Observing bird habits includes watching them eat and feeding their young. It’s thrilling to observe as they carefully hunt worms, open pods and crush seed coats. Because birds lack teeth, their food is ground together with fine stones and abrasive sand they carry in their crop. The shape and use of birds’ bills differ from species to species.

Finches have short, stout beaks designed to crack tough seeds.

Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/Doug Dealey

Hummingbirds sip nectar, using their long narrow beaks and even longer tongues.

Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard

The strong beak of the woodpecker pecks holes in rotting wood and picks insects from beneath tree bark.

Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/Doug Dealey

A suet cage opens like a book for filling with nutritious, high-calorie tallow and suet, then closes and locks for hanging in trees.

Photo Credit: ©2002 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard

The next time you’re in your garden, examine some of the birds that perch in nearby trees or on fences. For a good look, use a pair of binoculars with moderate magnification and a wide field of view. Pay special attention to their bills and feet. You’ll find that there are surprising variations between similar-appearing species, and soon you’ll notice that those differences have a marked affect on their feeding behavior.

Bird’s bills are shaped differently for specific feeding. Songbirds – chickadee and sparrow, for instance – are seed, grub, worm and insect eaters. Their sharp, short, narrow, pointed bills enable them to pick seed out of a pod, grab an earthworm or nab a crawling insect in a field of grass. Crossbills have interesting bills – the upper half curves in a different direction from the lower, enabling them to pluck seed from pinecones and other rather narrow crevices. The cardinal and grosbeak have short, wide, ratchet-type bills that permit them to crack acorns, small nuts and large, hard-shelled seed. With a parrotlike, curved and very strong bill, owls and falcons are able to catch, disable and consume their scaled, feathered or furred prey. Crows, jackdaws, magpies, ravens and vultures have multipurpose bills suited to tearing carrion and crushing nuts or pits. The long, narrow bills of robins are ideal for quickly picking worms and grubs from loose soil. Regardless of birds’ eating styles, their bills are also used to tote vast quantities of nest-building materials, for grooming and to feed young birds still in the nest.

The more you look at birds in your garden, the more fascinating features you’ll find – differences that extend beyond their colorful plumage or musical mastery. To attract a specific bird species, note both its habits and the way it uses its beak to obtain food, then tailor aspects of your wildlife garden to its needs by providing the appropriate food and habitat for the birds you’re trying to attract.

Because bird species vary in the foods they consume, the garden that offers a smorgasbord – from crawling and burrowing insects to the rich, nutritious pollen and seeds of flowers – will host the widest variety of birds. And of course, there’s always birdseed. But try to think outside of the traditional feeder. Birds that live in cold-winter climates need dependable, rich food such as seed containing oils and carbohydrates. Hanging suet and seed feeders and growing seed head-producing flowers to set out when temperatures plunge helps them survive through those tough winter months.

The following pictures and their captions show how to make an easy suet feeder, as well as how to hang sunflower seed heads. For the suet feeder you’ll need a log that’s 4 inches wide and 18 inches long, plus hardware cloth with ¼-inch holes, roofing nails, a hammer, birdseed, cooking lard (or shortening), a putty knife, cup hook and cord. To dry seed heads, you’ll need string and an airy, warm, dry spot. Choose the method you wish, then feed your feathered friends!