Attracting The Winter Birds

" I think that the Japanese barnyard millet is the favorite among all seeds for the majority of our birds in Massachusetts. Fox sparrows are fond of this. They took it from our shelf all winter. The white-throated sparrow is a glutton for Japanese millet.

" The goldfinch prefers sunflower-seeds to all others." - E.H. Forbush.

The following table was made by the author's friend, Edward Uehling, as the result of a favorable winter with the birds. The author also had frequent opportunity for observations at the same place and with practically the same results as recorded in the table.
























The author has found suet to be the best animal food, being especially adapted for use in very cold weather, as it does not freeze readily. Small pieces, which might be otherwise wasted, may be melted together till they unite in one piece, and then allowed to cool. The best kinds of vegetable foods are found among the nuts and seeds. In the author's experience with winter birds, sun-flower-seeds have proved a great favorite even with some insectivorous species like the chickadee and white-breasted nuthatch, which often select these seeds in preference to meat.

Birds tamed to eat from the Hand. - The kinds of food which birds have eaten from the hand may also suggest another way of ascertaining the kinds of food preferred, as evidently the birds need some special inducement to alight on the human hand, at least, for the first time. The following table summarizes in brief form the records which the author has been able to find of winter birds which have become so tame as to feed from the hand. In some of these cases the birds took the food from the hand in preference to other kinds lying near.