Guelph has some pretty amazing birds all year-round, but there’s something special about watching them in winter that I love. For me, a bright red cardinal on a snow-covered tree is magic and captures the beauty that lives in nature, even in the bleakest of weather. I want to show everyone in Guelph how to take care of birds in winter and celebrate them over the holiday season.
Let’s fly into some avian holiday cheer—Royal City Nursery style!
The chickadee might be Guelph’s official bird, but so many colourful species liven up the snowy winter skies of Guelph. The biggest thing we need to be thinking about right now is what to feed them and how to integrate some basic winter bird care.
Your front door is the gateway to your home, so give it the attention it deserves by adorning it from head to toe with those gorgeous evergreen wreaths and garlands. You don’t have to leave your decorating at the door, either; we’ve got some fantastic winter doormats that keep your home clean and let the world know how festive you truly are. What a perfect way to welcome your guests in for dinner with the warmth (and fun) of the season!
Winter can be a tough time for birds, and they need all the help they can get to survive the cold months here in Guelph. Besides suet, consider offering other nutrient-rich foods such as black oil sunflower seeds, nyjer seeds, fruits, and mealworms. These high-energy foods provide the essential calories birds need to stay warm and active in winter. Ensure you use quality bird feed and clean your feeders regularly to prevent the spread of disease.
At my house, we like to use products by Mr. Bird to feed winter birds, and our Royal City Nursery customers have found great success with it, too! One of the big reasons we really like the Mr. Bird line is that it has no fillers, and it’s held together with food-grade gelatin so that it won’t melt. This also means that you get more seed per unit, and the birds make less of a mess because they eat all of it. The only thing we need to watch is that we’re not letting it get soaking wet, or it will dissolve. So, if you can tuck it under a tree branch or even just at the edge of your porch, it will do better.
Mr. Bird products are also not loose seeds and come compressed in a variety of different shapes. These are great for the holidays, too, because you can choose full-seed wreaths and Christmas seed-coated cookies to hang on the trees outside. There’s no better way to feed the birds in a festive style than this, especially with the Juniper Birdie Cottage Treat!
If you love woodpeckers as much as I do, you’ll definitely want to try the Woodpecker Feast. This cylinder, alongside the Bugs, Nuts & Fruit, is one of our best-sellers. The bug and nut products are really good for medium to large-size birds. They are also great for songbirds and the cardinals, doves, and even chickadees will eat off of those quite happily.
There are tons of ways to feed birds over the winter, so let’s get creative with these neat ideas:
Use the seed heads from sedum, grasses, coneflowers, and black-eyed Susans in your Christmas pots to entice birds a little bit closer.
Anyone hoping to draw in some of Guelph’s most beautiful birds should be thinking about what they’re planting in the garden all year-round. I’m a big advocate of planting for the four seasons. When planting in the spring and summer, look at things such as berries, seeds, and things that add some winter interest and attract many species of birds in the fall and winter months.
You can also switch up the holiday tradition this year and go with a live potted tree! The best part about that is once you’re done with the tree indoors, you can put it on your porch, in your yard, or on your deck as an awesome habitat for winter birds as well. This season, we have both white spruce and baby blue spruce.
It’s wonderful to feed winter birds, but it’s also fun to add some bird arts and crafts into your holiday traditions with the family! Here are some cool ways to celebrate the love of birds this season:
Photo credit: https://maygibbs.org/news/birds-nest-paper-plate-craft/
Winter bird care in Guelph can be an exciting part of the holidays, and we’ve got everything you need to make your home festive and bird-friendly this season. We also have two more Kids Reindeer planter workshops this weekend that you don’t want to miss.
