During the COVID-19 “Stay Home Stay Safe” period, I become a birding newbie. Staying home all day could be a bit tedious and monotonous for some people. A day or two is fine. After that, you tend to look outside the windows more. And if you have a backyard, you might start to notice things more. The usual visitors are birds, butterflies, rabbits, squirrels, and racoons. Well, all are very welcome except racoons. Luckily, racoons don’t visit us often.
As a birding beginner, my first question is how to attract more songbirds. After a little research on the Internet, I was told that most birds love black sunflower seeds. Hmm, during this period, I don’t plan to visit Pet Valu. Fortunately, Amazon got you all covered. So, we ordered a pail of Morning Melodies Cardinal & Songbird Supreme. The birds love it. Not just the birds, even rabbits and squirrels love it. One of the reviews is quite right; safflower seeds are mostly left behind. Oh boy, these animals are picky eaters! Since our intended recipients are birds, we also bought some feeders to try it out.
Brome Squirrel Buster Standard Wild Bird Feeder – This one has a great design, and it’s squirrel proof as advertised. The way it works is that the weight of the squirrel would automatically close the seed ports, denying access to the seed but not harming the squirrels in any way. I could imagine how upset the squirrels are. This Squirrel Buster works out as expected.
C&S EZ Fill Suet Basket with Morning Melodies Suet Variety 3 Pack – It has been quite a while, most small birds ignore it, only birds size like a crow would try it.
Bird Feeder, Window Bird House Crystal Clear Acrylic with Removable Tray, Drain Holes and 3 Heavy-Duty Suction Cups – It takes about ten days to get our first visitor – a goldfinch. So far, only goldfinches and warblers use this one. Oh, sometimes, a squirrel would find its way, sit comfortably on the tray and eat up all the seeds, that’s something unexpected.
To sum up, briefly, the Squirrel Buster is the one that works very well, and we might get one more for the front yard. However, there is one concern though; one review suggests that during wintertime, snow might affect the weight of the closing mechanism, and that might require manual adjustment. Anyhow, the verdict has it that songbirds do love black sunflower seed. We do get more birds visiting like cardinals, robins, finches, and many others that I can’t tell what they are.
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