Wild Birds Unlimited 2009 Fall & Winter Hobby Guide

Best Foods The Importance of Fat & Calories in a Bird’s Diet

Best Feeders Using Feeders That Offer You Flexibility

Innovative Wild Birds Unlimited Food Solutions

®

Exclusive New Foods for Your Backyard Menu

Introducing Decorative Advanced Pole System ®

Exclusive New Hardware That Blends Form with Function

Hairy Woodpecker

Your Source for: • Finest, Freshest Bird Food • Best Selection of High-quality Bird Feeders • Exclusive Advanced Pole System® • Decorative Nature and Garden Gifts At Wild Birds Unlimited, we’re dedicated to helping you turn your yard into a fall and winter habitat that not only benefits wild birds and the environment, but also brings song, color and life to your home.

And though we carry the finest quality selection of bird feeding supplies, we’re not just about selling seed and feeders. We pride ourselves on being able to give you the most accurate information about our local birds.

Our passion is to talk to you about your birds and the bird feeders, food and accessories that are right for you.

We want you to have the best bird feeding experience possible. After all, it’s the most relaxing, fulfilling, educational and exciting hobby that anyone, young or old, can enjoy.

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Check local store for product availability

Winter Feeding is Fun It’s time to prepare your yard for some old friends that have been visiting each fall and winter, year after year.

Surprisingly, research shows that many migratory birds, including Dark-eyed Juncos, White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows, often return to the same location each fall and winter. Mix these migrants with all of the birds that claim your yard as their yearround home, and you have potentially the most rewarding bird feeding activity of the year.

These birds would not be so loyal to your yard if you weren’t doing something right. By providing nutritious foods, clean water and ample shelter, you are helping these birds make it through one of the toughest times of the year.

Combining the joy of seeing so many active and energetic birds at your feeders with the fulfillment of being able to make a difference in the quality of their lives is what makes feeding the birds at this time of the year so special.

Tufted Titmouse

Irregular Irruptive Migrations When natural winter food supplies are scarce in northern Canada, numerous bird species will “irrupt,” migrating south in search of food. During these irruptions, birds such as Red and White-winged Crossbills, Pine and Evening Grosbeaks, Common and Hoary Redpolls, Pine Siskins and Purple Finches can become common feeder visitors.

More Irruption Information • Red-breasted Nuthatches

are typically the earliest species to head south, leaving as early as mid-summer and settling into their new southern winter territories by the end of September.

Check local store for product availability

• Irruptive migrations of

Common Redpolls and Purple Finches typically occur every two years.

• Irruptive migrations of Pine

Siskins usually occur when seed crops fail in the boreal forests. Large flocks of these “winter finches” may appear as far south as Florida.

• Before the 1850s, Evening

Grosbeaks were not commonly found east of the Rocky Mountains. Winter irruptions can now occur in all of the 48 contiguous states.

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Foods to Serve During Fall and Winter The Importance of Fat and Calories in a Bird’s Diet Whether they are preparing for fall migration or the onset of winter, birds need foods that are high in oil, fat and calories. These foods and stored body fat are the primary energy supply that fuels a bird throughout migration and during long, cold winter nights.

Seed-eating birds will continue to look for natural sources of seeds that will provide them with their essential fall and winter fat and calories. So it’s important to offer the right seeds in your bird feeders. Many of these seeds, including black oil sunflower, Nyjer® (thistle) and millet, are featured in our regionally-formulated, customized seed blends that also have other seasonally appropriate ingredients.

More information about seed blends that will help your birds during fall and winter is featured on the next page.

Seeed

Pictured: Black-capped Chickadee

Loaded with fat and protein, peanuts provide birds with energy and are particularly helpful to fatten up for migration and during the winter months when the extra calories help keep them warm. As winter approaches, many birds change some of their eating habits. Birds that usually eat insects may start to eat berries to supplement their diets. Dried or fresh fruit are a winter favorite of birds such as robins, waxwings, bluebirds and mockingbirds.

Our Cranberry Fare Seed Cylinder is loaded with seeds, nuts and cranberries and is a great way to offer your fall and winter birds these foods.

