Nature News
How to Attract Birds by Feeding at Different Levels
Birds tend to choose feeders that are at the same height where they would find food in the wild. Imitating these natural feeding levels will help you attract the most birds to your backyard.
There are two common backyard bird feeding levels: elevated and ground.
1. Feeding at the Elevated Level
Elevatedfeeding
birds live in forests and forage for food
in trees. These birds prefer sunfl ower seeds,
safflower, sunfl ower chips and peanuts.
To attract elevated-feeding birds, offer WBU Supreme, Choice or No-Mess Blend in a Quick-Clean® Seed Tube Feeder or hopper-style feeder on an Advanced Pole System® bird feeding station.
Typical Elevated-feeding Birds:
• chickadees
• jays
• woodpeckers
• nuthatches
• titmice
• finches
2. Feeding at the Ground Level
These birds
often live in meadows and/or fi elds where fallen
plant seeds are a food source. Though millet is the
preferred seed of most ground-feeding birds, they
will eat other grains and seeds, such as sunflower.
To attract ground-feeding birds, offer WBU Deluxe Blend, No-Mess Blend or other appropriate blends in a ground feeder like our EcoTough™ Ground Tray.
Typical Ground-feeding Birds:
• juncos
• towhees
• quail
• doves
• sparrows
3. Feeding at Both Levels with One Feeder
To attract birds at both levels using one feeder,
offer WBU Deluxe or No-Mess Blend in an
EcoTough™ Classic hopper feeder. This feeder was
designed to accommodate both feeding levels.
Elevated-feeding birds will eat the larger seeds
at the feeder and knock out the millet and other
seeds for ground-feeding birds.
Our WBU Deluxe Blend is full of sunfl ower seeds, millet and other seeds. Sunfl ower lovers will eat at the feeder, and ground-feeding birds will eat the fallen millet.