It's not just bass pics from southern anglers that get me through the winter. My bird feeders also help. I have about 125 goldfinches that come multiple times each day and they're starting to molt, so the males will soon be bright yellow and females a dull yellow. These birds also visit everyday: nuthatches, chickadees, mourning doves, crows (I love crows.), hairy and downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, juncos, bluejays, titmice, and bluebirds.

I have two hanging feeders, but most of the birds prefer to feed at a platform and on the ground. I also have a suet cage, which the woodpeckers love, but they also eat the sunflower hearts on the platform.

Last week a sharp-shinned hawk visited and my feeding station was empty for about two hours.

Anyone else feed birds and if so, what species do you see?

We get tons of birds here all year, though we would struggle to have a bird feeder between the deer, squirrels, and bears. Every week in our facebook group someone has one destroyed. As soon as this snow is off though, I’ll have all kinds in the back yard (we back up to the woods). My favorite are the bluebirds. They hand out on the branches just outside my office window in the spring just sunning. This time of year the pilleated woodpeckers are great. There are a half dozen residents that are flitting around pounding at the dead ash trees most of the year here. We get a lot of northern flickers which are like a smaller woodpecker that feeds on the ground. There is a red tail hawk that has had a nest about 200 yards from my office window since we have lived here. It is a big oak tree with some gnarly vines that make a nice little hiding hole on the edge of a power line. She has suitors due in a couple weeks and 1 or 2 fledglings in May. We normally get to see the young fly the nest and then they are gone. And of course we have turkey buzzards around that like to use the pool for a quick sip.

@casts_by_fly: You have Northern flickers and Pileated woodpeckers? LUCKY DUCK!

Two of my favorite moments with birds are when my 125 Goldfinches spook and rise upward, a rush of gold and when they're nesting in the woods adjoining my house and I step outside to their singing.

We have red bellies, yellow bellies, red heads, and a couple smaller wood peckers too. The woods around here are old growth standing timber. Think ‘lake fork’ only dry. Much of the area around here is an old easement where any type of clear cutting or major cutting is banned. As a result, we have a lot of old, big trees. On the flip side, ash borer and other diseases have killed a lot of them. So we have a lot of old, big, ‘stumps’ that are 50’ tall. That’s the habitat for woodpeckers.

We don’t have bird feeders, but our yard is so full of all different kinds of birds I’m assuming because the entire yard is a healthy ecosystem, especially with our garden.

It’s rare to look out the patio door and not see blue jays and cardinals. Mocking birds, white-throated sparrows (my favorite singers), pileated woodpeckers, redwing black birds, hummingbirds, common sparrows and more. A hawk has a nest in one of the spruce trees, and sometimes likes to do a low flyover while we’re out having a fire, always a startle. We’ll occasionally hear a bard owl hooting somewhere in the trees. And possibly my favorite avian backyard experience; every single day in the spring,summer, and fall at about the same time, a blue heron flies high above our yard, en route to its evening roost. Our yard just happens to be over its travel route.

I get the same ones you do along with cardinals. Occasional visits from cowbirds, and a few starlings which will turn into flocks shortly. Oh yah, squirrels.

I have 2 caged feeders for the small kids, a large metal one for sunflower, a double suet feeder, and a heated bird bath. Like you the most popular is the feed I toss on the ground, mostly for the Junco’s and squirrels.

Won’t be long till the bears show up, hopefully I can time taking them down before they get destroyed, again. The highest I can get them up is about 7’, which isn’t high enough.

Every now and then I find a pile of feathers and figure the hawks have to eat too.

Don't the seeds that get scattered on the ground attract mice? My neighbor has several bird feeders and a mice problem. He said it was because of the seeds.

21 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Don't the seeds that get scattered on the ground attract mice? My neighbor has several bird feeders and a mice problem. He said it was because of the seeds.

Possibly, but I’ve not seen any signs of them. Keep in mind the ground is frozen solid here. Fwiw, my feeders are back in the trees, about 100’ from the house. I do catch a handful over the winter in the unheated shed when it’s not too cold, nothing when it is very cold.

Gosh, I feed a half a gallon of seed per day 365.

We have Titmouse, Chickadee, Finch, Bluejay, Cardinal, Nuthatch, Dove, Sparrow, Cowbird, indigo bunting, multiple woodpecker and loads of chipmunk and Squirrel.

AND a Cooper Hawk that sits on top of the feeder at least once per week.

35 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Don't the seeds that get scattered on the ground attract mice? My neighbor has several bird feeders and a mice problem. He said it was because of the seeds.

More mice more hawks? I believe crows are somewhat omnivorous.

Noticed a Carolina Wren at the suet feeder a couple days ago.

I hadn’t thought of it but we have a fox that prowls around the yard at night, might help with mice if we have/had any.

Finches, cardinals, juncos and sparrows are mostly what we see.

