Food for birds is easy to furnish. Natural growth, such as berry bushes and fruit-bearing trees, can be supplemented with a variety of commercial products. However, the ideal management plan supplies as much food as possible through vegetation.

While food for birds, as for all life, is a basic essential, food provision is not the beginning and the end of birdlife management. Food must be accompanied by the two other habitat elements - water and cover - to enable wildlife to live in your backyard.

The goals when landscaping your bird garden are to supply natural as well as commercial foods and to provide the maximum number of homes for the maximum number of creatures. Choose plants which will give the greatest overlap in flowering and fruiting times. Certain evergreens such as cedars, spruces, and hemlocks provide food and serve as excellent year-round cover.

Birds live on a variety of plant life - berries, buds, fruits, and seeds. The more variety provided, the greater number of species you will attract. Manicured flower beds and neat borders offer little to interest the hungry bird. The more informal and "wild" your garden, the more hospitable your table is considered.

Food should be available, as needed, all year long. This however, is unlikely if complete reliance is placed upon natural food sources. To be sure food is abundant during the winter, provide it in feeders. Fill them all winter and into the spring until natural growth has a chance to take over.

Suet:
Aside from commercial bird feed, you can add several other items to the feeding station to vary the menu. Suet can be used in several ways for cold-weather feeding. Nail beef suet, unseasoned, to a tree or place it in a mesh bag and hang. You can also melt it down and mix it with seeds, raisins, or nuts. Once mixed, spoon the suet into paper cups and spread it over pine cones. Chickadees, woodpeckers, thrushes, bluejays, and cardinals enjoy this delicacy.

Fruit:
Fruit is another favorite of various bird species. Sliced oranges, apples, and raisins are necessary to orioles that winter in cold climates. Even birds which do not normally visit feeding stations - robins, waxwings, thrushes, and bluebirds - are attracted by dried figs, currents, and raisins.

Peanut Butter:
Titmice, Carolina wrens, chickadees, and nuthatches are fond of peanut butter. In fact, it is such a favorite that birds have been known to alight on human hands to eat it. Coarsen the peanut butter with cornmeal or bread crumbs to eliminate choking and hang it from a tree in empty orange halves.

Nectar:
Hummingbird nectar is a special dish which can easily be prepared during a spare evening or Sunday afternoon. Just add 1 cup of sugar (granulated) to 4 cups of water. Bring the mixture to a boil, then allow the solution to cool. Fill your feeder and place the remaining nectar in the refrigerator until needed. Clean and refill the feeder at least once a week to reduce the growth of fungus. Hummingbirds are attracted to red, so use a feeder that has red components. Place the feeder in a somewhat shaded area near a flower garden. Do not add red food coloring to the nectar and do not substitute the sugar with honey. Dr. Augusto Ruschi, a Brazilian expert on hummingbirds, both captive and wild, and author of "Aves do Brasil", discovered that honey, when fermented, produces a fungus that affects the tongues of hummingbirds and eventually kills them, even if the honey has been centrifuged.

Having two or more feeders cuts down on competition among species. For example, chickadees and titmice will readily approach a window feeder, while larger birds, such as jays and cardinals, prefer to feed farther from human habitation. Wherever you place your feeders, do not become upset if the birds do not immediately take advantage of the food you are offering. Birds are cautious and to ensure survival, might hesitate several days before approaching the feeder.

While feeders are an easy way to entice birds into view, they are not the only way. Birds often travel quite a distance before finding the materials needed to build their nests. And because these materials are rarely found in our backyards, human viewers usually don't see the gathering and incorporating of the nesting materials. However, it is not necessary for this interesting facet of birdwatching to go unobserved. If you provide various nesting materials in your yard, the birds will use these provisions and will have little need to search elsewhere.

House wrens make use of small sticks up to two inches in length. Soft mud in a flat pan, dead leaves, dried grass, straw, and small feathers attract swallows, robins, and wood thrushes. Baltimore Orioles use soft string, three to five inches in length. Grey and white string are suggested, as bright colors are more conspicuous and might attract predators to the nests after the eggs are laid or the young hatched.

By placing these materials where the birds can find them, one more stage in the lives of these fascinating creatures can be viewed.