At Home Living: Winter feeding attracts variety of featured friends

Winter is for the birdsso feed them.

Thats the advice of Curtis Stillwell at the Grass Pad, a nursery stock, seed, sod and wild bird enthusiast store in Olathe, Kansas.

Just get off your butt and do it, he jokes. Its not rocket science. You can buy a small hanging feeder and a 10 pound bag of wild birdseed for less than $10. Start small and sees who shows up.

And who might show up?

According to Stillwell, during the winter in northeast Kansas, blue jays, cardinals, house sparrows, song sparrows, mourning doves, house finches, house wrens, purple finches, American finches, tufted titmouses, chickadees, hairy and downy woodpeckers, red bellied woodpeckers, red wing black birds, grackles, nuthatches and flickers may pay a visit.

However, whether humans should feed wild birds, according to Stillwell, is a personal choice, akin, he says, to helping a homeless person on the street. Melody Weller at the Wild Bird House at the Brookwood Shopping Center in Topeka agrees, but adds that feeding birds doesnt make them dependent.

The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks apparently thinks its OK to feed feathered friends, as it provides information on feeding and attracting birds at kdwpt.state.ks.us/Services/Wildlife-Diversity/Bird-Feeders.

KDWP says birds have three simple needs: food, cover and water.

And for humans, Weller adds, a good viewing area from a window, with the feeder or birdhouse placed where predators cant harm the birds.

For cover as well as food that means habitat. The KDWP and Kansas State and Extension Forestry recommend a song bird bundle of shrubs, such as tartarian honeysuckle, eastern red cedar, Nanking cherry and aromatic sumac. They also suggest a woodpile or an old Christmas tree.

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At Home Living: Winter feeding attracts variety of featured friends