Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Setting out backyard feeders is a great way to get birds to gather in places where you can easily enjoy them.

Feeders should be a supplement to a garden. That’s what you should concentrate on, is creating a garden that is going to provide some of the materials, and then use your feeders to put the birds where you can easily see them.

Mark Klym, an avid birder, coordinates the Wildscaping Program for Parks and Wildlife. The kinds of feeders and food you put out will determine the kinds of birds you attract for up close viewing.

Black oil sunflower seed is your best. I certainly do not recommend using the mixes that have a lot of red millet or milo in them because they tend to attract a lot of house sparrows. Use different types of feeders. Not all of our birds can easily feed on a column that is hanging with a very short perch. Put out a platform feeder and you’ll get some of your traditionally ground-feeding birds that will go to the platform. Put out some peanut feeders for some of our bigger jays. You might want to look at putting out a sock feeder, which is just a sock that has thistle seed in it, for the finches. And they’ll actually pull it out of the cloth sock.

There you have it: creating a stunning and educational experience in your own backyard can be as easy as hanging a sock with the proper seed. Just be sure to keep those binoculars handy.

There is no place better in the world for attracting birds than right here in Texas.

Learn more about Texas birds and ways to bring them to your home by visiting our website: passporttotexas.org

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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