Bird feeders are a great way to attract and feed birds.  The simplest method is to place the food on the ground.  Ground feeding is one way to attract birds that normally take all or part of their food from the ground anyway.  This is one way we feed our birds and along with it an old stump is used as a simple platform bird feeder.  We are able to attract many different types of birds by this method of feeding.  On a regular basis we get cardinals, titmouses, nuthatches, juncos, blackcapped chickadees, doves, blue jays, grackles, red winged blackbirds, cowbirds, sparrows, and finches.  And we also get our fair share of squirrels who tend to gather up a lot of the sunflower seeds we place out.  But we also put out corn for the squirrels to distract them (somewhat) from the seeds.  We also get a couple of chipmunks, but they’re too small to make a difference in the amount of food put out.  During winter and early spring our ground feeding also tends to attract other types of birds that we don’t normally see at other times.  Some examples are the rufous-side towhee, and one year for a week evening grosbeaks, and a couple of times rose-breasted grosbeaks.

Other bird feeders we use are a squirrel proof tube feeder and a squirrel proof hooper feeder.  The tube bird feeder is designed to be filled only with sunflower seeds.  This bird feeder tends to attract red bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, blackcapped chickadees, titmouses, nuthatches, and finches.  During the winter and early spring this feeder also attracts gold finches.

We fill our hooper bird feeder with a birdseed mixture that contains millet, cracked corn, some shelled peanuts, and sunflower seeds.  This bird feeder tends to attract cardinals, finches, black capped chickadees, and rarely we have seen the red bellied woodpecker there.

During the winter months we put out suet holding bird feeders.  We keep the suet out until late spring until the weather starts to get too warm.  Besides the normal woodpeckers and chickadees the suet tends to attract birds that we seem to see at our bird feeders only during this time of the year such as the hairy woodpecker and the mockingbird.