Not many of us could! In general, birds eat at least half their own weight each day, with a diet of mainly of fruit, seeds, insects and some even eat small animals. Healthy nutrition for humans includes a sampling from the six major food groups. Well birds may eat much more at a sitting, but with regard to their need for variety, they are similar to us. Only they eat from seven major “plant groups.

Our Lyric bird food mixes, served in strategically placed feeders, complement your landscape plantings and provide high energy food for birds 365 days a year, whether or not their favorite shrub or tree is in bloom. For example, Lyric Cardinal Mix contains sunflower, safflower and buckwheat to attract the larger and more colorful Cardinals and Blue Jays. Our Finch Mix will attract flocks of brilliant yellow goldfinches in spring with Sunflower Kernels, Small Golden Millet, Nyjer Seed, Canary Seed, and Canola Seeds.

Woodpeckers, goldfinches, wrens, juncos, cardinals, bluebirds and starlings love suet! Suet is a high energy formula which includes animal fat and other ingredients to attract insect eating birds. It’s a quick source of heat and energy for birds with hyper-metabolisms.

Careful selection of feeders should be next on your priority list in creating the ideal habitat for birds.  For instance, a bluebird house should hang at least five feet off the ground, facing east, with the opening toward an open field or lawn. This will invite Bluebirds to nest more than once, as their young often return to the place where they've hatched.

In addition to hanging feeders containing nutritious food, consider planting deciduous trees like mulberries, which will attract robins, waxwings, cardinals, and numerous other songbirds.

The Western Meadowlark, found throughout North Dakota in prairies, pastures and meadows, is shown here (pictured right) all dressed up in snappy brown and white stripes. The Meadowlark eats cutworms, grasshoppers and caterpillars, three of a farmer’s worst nightmare insect pests!

Serviceberries are particularly tasty to vireos, tanagers, and grosbeaks. Flowering dogwood will invite more robins, and add bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, and cardinals to the mix. Plant a few crabapples and robins, bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, cardinals, waxwings, Pine Grosbeaks, and finches will nest and feed. A large, imposing white oak provides a buffet feast of fruit, flowers, buds, acorns and seeds every single year for woodpeckers, jays, Wild Turkeys, grouse, Wood Ducks and more!