SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — As birds fly south for the winter, the University of Illinois Extension is reminding you to make sure your house is a stopping point.
Keeping your feeder full throughout the cold months is vital if you want a bird presence in the spring and summer, said Extension Horticulturist Richard Hentschel, because birds have a good memory when it comes to where the food is.
“It’s especially important to make sure once you start, you follow up through spring, even into maybe mid-spring, until native plants come up, [so] there are things for them to eat they can find on their own,” he said.
Hentschel suggested investing only in feed that will attract your preferred birds, as uneaten seed tends to end up on the ground, attracting rodents.
Once your feed is chosen, Hentschel said it’s important to mount your feeder methodically.
“What you mount the feeder on shouldn’t be something that’s easily climbable, so something out of wood would not be ideal,” he said.
“The smaller the diameter of the metal post, the better, so [critters] can’t really grab a hold very well.
“It works quite nicely.”
