Stokes
Select Tips: Kids & Bird Feeding
by Don
and Lillian Stokes
One of the best ways to connect
kids to nature is to set-up a bird feeding station near your home. Kids will
get hooked on the up-close-and-personal view of beautiful wild birds and want
to see and know more about birds. Connecting kids to nature at an early age
gives us the conservationists of tomorrow.
1. Let children help shop for, then set-up, the bird
feeder in the first place. Let them help with putting the pole in the ground,
or mounting a bracket, or getting the hook over the branch. Then let them fill
the bird feeder. Provide a scoop, or container for the seed that is right for
smaller hands to manage.
2. Location, location, location. Make sure and locate the bird feeder where the
children can see it well from inside the house. Out a window near the breakfast
table is ideal. Birds are most actively feeding in the early morning,
replenishing their energy after the night. So there will be lots of action at
the feeder while kids are eating their breakfast.
3. Keep a bird book on the table so kids can identify the birds that come to
their feeder. Stokes Beginner’s Guide To Bird Feeding and Stokes Beginner’s
Guide To Birds, contain photos and good identification information on all the
feeder birds. If possible, and children are old enough, keep a pair of small
binoculars on the table also, for close-up views of the birds.
4. Let kids keep a list or journal, of what, and how many birds they see at the
feeder. Even better, keep crayons and paper nearby and let them draw the birds.
Remember, it’s not an art contest; any attempts at drawing are a good thing. Drawing
is a tool that will make them look more closely, leading to better bird
identification skills as they grow up. Place favorite kid’s bird drawings on
the refrigerator.
5. Take steps to insure a successful bird feeding experience in the first
place. A good, basic set-up includes choosing a seed tube or hopper style
feeder and filling it with Black Oil Sunflower, or a quality mix containing a
large percentage of sunflower. That’s the favorite seed of feeder regulars like
chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, cardinals and jays.
6. Invite even more birds by including other feeders. A finch tube feeder
filled with Nyjer (thistle) seed will attract goldfinches and other finch
species. Use suet cakes in a suet feeder to attract Downy, Hairy, Red-bellied
and other Woodpeckers.
7. Keep the feeders filled!! Let kids help with the feeder filling chores.
Birds will stop coming if there is no food, or only food on a very sporadic
basis.
8. Take
steps to prevent squirrels from getting to the seed and ruining the bird
feeding experience. Mount the feeder on a pole and put a squirrel-baffle on the
pole below the feeder to prevent squirrels from climbing the pole. Place the
pole at least 12 feet or more from any place a squirrel can jump from. If you
cannot pole mount your feeder, then choose a squirrel-proof feeder in the first
place. The Stokes Select Squirrel-Proof Feeder is a tube, surrounded by a cage,
that small birds can enter, but not squirrels. This feeder can be placed
anywhere, because a squirrel cannot access the seed even if it gets on the
feeder. Another ploy is to divert squirrels with their own squirrel feeder,
such as the Stokes Select Squirrel Lunch Box, placed well away from the bird
feeder. Squirrels are entertaining for kids to watch too.
9. Help kids attract and enjoy even more birds on your property by offering
bird baths, hummingbird feeders in summer and putting up bird houses. A
wonderful project is to make a bird house with your child.
10. Delight in your child’s delight at attracting birds and continue to
encourage them in this healthy, beneficial activity.
For more bird
information and updates see Don & Lillian Stokes’ daily Blog: