fly. And what little water they do drink passes through their digestive system much faster than the rice. But, even if the water and the rice stayed there in the stomach for long enough for full absorbtion to take place, the total volume of the rice and water does not increase when the rice absorbs the water. If you had 2 teaspoons of water and 1 teaspoon of uncooked rice in a bird's stomach, when the rice absorbs the water, you would have, at most, 3 teaspoons of "cooked" rice, the same total volume as before the water was absorbed. Whether it's water, uncooked rice, cooked rice, or any combination of the three, 3 teaspoons is 3 teaspoons. If a bird's stomach can hold 2 teaspoons of water and 1 teaspoon of uncooked rice without exploding, then it can also hold 3 teaspoons of cooked rice.

Travel to Southwest Louisiana during rice planting season. Hundred of millions of blackbirds overwinter down there, waiting for the rice farmers to plant before they fly north to become pests in corn and soybean fields in the Midwest. Rice is planted by broadcasting from an airplane. When the blackbirds hear a plane flying over, they will actually follow the plane to the field being planted, and as soon as the seed (which is the rice grain itself, essentially identical to "uncooked rice") is dumped in the field, the blackbirds will land and will literally pick the field clean. As you can imagine, this is quite an inconvenience to hundreds of rice farmers in Southwest Louisiana. They would very much like to eradicate blackbirds. If you could kill them by simply letting them eat all the rice they wanted to, until they exploded, then you would see tens of thousands of dead blackbirds lying in every rice field in the area.
Birds have been eating "uncooked" grains for as long as mankind has been growing them (and even before that, birds were eating the wild pre-cursors to such grains for millions of years). Except for predatory birds, uncooked grains and similar seeds make up the majority of most birds' diets. In fact, most "bird feed" is composed mostly of a variety of these uncooked grains. All of these grains will expand when soaked in water for a sufficient period of time (though the length of time decreases as the temperature of the water increases). And yet, birds don't die from eating uncooked grains. If they did, they wouldn't be around anymore.

The only issue around feeding bread to birds is the questionable nutritional value of bread as opposed to nuts, seeds, and fats.

That is a very impressive post. Well done!

You should send it into Mooney. See what she says.

Completely OT, her name is Eana and the irish for bird Ean. I wonder if her name actually translates into bird....

eden_my_ass

syklops wrote: »

Cut a coconut in half and drill a hole in the top. Hang it somewhere that the birds can get to but the cats cant. Its very cheap, carbon neutral, and easy to put up and take down.

What county in Ireland do your coconuts come from? Hardly carbon neutral but nice idea anyway

mike65

Would bread pudding with dried fruits be a good feed?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Instead of Coconut shells put your lard/seed/nut mix into used Yoghurt cartons. Put a hole in the bottom and insert a knotted sting first of course.;)

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

mike65 wrote: »

Would bread pudding with dried fruits be a good feed?

No reason why not!

syklops

eden_my_ass wrote: »

What county in Ireland do your coconuts come from? Hardly carbon neutral but nice idea anyway

Maybe i meant environmentally friendly. The carbon neutral comment was slightly tongue in cheek. What i meant was if the coconut breaks off in a gale it will degrade like any biodegradable substane will without harming the environment, where as a plastic bird feeder will not.

mike65

I make one a week for me, so I might make a second one then.

JonathanAnon

Big thumbs up from the robin on the Odlum's Fruit Feast. He's getting braver as well. I was looking straight at him through the window no more than five feet away and he was eating away. Of course, he did have one eye on me, as all the birds do when I'm that close in proximity ;-).

I'll try hook up the webcam to take a bit of footage to see what exactly is eating the food. I want to make sure that I'm not enticing the rats.

padi89

Zzippy wrote: »

I've seen the mesh bags from washing detergent used, the ones where you put the detergent tablets in them and put them in the wash.

Not a good idea, smaller birds can and do get their feet caught in the netting, the same with nets on hanging fat balls. It happened a couple of times when i first started feeding this year, luckily i was around when it happened and i was able to free the bird.

Half-cocked

I've been leaving dogfood chub out for my resident fox but noticed this morning that blackbirds, thrushes, redwings and fieldfares are all gobbling up the foxes leftovers. You can buy it in Lidl for about 60c per Kg, it comes in big plastic wrapped sausages. Seems a very cheap way to help the birds through the cold spell. The ingredients seem to be OK for birds.

bigron2109

We live out in the country so we've loads of little birds..The father usually puts out feeders and bread but over the past few days he has been putting out red apples because there is sugar in the red apples..They have been eating it too and they seem to like it..

Half-cocked

bigron2109 wrote: »

We live out in the country so we've loads of little birds..The father usually puts out feeders and bread but over the past few days he has been putting out red apples because there is sugar in the red apples..They have been eating it too and they seem to like it..

I've noticed when I put out red and green apples, the birds always polish off the red ones first. I think you are right about the sugar.

Sid_Justice

We put out seeds, peanuts and fats at the moment.

E39MSport

Some of the blackbirds here are standing on leg while on the ground to preserve heat (I assume). Haven't seen that before.

Supercell

Theres a lot of snow here and lots of birds flying round so I thought about putting some food out for them.

Here's what i have, any of these a no no ?

1) Red split lentils
2) Basmati rice
3) Sunflower seeds
4) Various beans - pinto,kidney, soya
5) Bulgar Wheat
6) Porridge oats

Thanks.

Half-cocked

The sunflower seeds and porridge oats are ideal, not sure about bulgar wheat (not sure what it is!).

snaps

ive been boiling up the value rice and value pasta from tesco and putting it out with the usual nuts/seeds/oat mix.