If you decide to help the birds survive the winter and feed them, you need to know what kind of food you can give them, and what can only harm them.
What food can be given to birds
With the onset of winter, a time when the birds have a particularly hard time, we must definitely help them cope with lack of food and cold. Many do not even realize that only 10-40% of forest birds can survive the winter. Of course, someone is sincerely trying to help by putting part of their daily menu into the trough - pieces of black bread, pasta with sauce, cottage cheese, salted bacon, fried seeds and other similar dishes. From the bottom of their hearts, so to speak, they share with the birds and … they kill gullible birds with these products.
The fact is that their digestive tract cannot cope with such inappropriate food, the body is poisoned, diarrhea opens - and this is the most terrible enemy of birds in the cold, they are guaranteed to die from dehydration.
- Raw sunflower seeds - the best food for birds, should make up more than half of the contents of the feeder, seeds are very high in calories due to the presence of vegetable fat
- Millet in raw and boiled form, as well as unpolished (millet)
- Raw and boiled oats
- Wheat - raw or boiled
- Rice - raw or boiled cereals
- Meat - can be used both raw and boiled (no spices and unsalted)
- Lard - only unsalted! Lard with salt leads to dehydration and death of birds! Pieces are tied to feeders or branches so that it is convenient for the birds to peck at it
- Beef, chicken fat, unsalted, mixed with white bread or millet
- Rowan, viburnum, hawthorn in dried form, hung on branches in the form of beads
- Cones collected from trees in autumn are fixed on branches in winter, because birds lying on the ground cannot reach due to the layer of snow
- Acorns, also collected in autumn, are laid out in feeders and eaten willingly by jays.
- Dried corn
- Pumpkin, watermelon and melon seeds are an excellent food rich in fats and vitamins, readily eaten by many birds
- Chicken egg shells - a source of trace elements
- White dried bread (rye is not allowed due to the presence of yeast, which is detrimental to the digestion of birds)
What food is strictly prohibited for forest birds
We often leave some types of food in the trough, believing that we are blessing the birds. In no case should you feed the birds in winter with the following products:
- salted lard and meat (guaranteed dehydration and intoxication);
- fried sunflower and pumpkin seeds (such seeds cause diarrhea in birds, and in winter it is destructive for them);
- any salty, fried, spicy, sour food;
- fresh rye and white bread (white croutons can be used);
- bananas and citrus fruits;
- milk and dairy products
Do not scatter gum in places where birds can pick it up, they often mistake the lumps of gum for pieces of bread, readily peck at it and die due to a blockage of the goiter.
Hang the feeders so that it is convenient for you to renew food daily, but at the same time they are not available to cats.
