Birds Need Your Help This Fall – An Expert Shares 5 Things to Do in October to Support Backyard Birdlife
It's time to turn our yards into wildlife sanctuaries for the coldest months ahead
As the seasons turn in October, it's not just our plants that need some extra help – garden birds also seek refuge and support from resource-rich gardens this month. Making sure your yard is ready to welcome them is a great way to attract more birds in fall.
It isn't just a case of feeding garden birds this month, though cleaning and refilling feeders is vital. Mary Mack Gray, in-house ornithologist at Birdbuddy, says October also calls for leaving faded blooms and plant debris to provide some cover.
Not to mention, providing a clean water source (a solar water pump from Amazon can provide movement and attract more birds). Keep reading to find out exactly how to help garden birds in October.
1. Give Your Feeders Some Love
It's important to clean bird feeders year-round, but the wet and mild weather of fall calls for more urgency, with such conditions harnessing an environment for fungal diseases and mold.
'Thoroughly cleaning feeders now means less cleaning during the cold months,' says Mary.
'Moving feeders is a good way to prevent debris build up under feeders, which reduces both disease transmission and the chance of attracting pests,' she adds.
Keeping feeders out of direct sun this month will prevent food spoiling and protect food quality.
You can use a special bird feeder cleaner from Amazon to get your feeders in shape. As Mary notes, this will also prevent your feeder attracting rats.
If you need to clean hummingbird feeders, use these hummingbird feeder cleaning brushes from Walmart to get into the narrow ports.
Mary is a wildlife biologist with over a decade of experience in research, conservation, and regulation of endangered and imperilled species. Mary's expertise is in avian ecology, specifically: cooperative breeding; reintroductions/translocations; behavioral ecology; endemic & fire-dependent habitat specialists; and habitat managem
2. Keep Feeders Filled
It may sound obvious, but garden birds need a good supply of food sources in backyards during fall. This is especially true when many natural food sources become scarce this month.
'Birds are attracted to reliable sources of high-quality food. They take note of reliable food sources during fall and are more likely to visit those come winter. Keeping feeders reliably stocked with high-fat, high-energy foods during fall is a sure-fire way to entice birds to stay in your yard over winter,' Mary says.
Feeding birds in winter and fall is vital to keep them energized during challenging, cold conditions. As Mary notes, high-energy foods should be prioritized, including suet balls (like these from Walmart), sunflower hearts (from Amazon), and nuts.
'Gear up for winter feeding sprees by adding feeders. Yards with more feeders are able to accommodate more birds,' Mary adds.
There are some bird feeders better suited to fall and winter, including this tube bird feeder from Wayfair which will keep the rain and excess moisture out. You can also invest in one of the best smart bird feeders to capture footage of your bird visitors over the coming months.
3. Leave Seed Heads
When natural food sources are scarce, the best plants for seed heads are invaluable to birds.
'Plants with seed heads are an essential fall and winter food source for seed-eating birds and a source of nesting material come spring. Allowing seed heads to decay naturally is a great way to attract birds during fall (while reducing garden labor!),' Mary says.
In particular, coneflowers and black-eyed Susans (which you can order from Amazon) are popular with common US backyard birds, including American goldfinches and other songbirds.
The other bonus is that these faded blooms bring architectural beauty to your fall garden, especially when dusted in frost.
You can also grow native plants to feed birds in winter to make your yard even more resource-rich for garden wildlife.
4. Create Brush Piles
It's not just food that birds are seeking in backyards during fall, they also need shelter and cover from adverse conditions.
'Brush piles and leaf litter are great sources of cover, shelter, and food for birds. Ground-feeding birds such as song sparrows and others that avoid elevated feeders love to forage in leaf litter, where they often find hiding insects,' says Mary.
'Brush piles also provide essential winter shelter for dormant insects. Allowing some brush piles to remain thereby increases natural food sources for birds come spring,' she explains.
Over-tidying your yard in fall can be harmful to wildlife for this reason. Of course, you may want to move fallen leaves off your lawn to prevent grass becoming smothered, but allowing twigs, leaves, and other debris to sit elsewhere can be invaluable to wildlife.
You can even use these and leaf scoops from Amazon to easily relocate leaves to a quiet corner in your yard for birds.
5. Provide Clean Water
A bird bath is one of the most vital things you can have in your yard to support wildlife. However, a bird bath mistake is not keeping it clean, especially in fall and winter when lots of debris can end up in the water.
'A clean source of water is important year-round, but it can be especially important to migratory birds during fall migration. Providing clean water is an important (and often overlooked) key way to encourage birds visit your yard,' Mary explains.
The hummingbird migration, for example, benefits from a solar bird bath pump (which you can pick up at Walmart). Hummingbirds prefer a mist to a bird bath, so this can create movement in the water for them.
As for cleaning your bird bath, you can use a copper bird bath coin to prevent algae as well as rinsing it out and replacing it with fresh water regularly. You can find a copper coin for your bird bath on Amazon.
What to Shop
As well as birds, you can do a few things to attract other wildlife to your yard in fall. This includes leaving a tall patch of grass and providing pollinators with shelter in the form of leaf piles and hollow stems.
Our guide to fall yard clean-up mistakes has more information on what kind of garden debris can support wildlife this season.
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