West Virginia Wildlife from Eyewitness News

Bird Feeding

Put up a feeder, and enjoy the show.

January 2, 2008
Reporter: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Brad Rice

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When it's this cold, we stay inside but for wildlife, there's no place to go and finding food is tough in the winter. That's one reason beverly wright keeps her bird feeders full.

Beverly Wright/kvbirdclub.org
"The most interesting thing to me is the learning aspect, I just like to learn about birds, but more than that, I like to feed the birds. They do need supplemental food, although they don't have to have it, but the more you feed them, the more you get to see them."

And we're lucky here in west virginia, there are plenty of birds to check out all winter long. Bird feeding is a great hobby and beverly says it's easy to get started, even if you're a beginner.

Beverly Wright/kvbirdclub.org
"There is lots of information on the internet you can tap into. If you go to a store that sells bird feeders, you want to get one that is squirrel-proof unless you are just interested in feeding them, too. You want to get a good quality bird food and there are different types of bird seed that will attract different types of birds depending on what you want to see."

That bountiful buffet means beverly gets to check out a wide variety of birds. Woodpeckers are amoung her favorites.

Beverly Wright/kvbirdclub.org
"We've seen all the woodpeckers in our yard, not all have come to our feeders but they've come in our yard. The big wood pecker everyone calls Woody has been at our feeder and that was exciting. The other thing other than birds is a flying squirrel we had them the whole winter he came to our feeder."

If you want some surprises of your own, put up a couple of feeders, keep them full and keep an eye out. For west virginia wildlife, i'm patrick mcmurtry, eyewitness news.