What can you feed bullfinches, waxwings and blue tits in winter?

There was such a wonderful writer Evgeny Nosov. When he died, they found a piece of paper on the table with the last words: “Feed the birds!” In Rus', by the way, they were always fed. The fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov, they say, spent whole days lying on the wide window sill of the library and crumbling bread for pigeons. And in many landowners’ estates, entire rooms were provided for wintering for birds, which were cared for in order to be released in the spring. If you want to attract birds to your garden, prepare a welcome treat for them - during the hungry, cold season the birds really need it. So let's start with the feeders.

• Winter bird feeders
• What can you feed birds in winter? Food for bullfinches
• Food for waxwings

Feeding the birds

In winter, bullfinches can survive on their own, but with the help of humans they do it much better. By hanging a feeder outside your window, you can greatly help the birds.

In nature, bullfinches usually feed on buds, young shoots, seeds and berries. During feeding of the offspring, insects are added to the diet. At the same time, bullfinches are granivores.

Ornithologists insist that grain mixtures are the best winter food option. Among them, mixtures for canaries are the most preferable. They contain a wide variety of seeds, including canola, millet and hemp. Also useful will be:

hawthorn rowan rose hips sunflower seeds (unsalted, not fried) unsalted lard or meat maple, lilac and ash seeds

Fresh fruits, vegetables, berries and herbs will not be superfluous in the feeder. However, it is not necessary to purchase them specifically for birds. Even apple cores or pieces of vegetables left over from preparing a salad are suitable here.

Oatmeal at home

Yellowhammer

(
Emberiza citrinella
) is bright yellow-brown, with females being duller in color. The song of the oatmeal is quite simple and monotonous. The basis of the oatmeal diet is made up of plant foods (cereals, weeds, berries, etc.). During the breeding season, insects are consumed, and the chicks are fed mixed food.

Pictured: oatmeal

In the cage or enclosure for the bunting, place suitable perches with bark, a bathing area, and feeders. Be sure to place mineral mixture and stones in the cage. Often offer birds greens, buds, sprouted grains, and insect larvae.

The bunting cage should be spacious and in a bright place.

The main thing is to do no harm

In particularly harsh weather conditions, any food can save bullfinches, but the result of such rescue can sometimes not last long. There are a number of foods that should never be given to birds:

citrus dairy products spicy fried sour spicy bread peanuts banana peels spoiled foods

Bread is especially dangerous. It harms internal organs, particularly the liver and kidneys, and also causes digestive system upset. The consequences of eating bread are in most cases detrimental to birds.

It is also important not to feed the bullfinches, but rather to feed them, leaving some of the worries about getting food to the birds themselves. This will allow them to diversify their diet, finding missing elements in nature, and will also help them not to lose their dexterity. It is impossible to constantly maintain the presence of food in the feeder. It is best to set a routine and fill it a couple of times a day, for example, in the morning and evening. Bullfinches will quickly get used to the schedule and will know exactly at what time they can find food in the feeder, and at what hours they will have to rely only on themselves.

How to attract birds

It is necessary to plant plants that are suitable for nesting, as well as hang birdhouses and titmouses.

In the spring, you should monitor in which places the birds nest. It is better not to go near these places often. When the incubation period begins, the birds will not abandon the nest, even if you scare them.

Birds that arrive in the summer, as a rule, begin to build nests on their own. For example, warblers make their home in raspberries, and wagtails live under the roof.

What does the bullfinch eat in winter and summer?

In winter, most of us notice the appearance of beautiful red-breasted birds - bullfinches - in the city. They are mainly visible on leafless tree branches and snow-covered ground. The appearance of a large number of bullfinches is due to the lack of sufficient food for survival in forest areas, which brings them to urban areas, where people, hearing their sonorous singing, feed them seeds.

Bullfinch

Bullfinch in May

By nature, bullfinches are trusting and unpretentious, so they feel comfortable among people. If you wish, you can get such a bird to keep it on your balcony or garden plot, having previously tamed it or caught it on the street. Keeping seemingly freedom-loving birds will not affect their overall condition at all. But you shouldn’t go against nature and specially catch bullfinches for yourself; it’s better to feed them sometimes in a hungry winter.

Model house projects

Project "Duet"

The “Duet” project is a one-story house with a gable roof.

• walls: aerated concrete
• roof: metal tiles
• Communications: gas, electricity, individual heating, septic tank, well.
• Finishing: heated floors, screed, walls covered with plasterboard, plastered at the seams, suspended ceiling, double-glazed windows, front door.

Area 78 sq.m.

Plot of land 9 acres.

The cost of the “Duet” project with a plot of land is 3,500,000 rubles.

Mortgage possible

Telephone number for scheduling a consultation and viewing of the Bogoslovskie Snowtrees CP: +7

Project "Trio"

The “Trio” project is a one-story house with a complex roof configuration.

• walls: aerated concrete
• roof: metal tiles
• Communications: gas, electricity, individual heating, septic tank, well.
• Finishing: heated floors, screed, walls covered with plasterboard, plastered at the seams, suspended ceiling, double-glazed windows, front door.

Area 90 sq.m.

Plot of land 6-10 acres.

The cost of the “Trio” project with a plot of land is 3,600,000 - 4,000,000 rubles.

