Birdfeeder Friends

Week of February 22, 2026 – February 28, 2026

by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator

If you’ve visited Baltimore Woods recently, you may have noticed bustling activity at our birdfeeders. With periods of bitter cold and snow the past few weeks, these feathered friends are especially hungry. We have been hard at work tallying birds through our Project FeederWatch program, in which we record all bird species and individuals seen in the backyard for two days a week. 

In celebration of all of these birds, we’ve had programs including a weekly FeederWatch Social Hour, a Nature Art for Kids program focused on birds (with another session for adults coming up on February 26), and a birdfeeder program in collaboration with Nightingale Mills in Marcellus and Aspen Song Wild Bird Food. 

This year, Dark-eyed Juncos have been especially abundant, hopping around mostly on the ground with feathers fluffed. We have recently started to notice sparrow species such as American Tree Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, and Song Sparrows. It is an irruption year for Red-breasted Nuthatches, which tend to come through about every other year in decent numbers. Their abundance in central New York depends on the cone crop supply in boreal forests, which has been low this year, pushing them southwards in search of food. Soon, we should begin to see large flocks of blackbirds at the feeders and surrounding areas. This is a sign of spring as they visit us along their migration.  

If you want to attract birdfeeder friends to areas surrounding your home, suet and black oil sunflower seed are some of the most helpful foods to provide. With cold and snowy weather, suet gives birds an energy boost and provides fat to keep them warm. It is especially loved by woodpeckers. Black oil sunflower seed is a favorite for many species, from chickadees to cardinals. You might also try offering a nut mix for blackbirds and Blue Jays. You can even make your own birdfeeder by using a spatula to cover a pinecone in vegetable shortening or peanut butter, then rolling it in black oil sunflower seeds. Hang your feeder from a tree, and see which birds come to visit (but don’t be surprised if a squirrel eventually pulls it down)!

We hope to see you on an upcoming Wednesday afternoon for one of our FeederWatch Social Hour programs, and we hope you enjoy watching feeder birds around your home.

We invite our members to enjoy a weekly blog written by our naturalists. Every blog will be uniquely different but always inspired by nature. We may share a memory from a recent hike at The Woods or teach you about an animal or plant that lives on the preserve. No matter the topic, we will be sharing with you our passion for nature and celebrating the connections we all have to the natural world. Each blog will be connected to a weekly set of activities and ideas to help you put nature in your hands, even if you’re at home!