20 BIRDS OF SOUTH DAKOTA 



THE FOOD BOX 



Grosbeaks will come to a food box in summer for sun- 

 flower seeds, of which they are very fond, but in the bird world 

 the food box is a winter institution. The attractive foods are 

 suet, nuts and sunflower seeds. Chickadees and Nuthatches 

 are especially fond of the seeds and nuts, while the Downy and 

 the Hairy Woodpeckers are especially fond of suet. Grain of 

 any kind should never be put in the box, as the birds mentioned 

 do not care for it and the grain-eating English Sparrows will 

 flock to it, driving all other birds away. 



It is always desirable to have the box just outside the 

 dining room window for then the family can watch the birds 

 while sitting at table. With a well supplied box one will eat few 

 meals in daylight during winter without enjoying the sight of 

 bird neighbors feasting on his bounty. 



To get birds to come to the box at one's window is a 

 simple matter. The natural place for the birds mentioned to 

 search for food in winter is on the trunks and larger branches 

 of trees. There, in bark crevices, they find insects in their vari- 

 ous forms of winter preservation. If the food box is first placed 

 beside some tree the birds will soon find it. Then it may be 

 moved by gradual stages to any desired place and the birds 

 will follow. 



The writer likes a box about two feet long and eight 

 inches wide, with a standard about two feet high at each end, 

 and these spanned by a crosspiece at the top. Nuts or sunflower 

 seeds may be placed in the box and suet tied to the standards 

 or crosspiece. This gives room for more than one bird to light 

 at a time, and furnishes many exhibitions of bird ways in out- 

 witting their fellows, at times even providing occasion for a 

 passage at arms. Woodpeckers prefer to eat perched on the 

 standards head upward and the Nuthatches head downward, 

 while Chickadees are most at home on the box itself. 



One should also have a storm food box, the sort that will 

 let the birds in but keep the storm out. An ordinary box with 

 one side open to the window will answer but it is much more 