Nuts & Berrries/Fruits

Pictured: Male House Finch

Suet is a high-energy, pure-fat substance that is particularly helpful in winter when many birds have a hard time finding the insects they normally eat.

We carry a selection of suet and high-fat foods, such as Jim’s Birdacious® Bark Butter®, various suet cakes and plugs, Suet Snacks and No-melt Suet Dough Cylinders and Stackables.

Suet & Fats

Pictured: Male Downy Woodpecker

As temperatures fall, birds have a more difficult time finding the limited number of live, active insects. Loaded with protein, mealworms can help you attract common and uncommon insect-eating birds like bluebirds or wrens.

Meallworms

Pictured: Tufted Titmouse

It’s important to continue offering WBU Nectar in regions along the Pacific Coast, the Southwest and in the extreme Southeast where hummingbirds stay throughout winter.

Nectar 4 | Wild Birds Unlimited • www.wbu.com

Pictured: Male Anna’s Hummingbird Check local store for product availability

WBU Regionally-formulated Seed Blends

Choice Blend

Supreme Blend

Deluxe Blend

No-Mess Blend

Our Choice Blend is a combination of black oil sunflower seeds, sunflower chips, striped sunflower and safflower seeds and peanuts that provides birds with energy during the fall and winter.

Loaded with fat and calories, our Supreme Blend features black oil sunflower, striped sunflower and safflower seeds and sunflower chips and attracts birds, such as chickadees, nuthatches and wrens.

Full of black oil sunflower seeds, millet, striped sunflower and safflower, our Deluxe Blend is an excellent fall and winter blend for ground feeders like juncos, doves and various sparrows.

Loaded with fat, protein and carbohydrates, our No-Mess Blend is a tidy feeding solution that is perfect for helping birds prepare for migration and winter.

Seed Feeders Enjoyed by Birds and Bird Feeding Enthusiasts We offer a variety of feeders that you can use to offer your birds seed or seed blends during fall and winter.

• Hopper feeders have a seed storage bin that automatically releases seed to a tray on which the birds perch to feed. Most of our hopper feeders, including our EcoTough™ Classic, have extending roofs that protect your birds and seed from the elements, curved ends that allow you to see birds feeding on both sides at the same time and perch drains that let seed drop for ground-feeding birds.

• Seed tube feeders are easy to fill and hold many types of seed and seed blends. The seed ports allow birds to see and choose what they want to eat. The perches are small enough to keep larger birds off the feeder, yet large enough to let small- to medium-sized birds perch, relax and get their fill. Our Quick-Clean® Seed Tube Feeders are the absolute easiest-to-clean feeders on the market.

• Solve squirrel problems with squirrel-proof feeders like our Eliminator. When a squirrel touches the perch ring, its weight closes the seed ports. The Eliminator’s unique technology allows you to set the sensitivity level, so you can also exclude large birds.

Classic with Catch-a-Seed Tray Check local store for product availability

Quick-Clean® Seed Tube Feeder with Weather Dome & Seed Tray

Tufted Titmouse on Eliminator Squirrel-proof Feeder

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Peanut Feeders

Female Downy Woodpecker

Let Your Birds Go Nuts

Peanuts are a great addition to the choices you offer your backyard birds. Peanuts are a high-energy food enjoyed by a wide variety of birds, such as woodpeckers, titmice, nuthatches, chickadees, jays and more.

These feeders are especially fun because of the interesting behaviors exhibited by peanut-eating birds.

Jays and titmice will yank the shells out of the feeder and may even stop to weigh their choices to make sure they get the heaviest peanut. Some birds will cache nuts to retrieve later, making repeated trips to feeders to gather food and hide it in a safe spot.

WBU Mesh Peanut Feeders Attract peanut-loving birds to your yard with our Mesh Peanut Feeders. These feeders are designed to hold peanut pieces and are easy to fill and easy to hang.

Our lifetime guarantee on these feeders also covers squirrel and raccoon damage.