I have posted we live in the forest and I can’t say there’s a bird that’s been mentioned that we don’t have. At one time we put out suet cages for the Pileated woodpeckers and they would bring their young to the block with us sitting on the deck. They would be about 10 feet away. We have a good selection of birds of prey, several species of hawks and my favorites, Great Horned Owls and Screech Owls. We used to have a pole feeder with a 4 tube seed holder but we now just have a hanging 10 inch hard suet block cage that is attached to the soffit of our addition and is at least 70 feet off the ground and strategically surrounded by baffles that keep the squirrels out. All except for the flying squirrels which I don’t mind. They don’t eat much and they are nocturnal so we can watch them through the window at night. We also only feed in the winter to avoid any communicable diseases. The woodpecker species are the worst about wasting seed but we have enough ground birds that they clean it up PDQ. We also have generations of Carolina Wrens that have used the same nest in our garage every year for the last 20 years. It gets a little messy when the fledglings are learning to fly out of the window I leave open for them

1 hour ago, Jar11591 said:

redwing black birds

Do you live near water? I associate Redwing blackbirds with the ponds and bogs I fish. They're curious birds and will often follow me as I fish a shoreline. Same with Great blue herons.

48 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Don't the seeds that get scattered on the ground attract mice? My neighbor has several bird feeders and a mice problem.

Oh, I have a mouse problem. I killed 23 this winter in my garage in three days. I should set the traps again.

17 minutes ago, Bird said:

indigo bunting

One of my favorite birds, but I've yet to see one in Maine.

3 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

At one time we put out suet cages for the Pileated woodpeckers and they would bring their young to the block with us sitting on the deck. They would be about 10 feet away.

Wow. They look like dinosaurs to me. I've never been that close to one.

4 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Great Horned Owls and Screech Owls.

I hear owls many mornings and evenings, but I don't see them.

4 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

We also have generations of Carolina Wrens

I had to Google this bird. They're a little south of us.

@Swamp Girl yes, a couple nature preserves with bogs and ponds, and several shallow backflows of a large river all very close.

I forgot about the owls. We have a 4-5 dozen different ones around here that we hear/see. Not at the house, but on the lower road we’ll see the occasional barn own with their big white faces. Mostly though its screech owls and barred owls we can hear out back at night. I would see them while hunting more than at the house even though I was hunting a half mile away. Maybe being 25’ up in a tree and eye level to them at dusk when they are out hunting helped.

30 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

@Swamp Girl yes, a couple nature preserves with bogs and ponds, and several shallow backflows of a large river all very close.

That explains their presence. I wish I had some out my window. I like them, but I do get to enjoy them when I go fishing.

We’ve had 28 different species of birds in our fenced in backyard in the 4 years we’ve had feeders out. When snow covers the ground like it has the past month, the feeders are literally covered with birds all day. We have to refill the sunflower hearts and peanuts twice a day. For those of you who put these out, you know how expensive that can be. Once the snow melts, like it has the last few days, we get a break and things slow down. We get mice and voles around the feeders but we haven’t had any in the house or garage. In the summer, we’ll get chipmunks and 13 lined ground squirrels, my pellet gun keeps those populations under control. We hadn’t had any squirrels until this winter. It’s not legal for me to shoot them, so our dog is more than happy to chase them away.

My favorite thing to do every morning is having my coffee and watch the birds come to eat.

37 minutes ago, Scott F said:

We’ve had 28 different species of birds

Wow!

37 minutes ago, Scott F said:

peanuts twice a day

I used to put out peanuts, but the squirrels would take them and bury them in my flowerbeds.

38 minutes ago, Scott F said:

My favorite thing to do every morning is having my coffee and watch the birds come to eat.

Me too!

7 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

I used to put out peanuts, but the squirrels would take them and bury them in my flowerbeds.

The blue jays are the ones who eat most of the peanuts off of a flat feeder that’s off the ground and the squirrels haven’t gotten to them yet.

9 minutes ago, Scott F said:

the squirrels haven’t gotten to them yet.

If they do, you'll have more peanuts planted than Jimmy Carter once did.

I keep a feeder full of black oil sunflower seeds and a couple hummingbird feeders year-round. Sometimes I like to open the Merlin Bird ID app to check which birds are chirping around the yard while I'm enjoying a morning coffee on the porch. In addition to these guys, we also get a lot of robins and stellar jays.

When nature is on full blast and fishing is on the slow side, I also like to see who's chirping out near the water.

11 hours ago, Glenn said:

Don't the seeds that get scattered on the ground attract mice? My neighbor has several bird feeders and a mice problem. He said it was because of the seeds.

At my old wildlife job, bird feeder was the best money in the game. It’s not just mice. Squirrels, skunks, rats, raccoons, possums, and black bears

That being said, we fill up a feeder during winter 😂

I just recently started really paying attention to the birds. I guess we are on the migration path of a lot of birds. You can kind tell the time of year by what birds are around.

Got two feeders by the shop, I like thinking I’m giving them food for the journey, packing them a lunch so to speak.

49 minutes ago, GRiver said:

I like thinking I’m giving them food for the journey, packing them a lunch so to speak.

Considering Arctic terns migrate 25,000 to 50,000 miles each year, if you were on their route, you'd have to pack them a BIG lunch.

Another three birds that visit my feeder: turkeys, Canada jays, and seagulls aka the enemies.