The Best Time To Hang a New Birdfeeder

No birds yet! The dropping level of seeds indicates the squirrels have visited, however.

A common frustration with wild bird feeding is how long it takes birds to notice (and visit) a new feeder. For those first several days, when the only attention you’ve attracted is from the neighborhood squirrels, it’s all too easy to wonder if the birds hold some grudge against you, or if you did something wrong.

In fact, this is totally normal. It can take a while for birds to even notice something new, and then longer before they feel safe venturing closer. Annoying, but typical. When I first put my back yard feeders up, mentioned in this post, it was almost three weeks before I saw many birds on them!

However, there is one trick you can use to get faster attention to a new feeder. The secret is low competition, great advertising, and honestly, a little bit of luck-- because the absolute best time to hang a new feeder is right after a snowstorm.

When fresh snow blankets the ground, the birds’ usual sources of food will be covered up as well. Without their favorite spots competing with your new feeders, the birds should be quicker to try something unfamiliar, to say nothing of desperate for something to eat.

Not much to eat here!

The snow also gives you a perfect opportunity to advertise your new feeder. First, pack down the snow under your feeder by stomping around, or smushing it down with something flat. (Otherwise the seed will just sink into the soft snow.) Once you have a nice dense layer, sprinkle plenty of black oil sunflower seeds on the packed snow. The dark seed contrasting with the white snow should catch the attention of birds searching for food, hopefully leading to your first feathered customers.

These days when I scatter seed after a snowfall, I have birds within minutes! 

You don't need a huge snowstorm for this method to work. Here the snow was only a couple inches deep.

To attract even more birds to your yard in the winter, you could also put out a heated birdbath. The birds' usual water sources are likely frozen or covered with snow, so a source of fresh water will be very welcome to local birds. You might even attract species that don't eat bird seed, like bluebirds or robins. You can buy a bird bath heater for about $40, or you could put out a pan of fresh water each morning just until it freezes, then bring it back inside to thaw. I recently ordered a heater for my birdbath, so while it didn’t arrive in time for our first snowstorm, I should have it in use before the end of the winter. (Stay tuned!)

In order to survive, birds need the right combination of food, water, and shelter. The more of these that birds can find in your yard, the more likely they’ll show up.  By hanging a new feeder right after a snowstorm, when food is desperately needed, you’ll likely get a faster response than when natural foods are easy to find. Win-win!

I hope you enjoy watching birds in your yard this winter, along with any other animals that might show up, like squirrels, rabbits, deer, and even foxes. I’d love to hear about what you see!

Once the birds are drawn to your yard, they'll soon explore your feeders as well. This Song Sparrow looks pretty cozy as more snow falls.