Teachers > Four Easy Ways to Attract Wild Birds
1. Easiest Platform Feeder.Try sprinkling a millet and black oil sunflower seeds--basic ingredients of commercial birdseed mixes--on the outside ledges of your classroom windows. With luck a jay, finch, or sparrow will be attracted. When you notice one on the ledge, walk slowly to the window making as little noise as possible. Among birds, finches and jays are relatively fearless and will feed when people are present.
Seed Mixtures. A half-and-half mix of millet and black oil sunflower seeds will attract blue jays, goldfinches, grosbeaks, pine siskins, house finches and redpolls, towhees, sparrows, nuthatches, doves, juncos, and starlings. Add peanuts to your seed mix to attract grackles, woodpeckers, and cardinals. Add cracked corn for blackbirds and cowbirds. Robins will come for apples and pears (be sure to leave seeds in your slices).
2. Bagel Feeder.Spread bird butter (recipe below) on a day-old bagel. Press in wild bird seed. Loop a ribbon or string through the hole in the bagel and hang from a tree in a relatively quiet area of your school yard.
Birdy Nutter Butter (a great suet substitute)
1 part crunchy peanut butter
1 part shortening
1 part flour
3 parts cornmeal
Combine ingredients in a large bowl and mix with a fork or your fingers.
Generations of kids have enjoyed making this feeder using a pine cone instead of a bagel.
3. Milk Carton Feeder.Cut large openings in two opposite sides of a well-rinsed, half-gallon milk carton, starting about a third of the way up from the bottom. Punch holes beneath each opening and insert a dowel or stick all the way through to make perches. Staple top shut and punch two holes through the top ridge. Loop about two feet of ribbon or strong string through each hole. Fill carton to bottom of openings with birdseed. Hang from a tree branch in a quiet area of your school yard.
4. Simple Birdbath.Place an old glass pie plate, glazed terra-cotta plant saucer, or other shallow dish on a window ledge or small garden table near places where you have seen birds. Birds often have a hard time finding water for drinking and bathing during cold or dry months. Providing them with a birdbath is a great act of kindness.
Water should be two or three inches deep. Container should have rounded edges on which birds can perch comfortably. On cold nights, water will freeze and need to be replaced in the early morning.
More ideas for feeders, baths and birdhouses: http://birding.about.com
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