WBU Peanut Wreath Hang it in your favorite tree and watch peanut-loving birds such as woodpeckers, titmice, nuthatches, chickadees and jays fly in for a meal.

It’s durable, yet it remains flexible so birds can pull out the whole peanuts.

This versatile feeder is also great for offering suet balls.

Black-capped Chickadee

Jim’s Birdacious Bark Butter ®

®

Now Every Tree Is a Bird Feeder® Jim Carpenter is an avid nature enthusiast who is also the founder and CEO of Wild Birds Unlimited. Jim created Bark Butter in his home kitchen more than 20 years ago and used it to attract Brown Creepers.

Jim soon discovered that it attracted a lot more. Now you and your feathered friends can enjoy Jim’s Birdacious Bark Butter, the bird food that has attracted more than 75 species of birds across North America, including thrushes, warblers, kinglets, wrens and more.

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For more information and to watch video of birds eating Bark Butter, visit www.barkbutter.com.

Left: Juvenile Downy Woodpecker Right: White-breasted Nuthatch Check local store for product availability

Suet Feeders The Suet-able Way to Feed Your Birds Suet is a high-energy, pure fat substance that is invaluable in fall and winter when insects are harder to find and birds need many more calories to keep their bodies warm.

Offering suet at a backyard feeding station is one way to attract a greater diversity of insect-eating birds. Birds that eat suet will still find natural food sources, such as insects, insect eggs and grubs for a well-rounded diet. Birds that eat both insects and seeds, like chickadees and nuthatches, will also visit suet feeders often.

Some suet is plain and some suet contains nuts, raisins or other fruit, corn and insects. The variety of suet flavors helps attract a variety of birds.

Since suet can be messy to put into the cages, try freezing the suet before putting it in the feeder. This will make the cake contract, allowing it to fit in the cage more easily and reduce waste.

Supper Domee Attract and enjoy more birds by offering seed, mealworms, peanuts, suet snacks and/or fruit in this all-purpose feeder.

Offer suet plugs in the specially designed holders. The large dome protects the food and birds from the weather, and it raises and lowers, allowing you to feed only the birds you want. Comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Above: Female Hairy Woodpecker Check local store for product availability

Upside-Down Suet Feeder Our EcoTough™ Upside-Down Suet Feeder allows birds to feed from below, a comfortable practice for woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and other clinging birds, but difficult for starlings.

Capacity: 1 cake Above: Male Hairy Woodpecker

Tail Prop Suet Feeder The EcoTough™ Tail Prop Suet Feeder lets birds eat in a natural way. The paddle simulates a tree trunk and offers birds a place to prop their tail while they feed. This feeder is easy to fill and hangs anywhere.

Capacity: 1 cake Above: Male Hairy Woodpecker

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Supreme Fare Seed Cylinder Packed with pecans, peanuts, black oil and sunflower chips, our Supreme Fare Seed Cylinders entice a greater diversity of birds.

NEW: No-melt Suet Dough Cylinder Our exclusive No-melt Suet Dough Cylinders are long-lasting, easy-to-use and will help you attract more sueteating birds to your yard.

Female Downy Woodpecker

Decorative Seed Cylinder Feeder Unique food requires a unique feeder. Whether you want to attract clinging birds or perching birds, our Decorative Seed Cylinder Feeder accommodates different birds’ eating preferences. This feeder is easy to fill and capable of holding small or large seed cylinders.

Cranberry Fare Seed Cylinder Our Cranberry Fare Seed Cylinders are packed with pecans, sunflower chips, peanuts, safflower, black oil sunflower and cranberries. Also available in larger 72 oz size.

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Top Left Photo: Left: White-breasted Nuthatch Right: Black-capped Chickadee Bottom Left Photo: Male House Finch Check local store for product availability

Cylinders & Stackables ackables The Easy, Long-lasting Way to Feed Birds Available exclusively at Wild Birds Unlimited, ited, our Cylinders ay to offer your and Stackables are an easy and tidy way birds a wide variety of food.

