FEEDING BACKYARD BIRDS: What you need to know if you 
put out bird feeders...ahead on Passport to Texas.

This is Passport to Texas

Texans like to place seed feeders in their yards to entice 
nearby birds to venture even closer.

03— There are things to consider when putting out a bird feeder.

Cliff Shackelford is a non-game ornithologist with Texas 
Parks and Wildlife. He says to carefully consider feeder 
placement. 

12— You don’t want to put it too close to the window, where a bird 
might fly into the window. You don’t want to put it too close to the 
shrubs, where the neighbor’s cat might be very attracted to the Grand 
central Station that you’ve created.

As nature provides plenty of food this time of year, and 
hot humid weather plays foul with feeders, Cliff 
recommends using them during less abundant times.

30—There’s a fungus that can grow on the seeds and create something 
called aflatoxin that’s deadly to birds. And, there’s also Mother Nature 
giving birds a lot of food in the warmer months. So, we often tend to 
gauge bird activity by what is at our feeder. And when we don’t see 
birds at the feeder, we think oh the sky is falling—there’s are no birds. 
Well, the birds are there, they’re just up high ion the tree, eating what 
mother nature provided. It’s a homemade buffet versus pre-packaged 
stuff we call seeds.

If you do put out feeders, clean them every two weeks—
more often during times of heavy use and wet weather. 

That's our show… Funding provided in part by Ram 
Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.






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Maximum Script time:			0:40.0	         	          Suggested show time: 85.0 = 1:25