You Could Be Making This Simple Mistake When Filling Your Bird Feeder

As spring comes into action, there's no better time than now to break out that old bird feeder or invest in a new, highly-rated bird feeder from Amazon. There are a plethora of benefits to having a bird feeder in your yard, from the obvious entertainment of getting to spot various birds interacting with the feed and each other to keeping away insects and even pollinating your garden. While many bird feeders are pretty simple to use, there are plenty of tips and tricks to optimize your birding accessory. One hack is pretty simple: Fill your feeder at night instead of in the morning. 

When House Digest spoke with Dr. Charles van Rees, conservation scientist, naturalist, and owner of Gulo in Nature, he noted a common mistake bird feeder owners make is filling the device with food in the morning. "Birds are most active for feeding early in the morning. So, you'll want to make sure that feeders contain food first thing when the birds are getting very active," Dr. van Rees exclusively told House Digest. "If you are not an early riser, I recommend filling feeders late at night before bed; that way, the seeds are available for the early birds while you're still snoozing."

Dr. Charles van Rees exclusively told House Digest that the reason you need seeds in your bird feeder each morning is due to most birds' eating and foraging preferences: "Early morning is the typical heavy-duty foraging time for most birds year-round, although they spend more time feeding and looking for food during the breeding season (spring and summer)." However, Dr. van Rees noted that bird feeder seeds are more like "snacks" for adult birds, "so I wouldn't say the best time changes much, it just moves with the timing of sunrise." This means there's a little bit more leniency in the warmer months, but not necessarily enough to warrant a shift in your habits.

Getting birds used to midday feedings could actually be dangerous for your winged visitors, too. "If you consistently fill up your feeders in, say, the afternoon, then potentially a more limited group of birds might have access to the seeds. You might also force the birds to spend more time foraging during broad daylight hours, when they are at greater risk of getting snapped up by an accipiter (bird-eating hawk) or a housecat," Dr. van Rees said.

Mornings aren't completely off the table. If you're someone who gets up early anyway — particularly if you already have chickens and other farm animals to feed — there's no harm in waiting until morning. "If early mornings don't upset you, or if you're up early anyhow to go to work, pre-dawn is a great time to fill bird feeders," Dr. Charles van Rees exclusively told House Digest. "By the time the sun rises, the seeds will be there when birds come to check out the feeder, and you won't disturb them with your presence, either." 

There are some positive aspects to adding this to your morning routine, too. "The advantages [of morning fills] are not having tons of bird food out all night where it could potentially attract nocturnal critters (if you live somewhere that they might be common)," Dr. van Rees said. "If you live somewhere with bears, for example, you might run greater risk of attracting them." If you aren't concerned about these visitors, feeding at night is likely to be more advantageous for another reason: "Feeding at night means that the food should be available even before sunrise, which is great timing for birds, especially shier species that are less active during the day," Dr. van Rees added. So, while many environmental and routine factors undoubtedly shift your take on the timing, it's important that bird enthusiasts know how advantageous and easy it is to fill the feeder at night.