Any bird feeders?

Each year while dressing down my deer I save all the fat. When the deer are all processed I put all the fat in an old roaster and bake it at about 300 degrees for five hours to render the liquid fat from it. I pour the liquid fat into a large enamel-ware pot and let it cool some then stir in sunflower pieces and hearts along with a 16 ounce jar of cheap chunky peanut butter, stirring to keep the seed mixed into the cooling fat until I can't stir it any more. I have two birch logs drilled with 2" holes and stuff the fat into the holes then hang the logs. Woodpeckers love the logs. The cracklings from the rendering get stuffed into 1 pound coffee containers and are used in a cylinder shaped wire basket. Woodys are all over those too. Recently this guy has been a regular at one of the logs. This log is only 7 feet from the window so I get a good view.



This one has a scar in the white band just back and slightly above the eye. Other pileated woodys that come don't have this mark and on this one its not present on the other side so he's easy to identify. At times he's a regular goofball. I enjoy watching the birds right outside of the window and this guy is a real entertainer.

Here's one on the cage with the cracklings that's a bit younger, most likely from last summer's brood.

Have only seen one of them ever. We do see other specie around here, but not him. We have downy, hairy, flicker, and very rarely redhead. Chickadee, and nuthatch also come to the suet. One of life' simple pleasure. Way to go!

Around here we refer to Pileated Woodpeckers as feathered chainsaws. They really make the chips fly.

We see a couple pileateds around but haven’t seen them on our feeders (made a couple logs like Tom’s a few years ago). Lots of hairy, downy, red bellied, and flickers. Good mix of nuthatches, chickadees, dark eyed juncos, and lately the sparrows and starlings have been swarming. Also have a pair of Carolina Wrens that live on the front porch that are beauties. As Ron said - one of life’s simple pleasures!

When we lived in Connecticut, we had about 6 feeders in the yard.
Always had a ton of birds in the winter.
Can't seem to find any good seed out here in Oklahoma, only the cheap dollar store brand, which is mostly millet. Seems like the birds don't really like it.

Jelly/orange feeder for orioles and nectar feeders for hummingbirds. Get lots of hummingbirds but only a few orioles. The dern house finches eat most of the jelly.

deermanok said:

Can't seem to find any good seed out here in Oklahoma

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Safflower Seeds and the Birds That Eat Them (thespruce.com)

Had to rescue a Red Bellied WP from the cat the other day. He flew into the window and I saw him go down. I ran out into the snow in my bare feet but the cat had already grabbed it. So I grabbed the cat and got it away from him, but the cat wouldn't give up. The cat and I chased the bird around the patio (glad nobody had a camera) until the bird got his wits about him and flew off bitchin like hell.

We feed a lot of birds. This has been a weird winter. Record number off Snowy Owls and Evening Grosbeaks have never been this far south. Bald Eagles are everywhere. They winter on the Detroit Edison power plant property on the shore of Lake Erie. Hundreds of them. This one was at the end of my street

I fed the birds for photo ops and therapy when I lived in the city. We had alot of trees in the yard. Now I'm in the country and have no trees in the yard. No place for the poor things to rest. I had mostly mourning doves, occasionally would get various flickers. Now I have a squirrel in my yard that loves the garden leftovers.

We have Pileated Woodpeckers that are here most all day at either the peanut butter feeders or suet. Very common here in northern MI.
In the summer the wife had hummingbird feeders up and like everyone else, fills them up to twice a day.
We had one heck of a wind storm that a tree took down our feeder pole and in turn took out an apple tree. I had no clue that the loss of that apple tree would have such an affect on the birds. Numbers are down with just the new pole and feeders (8).

We live in the woods. Bear learn about electric fences quickly.

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MVI 1099 - YouTube

I get Tanagers, Indigo Buntings and Rose breasted Grosbeaks during both migrations, but only briefly. Oriole and Hummers I set out several feeders for and we usually get a couple pairs of Hummers. The Orioles we can have anywhere from two to four pairs each summer.

I am looking forward to setting up a Bird feeder of Sorts this Spring/Summer, We had a BUNCH of California Valley Quail last Summer/Fall, I seen as many as 50-60 of them at 1 time in my Backyard. The problem i see is Crows taking all of the Feed, We have Groups of Resident Crows here as well, of all things they are Protected here? House Cats are another problem here, though that Problem is Quickly Dwindling

Crows provide me with live targets all winter here in the city with my pellet rifle. I have 6 in the trash can right now from Monday and Tuesday. A neighbor likes to throw of peanuts for them in her heavily treed back yard. I like to wait until there's 50-60 crows back there and then shoot a "screamer" rocket off. Sends the crows into a frenzy and as many break wings and necks trying to get away from the noise as I kill with the rifle.

Crows....Tijuana Turkeys. Up at the cabin we have ravens. Much larger. Fun to pop with the .45 muzzie and 180 grain XTPs sailing out of the barrel at about 2300 fps. And they do pop..

MrTom said:

Crows provide me with live targets all winter here in the city with my pellet rifle. I have 6 in the trash can right now from Monday and Tuesday. A neighbor likes to throw of peanuts for them in her heavily treed back yard. I like to wait until there's 50-60 crows back there and then shoot a "screamer" rocket off. Sends the crows into a frenzy and as many break wings and necks trying to get away from the noise as I kill with the rifle.

Crows....Tijuana Turkeys. Up at the cabin we have ravens. Much larger. Fun to pop with the .45 muzzie and 180 grain XTPs sailing out of the barrel at about 2300 fps. And they do pop..

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Speaking of poaching. You do realize that Ravens are classified as migratory birds and are protected under federal law and most state laws. You can be punished just as hard for killing a raven as you can be for shooting an eagle.

Northern MN is full of raven haters. And ravens are handled the same as crows when the are or are about to do damage. Ravens are murder on bird feeders.

Never had either a raven or crow on any of our feeders?

ENCORE50A said:

Never had either a raven or crow on any of our feeders?

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The only problem I have with them is the fact that they are tattle tails. When you're trying to hunt they let every other raven know you are there. Same with crows.

In my generic seed feeder I use to keep sparrows busy and away from the other feeders with better food the crows are on it as soon as its light enough for them to fly. They'll sit on the lip of the tray and beat their wings so the seed rolls out of the lopsided feeder due to their weight. Others are all over underneath it. Its nothing to have 50 crows in the driveway at first light. I've put ten #0 leghold traps under the feeder and had crows in six of them within three minutes of them showing up. I'll note too that we in town here have a serious crow problem thru the winter and the city has an abatement program ongoing thru the winter months. Anything residents do to keep the crows unsettled and on the go is welcomed by the city. Last winter I got rid of over 80 crows and I'm well on my way to that mark again this year. Personally I use rockets that bang, scream or shoot a sower of sparks. The screamers crows absolutely panic over. I also plink the suckers from my oak tree i

We had chickens for a while, and after the hawks and owls got the last of them I repurposed a feeder for the birds and squirrels and the occasional cottontail. We get lots of cardinals, doves and sparrows. The feeder is from tractorsupply.com and costs about $12 last time I checked.


I hang it about 3 inches above the ground (to keep the ants out) under a 4'x6' shelter I built, and fill it with a mixture of wild bird food and sunflower seeds (also from Tractor Supply). A $20 buy lasts for months, and I do not mind what eats from the feeder - everybody's got to eat.