Okay, you've set up your feeders, and got birds...

One basic, sometimes overlooked, but very important issue relating to bird feeders and baths is keeping them clean.

Think of it in terms of a buffet open to the public. If it was not cleaned on a regular basis, the chances of getting sick eating there would sky rocket, its the same with our feathered guests visiting our feeder and bird baths.

Taking the time to clean your feeders and your bird baths can make a huge difference in the health of the birds that will come to rely on you for their primary source of food.

Taking the feeders down and giving them a good rinsing at least every two weeks is a very good practice to get into. If your feeders are more heavily used, perhaps clean them once per week.

If the feeders are getting "dirty" with droppings, cleaning them with a solution of 10% chlorine bleach and 90% water, giving them a thorough cleaning in this, rinsing them very well with clean fresh water and letting them air dry before reuse is a good practice as well.

For me, the hardest chore is keeping the ground clean below the feeders. Ground feeders are attracted to the seeds that are dropped or discarded by the birds at the feeders (some ground feeders would include Rock Pigeons, Mourning Doves, etc.). If the birds on the feeder are dropping other things, like dookies, with those seeds, it can spread illnesses to the ground feeding birds.

Under my feeders is generally stone, it can be rinsed easier of bird droppings, and I can use my leaf blower / vacuum to suck up the seed hulls and any eaten seeds. The blower / vac crushes and mulches the hulls and seeds, and I generally dump this mixture into my compost heap.

Bird baths should also be periodically cleaned, and fresh water kept in them. For the most part, I keep mine filled with water from a rain barrel attached to my downspouts, but mainly the birds use my garden pond for water, which is filtered via mechanical filtration as well as UV germicidal light filtering (kills all free floating bacteria and algae).

Of course, I still get a grin on my face when I stop to think about the time the feeders and garden pond attracted a quite unexpected guest, and we lost 6 beautiful Koi to a visiting Green Heron who though the garden pond was his feeder!