You Don’t Need Another Feeder – These 6 Easy Ideas Give Backyard Birds a Better Feast

My garden used to be full of bird feeders, but when I became a mom and life grew increasingly busy, I found it a struggle to keep on top of constantly filling them. Birds can become reliant on the feeders they visit, and so it’s a bad idea to neglect them. Over time, I have looked for other ways to keep birds fed without having to hang so many feeders.

Feeding backyard birds doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive if you grow the right plants and avoid the urge to have everything pristine all the time. There are also a few easy supplemental additions you can make that will support wildlife, like adding a water source.

One of the simplest things you can do to help birds is to avoid spraying chemical pesticides in your garden. If you want more birds, you have to allow a few bugs, and they will help you to keep the population under control, supporting healthy biodiversity. Let the lawn go a bit rough and don’t rip out every weed or deadhead every plant as soon as it starts to fade. Often, the best thing you can do for nature is to leave it be. Here are my top tips for giving backyard birds a feast without having to put in too much work.

1. Leave the Seeds

I like a tidy garden as much as the next person, but if you let your OCD go into overdrive, you risk removing some of the most abundant natural food sources for birds. Stop automatically deadheading and cutting everything down. Seedheads, like coneflowers, black-eyed Susan, sunflowers, and ornamental grasses, are natural feeders, while stems shelter overwintering insects. Goldfinches, cardinals, and house finches will strip seedheads clean through fall and winter. Leave them in place until late winter to early spring, when you do your big prune of the season.

If you don’t have these bird favorites in your yard right now, then start flowers from seed this year so they’ll have a banquet to enjoy later in the season. This Bird Lover’s Meadow Mix Shaker from Terrain contains a delightful mix including black-eyed Susan, poppies, classic zinnias, love in a mist, and Pixie Delight lupines.

2. And Leave the Leaves

In the same vein, leave fallen leaves where they land on soil (but not on grass). Not only are they brilliant natural mulch, but leaves mean more insects like beetles, larvae, grubs, and pupae, which birds rely on. Certain birds, like robins, towhees, sparrows, and thrushes, will actively forage through leaf litter seeking a snack. However, if you don’t like the look of leaves scattered across your yard, you can make it more intentional by making a leaf pile behind the shed, under a hedge, or in a quiet corner.

A leaf vacuum with a built-in shredder, like the Worx Trivac 3-in-1 on Amazon, will help you to distribute leaves exactly where they are needed, mulching them down so they will naturally biodegrade without smothering your garden.

3. Plant a Bird Buffet Shrub

Planting a berry-producing shrub is the single most important thing you can do for your garden birds in the long term, providing a ready supply of food when they most need it (and providing an attractive feature for your enjoyment). Berries are magnets for birds like cedar waxwings, bluebirds, robins, mockingbirds, and catbirds.

Depending on your USDA zone, top choices include:

• American beautyberry
• Winterberry holly
• Serviceberry
• Red chokeberry
• Wax myrtle

These shrubs provide vital calories in fall and winter, when insects are scarce.

4. Offer a Suet Alternative

If you don’t want to fill feeders with suet balls, then spread a thin layer of peanut butter mixed with oats onto tree bark, pinecones, or logs. It attracts woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees, and titmice. Only offer peanut butter mixes in cool weather, as they can soften or spoil in summer heat.

A more attractive alternative is to hang bird seed ornaments, which are packed with seeds and molded into shapes, like these pretty designs from Amazon featuring edible flowers.

You can even DIY bird seed ornaments, using molds and binding the seeds together with fat. It’s a fun activity and a great way to support birds in winter.

5. Put Out Water

Birds need a daily supply of water – and while they’re there, they’ll forage for insects and natural food nearby. A bird bath can be as simple as a shallow dish with a rock for traction, or a smart design that keeps water continuously moving and provides HD footage and identification of birds, like the Birdfy Smart Bird Bath.

All birds need a clean source of drinking water, and some will even revel in bathing in it – including hummingbirds. In winter, add a ping pong ball or rubber duck to your bird bath to help prevent it from freezing over, as ice can be a devastating blow for visiting birds at this sparse time of year.

6. Add a “Messy Pile”

A rotting log pile or an open compost heap are insect factories. Birds like wrens, robins, chickadees, and woodpeckers will use them as a constant hunting ground. You only need one messy pile to make a huge difference. If you don’t want to start a compost pile that’s open to the elements, then a log pile is the way to go – find a quiet corner, stack them up, and watch wildlife make a home.