Hand Feeding The Birds

That's really cool, Lara!

Thanks Cynthia it was fun to do too! :-D

Here's a trick for hand feeding birds. It tends to work with the bolder species such as jays, titmice, and chickadees. If you hold your hand high over your head, with seeds in your hand held level, they seem bolder to approach, for whatever reason. (Maybe they think that you can't see them there, or that you can't reach them on your hand over your head!). Or you can sit very still. We have a porthole in our window at the feeder, which I can close when it's not in use, so in cold weather, I can stay warm. Anyway, when they get used to feeding from your hand in the "special" way, some of the bolder and smarter ones will continue to feed as you move your hand to a more comfortable position, step by step, each time they come to feed.

Don't forget that spring is "starving time" for the birds, so that now is the most beneficial time to keep your bird feeder topped off daily.

That's great! I bet you were cold standing there too.

We have been handfeeding the Chickadees all winter. They will literally come from the nearby woods when we call them...they will meet us on the patio, and jump in our hands. No need to hold your hand up high, etc...One landed on my camera lens, just as I was retracting it. We have so much snow here in Nova Scotia (about 5 feet at the moment) the birds are literally starving. This morning we had 11 ring necked pheasants, Blue Jays, chickadees, Doves, and a few other species. We go through a LOT of sunflower seed, lol!

Thanks everyone for stopping by to look at my video :) @ Karen that's awesome! It was so much fun, I may have to try it some more. @Dorothy it wasn't that cold I was psretty bundled up and my wool hat keeps me really warm. @Gregory no danger of our birds starving we keep them well fed with black oil sunsflower seed, safflower seed and home made peanut butter suet. We provide all that food year round except for the suet that we bring in when it gets to warm. We've got so many birds this winter it is amazing! I think I counted 30+ in the tree in the video of purple finches, gold finches and siskens earlir today. We've got 4 pileated woodpeckers now (two females and two males) and we have tons of titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, harry woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, red bellied woodpeckers and juncos oh and wrens and doves and cardinals. Oh I forgot the Jays too! Lol. We are going through a lot of seed but its worth it to watch them and feel like we are helping them survive the cold winter. :-)

Laura, just added you to my follow list. Love your pic of the pileated WP!! Aren't they the neatest bird? So prehistoric looking. God bless you for looking after the birds all year round. We feed all year round too...such pleasure to watch!

That's really cool, Lara. I nursed a couple of blue jays for a week after they fell out of the nest. They just didn't have all their flight feathers yet - I had a cage from my daughter's as of then deceased parakeets, so they stayed in the cage and I fed them canned dog food (that's what the humane society guy told me to feed them when I called), and after a while, I would hold one of them and he would fly over to my husband.

Once we knew they could fly distance, we let them go, but it took them a full day to leave and they actually came down out of the tree once to get more dog food I had in a plastic container.

That's such a sweet story Mary :-) It's so cool when we are able to help our fellow creatures. I'll bet those little guys thought of you as mama. @Karen thanks for the follow. I love the pileateds too, they are the coolest! We've always had them but it was just a couple of years ago that they started coming to the feeder. They usually come in Feb/ March when it gets really cold. We started out with just one but now we think there are 4. We have a bigger female and a bigger male and a smaller female and a smaller male. It's quite a site to see such a large bird at the feeder! Bless you for feeding and caring for the birdies too! :)

Well, I had a baby spoon, so I would shove the dog food down their gullet like the mother bird would do, and every time I passed the cage, they got obnoxious because they wanted to be fed. We had to "teach" them to peck. I had to hold the food under their beaks until they got the hint. I can't exactly remember now, but I think we had them a little less than two weeks, then they were fully "flight trained". My kids named them "blue" and "jay".

What everyone else is saying... that is very cool. Happy moment in my day, getting to watch that.

How cool Lara and quick thinking of your hubby!

Mary how fun was your story too!

@ Mary, love the bird names! :-) Thanks Cheryl I'm glad it made you smile. It was a happy moment for me too :) @Andee I agree kudos to my hubby Fred :).