Review of Secrets of Backyard Bird-Feeding Success

The Secrets of Backyard Bird-Feeding Success: Hundreds of Surefire Tips for Attracting and Feeding Your Favorite Birds by Deborah L. Martin is a bulky, thorough, and well-designed tome full of tips for the backyard birder.

Whether you are new to the hobby of backyard birding or a long-time vet, you’ll find many nuggets of information to improve your ability to bring in the birds and make you and your avian visitors happy.

There are chapters on the wide variety of seeds and seed mixes available as well as other types of feed: nuts, corn, suet, nectar, etc. For all the types of food there are pros and cons listed as well as ways to grow your own food sources. Growing your own bird food is cost-effective and lots of fun!

We love the inclusion of so much information on gardening specifically to attract and feed birds. This is exactly the type of information we can use to improve and enhance bird-centric backyards.

The chapter on “Feeding Station Features” explains some of the do’s and don’ts of creating a feeding station. There is an emphasis on planning and picking the best location for feeders as well as techniques on making it easier to clean and fill your feeders.

Unfortunately, this is the only section that is lacking a bit as water features and nest boxes are added without much information. These are two major issues that can improve the ability to attract the birds and then in turn, feed them.

The chapter on “Bird Favorites for Your Garden” is a great resource for choosing amazing plants and focuses on creating bird habitat right at home.

The final chapter, “Birds at the Buffet” covers a huge array of bird species you can look for not just at your feeders but anywhere in your yard, no matter where you live in the country. The birds include photographs as well as descriptive text and most importantly, information on what natural and feeder foods to provide as well as what feeders to use.

This last chapter is an excellent resource for choosing a new feeder, feed type, or what plants to add to your native garden based on specific birds you want to see.

We really enjoyed The Secrets of Backyard Bird-Feeding Success and will keep it handy for when we are planning out our bird-attracting yard.

Disclaimer: We received this book for free from Rodale Books to review on Birdfreak.com. The links are Amazon affiliate links.