Year round bird feeding has become a very popular past time.
Those birders who provide summer feeding stations can be even more successful in attracting birds than their cold weather counterparts.
Although the number of birds attracted may be less, the variety of migratory birds will add color and diversity to warm weather feeding stations.
Hummingbirds and orioles visit nectar feeders throughout the day.
The orioles, tanagers and woodpeckers relish fresh fruit.
Bluebirds, warblers and vireos appreciate a steady supply of mealworms.
Peanut butter and summer suits also appeal to tanagers and woodpeckers as well as chickadees, nuthatches and others.
The regular winter visitors such as jays, titmice and the nuthatch rarely refuse peanuts.
Quail, cardinals, finches and other seed eaters never tire of black oil sunflower seeds.
Best of all, almost every bird species is attracted to fresh water for drinking and bathing.
And when you combine summer feeding stations with optimal landscaping you will attract nesting birds as well.
Most songbirds eat a high percent of insects during the nesting season.
A high protein diet is especially important for the development of rapidly growing nestlings.
However if seeds, nuts, fresh fruits and suets are available, many birds will feed on these products too.
Take advantage of breeding birds' taste for insects during the nesting season by offering live food.
A handful of mealworms or grubs on an elevated platform feeder every morning will bring a parade of warblers, vireos, bluebirds, tanagers, woodpeckers and many more.
This may quickly become many birds' favorite feeder.
Live foods may be purchase at your local Wild Bird Habitat Store.
Fresh fruit also attracts a variety of birds that otherwise seldom come to feeders.
Place orange halves on a tray or a hanging fruit feeder and watch the orioles, tanagers, warblers, thrushes, jays, catbirds, mockingbirds, thrashers and woodpeckers stop by for a taste.
Most of these same birds will also eat sliced apples and bananas.
The bananas have the added virtue of attracting swarms of fruit flies after just a few hours.
The fruit flies in turn attract hummingbirds which require a steady diet of protein rich soft bodied invertebrates.
Perhaps one of the most popular summer foods is sugar water nectar for hummingbirds.
To approximate flower nectar, simply mix one part white table sugar with four parts boiling water.
Let the mixture cool.
Refrigerate any extra.
Do not use honey or artificial sweeteners.
Also do not add red dyes to the nectar as it may be harmful.
The nectar, whether natural or man-made, contains little nutritional value.
It provides carbohydrates solely for energy.
Hummingbirds get their nutrients from insects that make up the majority of their diet.
When you notice hummingbirds hovering around flowers that are not know for their nectar production, they are hunting small spiders, aphids, gnats and other small soft insects.
The same sugar water you provide to the hummingbird is attractive as well to the orioles.
If you notice an oriole struggling to use your hummingbird feeder you may want to purchase special feeder to provide oriole with nectar products.
For which ever purpose you use the home made nectar, remember to change it approximately every other day to prevent fermentation and mold.
A bacterial growth could prove to be fatal.
Commercial nectars are available and need only be change every 4 to 6 days.
One food that seems an unlikely summer choice is suet.
Birds eat roughly 30% more animal protein during the summer, in fact woodpeckers consume more suet from March to August than they do all winter long.
Raw suets are messy and smell foul when they turn rancid in warm weather.
There are commercial no melt suets available that are very attractive.
Here is a home made no melt suet recipe you may find useful; over low heat, melt one cup lard and one cup crunchy peanut butter.
Stir in two cups 'quick cook' oats, two cups of corn meal, one cup white flour and one third cup of sugar.
Pour this mixture into plastic containers and store in your freezer.
The most important component of any summer, as well as winter, feeding station is water.
From a simple sauce pan filled with water to the traditional concrete pedestal bird bath, to an elaborate avian pool with a waterfall or fountain, the birds will be delighted.
Birds find the sound of moving water attractive if not irresistible, and can detect such sound from great distances.
A dripper added to a simple bird bath will create that sound as well as provide motion in the water that is very appealing and may attract many more visitors than you can imagine.
A well maintained water feature will attract more species of birds to your yard both in summer and winter than any kind of food.
Warblers, vireos, flycatchers and thrushes, as well as the usual corps of feeder birds drink and bathe regularly when a fresh source of water is made available.
Place the birdbath in the open so predators cannot stalk and surprise preoccupied birds.
Nearby branches of trees provide a good spot for preening once they have finished, and keeping the bath in a shaded area will help to retard algae growth.
A well stocked summer feeding station does not tempt birds away from what they normally eat.
It is merely an alternative that some species take advantage of and others ignore.
It lessens competition for what foods are available, and more time can be devoted to nesting when less time is spent having to forage for food.
You will be highly rewarded as the cardinals, chickadees, finches, woodpeckers and others bring their fledglings to the feeders for the first time.
A good summer feeding program is not to unlike that set up for winter feeding, such as, elevated feeders for safflower seed and sunflower seed.
These feeders can be hopper, seed tube or platform feeders.
A thistle tube feeder with fresh thistle is always attractive.
White millet on the ground feeder will be swarmed by native sparrows.
And do not forget to offer suet.
You will be pleasantly surprised.
But the summer brings the added advantage of providing live food, fresh fruits and of course, hummingbird feeders.
Combined with a consistent fresh source of water you'll find summer backyard bird feeding a unique and enjoyable experience.
It may provide the most colorful, diverse show of the year.