Mortgage possible

Telephone number for scheduling a consultation and viewing of the Bogoslovskie Snowtrees CP: +7

Project "Quartet"

The “Quartet” project is a one-story house with an attic floor.

• walls: aerated concrete
• roof: metal tiles
• Communications: gas, electricity, individual heating, septic tank, well.
• Finishing: heated floors, screed, walls covered with plasterboard, plastered at the seams, suspended ceiling, double-glazed windows, front door.

Area 120 sq.m.

Plot of land 9 acres.

The cost of the “Quartet” project with a plot of land is 4,800,000 rubles.

Mortgage possible

Telephone number for scheduling a consultation and viewing of the Bogoslovskie Snowtrees CP: +7

Appearance

The bullfinch is slightly larger in size than a sparrow. The feather color of the birds is quite bright and memorable:

• the head, except for the cheeks, is black;
• the tail and wings are also covered with black feathers;
• the undertail and loin are white;
• the cheeks, lower neck, abdomen and sides are painted bright red. Males have a distinctive gray coloration on the back, neck and neck.

Depending on the species and region of habitat, bullfinches have slight differences in color. The shoulders on the back of the neck, in the female, may have gray plumage, while the back is colored brownish-brown. Sometimes females experience a change in red plumage to gray-brown.

Bullfinch

Bullfinch on a branch

Bullfinches: male and female

Chicks, regardless of gender, are colored buffy-brownish, without highlighting individual parts of the body as in adult birds.

Cost of houses and land

You can purchase a plot of land without a contract for building a house at a price of 90,000 rubles per 1 sq.m.

Habitats

Bullfinches are distributed throughout Europe, except for the southern and upper parts of Asia. In terms of altitudinal level of settlement, they are not picky and calmly build nests in low-lying areas and mountainous areas, selecting for themselves places with a sufficient number of trees and forests. These birds do not settle in places with no or few trees. The northern part of the forest is rarely inhabited by bullfinches due to cold winters.

Bullfinches choose to inhabit places with a clean environment, so in winter residents of cities with minimal or no industry can admire them. Birds feel quite comfortable around people, so they calmly settle within the city limits near residential buildings.

The summer forest does not allow you to see the birds, even despite their distinctive colors. In winter, trees empty of foliage and a white background of snow reveal all the beauty of their plumage.

Birds live in nests made in trees (fir trees) at a height of no more than 5 meters. They build the nests themselves from available natural materials: twigs, leaves, dry grass and live in them, leaving only to feed.

To create nests and lay eggs, bullfinches choose spruce trees located near water bodies. The general behavior of the birds is calm and poorly oriented in a new area, which allows both humans and domestic cats to catch even an adult.

Last step: hanging the feeder

The optimal height would be 1.5 meters - this way we will protect the bird canteen from large birds that prefer to feed from the ground. Choose a place protected from the wind. There should be an open space in front of the feeder so that the birds can notice the cat in time. By the way, to protect against predators, you can attach a cone made of iron or plastic to the trunk.

You should not place the feeder near the road or in crowded places, but forests, parks, trees and shrubs are a comfortable environment for birds. Remember to keep the inside clean and add food daily.

So, in order to help birds survive the cold, special efforts are not required. In addition, they will generously reward the breadwinners when the snow melts, because there are no better helpers in pest control.

______________________________________________________

If you find a wounded animal or bird in the park

Due to the fact that the State Budgetary Institution “Mospriroda” began to receive more and more requests about found wild birds and animals, we are publishing rules of conduct when they are discovered in natural areas.

What does a bullfinch eat in summer?

In summer, bullfinches spend most of their time in fields and meadows. A sufficient amount of meadow grass seeds ensures a well-fed summer. In winter, fallen seeds are hidden under a layer of snow and it is difficult for birds to feed themselves, forcing them to fly to places populated by people for the winter.

In addition to a sufficient number of seeds donated by nature, bullfinches love orchards and bushes with berries. Birds peck at juicy berries in summer or drying out in autumn, regardless of where they grow.

Fields sown with sunflowers attract, perhaps, all birds with juicy and satisfying seeds. Unlike other birds, bullfinches very rarely catch midges and other seasonal insects as food, but they do not completely refuse.

What does a bullfinch eat in winter?

In winter, most often bullfinches can be seen on the branches of rowan and viburnum. Bright red berries not only successfully highlight the red breast of birds, rowan is also their favorite delicacy.

The remaining seeds on maple, ash, and alder trees support birds until suitable seeds appear on meadow grasses or buds on trees. In parks, bullfinches do not refuse to visit feeders built by people; they only linger in them if there are sunflower and pumpkin seeds, oats and millet.

All these delicacies keep bullfinches until the onset of spring, which gives a lot of leaf buds. But often the winter is hungry and with little food available, which has a strong impact on the decline in bird populations.

Bullfinch male.

Bullfinch with tree seed.

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COMMENTS

What does the bullfinch feed its chicks?

In the first half of May, female bullfinch lay eggs, from which chicks hatch a few weeks later. For the first few weeks, the chicks are next to the female and are fully fed by her. Over the next 10-15 days, the chicks learn to fly and get their own food. For young individuals, the diet must include midges, small spiders and bugs; in addition, the females begin to accustom them to collecting seeds from grasses.

A young bullfinch eats chokeberry.

A month after birth, the chicks are fully adapted to adult life and can feed on the same basis as adults.