Our Seed Cylinders and Stackables are made of different combinations of tightly packed seeds, nuts, and atches pry seeds sometimes, fruits and suet. Watch nuthatches em for retrieval loose and sometimes fly off to store them later in the same day or a quick source of food the next morning. Seed Cylinders and Stackabless last longer, requiring you to refill your feeders less often.

Available in two flavors (Peanut Butter’n Jelly™ and Naturally ers and Stackables Nuts®), our No-melt Suet Dough Cylinders ood to your birds are an easy way to offer a high-energy food fferings also allow during fall and winter. These new suet offerings oy a high-fat food. traditionally non-suet eating birds to enjoy ered in our All Cylinders and Stackables can be offered ner Decorative Seed Cylinder Feeder or Dinner Bell feeder. Each feeder has a roof to all help protect your food from inclement fall or winter weather.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

NEW: Seed and No-Melt Dough Stackables Our new Seed and No-melt Suet Dough Stackables allow you to offer more than one food at a time and cater to the preferences of the birds visiting your yard. With several unique flavors to mix and match, you can have fun creating various combinations that will attract different birds to your backyard.

Our three Seed Stackables flavors, from left: No-Mess, Fruit & Nut, Nature’s Nut & Suet.

Check local store for product availability

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Finch Feeders

Attract More Finches to Your Backyard Wild Birds Unlimited Finch Feeders are specially designed to hold smaller foods like Nyjer® (thistle) or fine sunflower chips.

Here are a few items to remember when you are attracting finches: • Keep food fresh and dry inside the feeder. Shake the feeder periodically to make sure that the food is dry, and use a Weather Guard to help protect your food from the elements.

Make sure the food does not stay in the feeder uneaten for more than three to four weeks.

• Place your finch feeder away from other feeders where larger birds are feeding. This allows the smaller birds access to the finch feeder without being harassed by larger birds.

• Because goldfinches move around often, there may be quiet times at finch feeders.

Quick-Clean Finch Feeders Our Quick-Clean® Finch Feeders allow finches to easily dine on Nyjer® (thistle), and the removable bases make cleaning a breeze.

These feeders are backed by a lifetime guarantee that includes raccoon and squirrel damage.

Quick-Clean®

Small Six perches Capacity: ¾ qt Medium Eight perches Capacity: 1¼ qts Large Ten perches Capacity: 1¾ qts

American Goldfinch

Looks Like Wood, Tough Like Plastic We are proud to conserve and protect bird and wildlife habitats through service, educational programs, community involvement and the support of conservationsupporting organizations.

Pine Siskin

Covered Ground Feeder This feeder has a roof that protects the birds and food from the elements and a perforated metal bottom that keeps the seed dry.

We also offer a variety of products, such as our EcoTough™ line, that are functional as well as earth-friendly. Our EcoTough feeders are good for the birds, good for the environment and good for you, too.

Made of recycled milk jugs, these feeders are high-quality products that help keep unnecessary waste from making its way into our landfills. Anywhere from eight to 64 milk jugs are used (depending on the size) in each of our recycled feeders.

EcoTough feeders are built to last. Even in the harshest weather conditions, they won’t rot, crack, fade or warp and have limited lifetime guarantees.

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Pictured Left to Right: Female Northern Cardinal, White-throated Sparrow, Male Northern Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee Check local store for product availability

All Purpose Feeders Feeders that Offer You Flexibility As the seasons change, review your backyard bird feeding setup and be sure you have the variety of feeders that will meet your birds’ needs. Consider feeders that give you the flexibility to feed peanuts, fruit, mealworms, suet and seed.

From easy-to-locate tray feeders to seed wreaths that have a multitude of seasonally appropriate ingredients, we carry a selection of feeders that you can use to offer your birds multiple foods at one time.

Now is the time when ground-feeding birds are more prominent. Attract them with blends that contain millet.

Ground feeders entice birds such as juncos, Mourning Doves and various sparrows. Even the Red-bellied Woodpecker, which is thought of as a tree dweller, does some foraging on the ground.

Male Downy Woodpecker on Christmas Seed Wreath

Platform feeders are especially good for attracting wrens, chickadees, titmice and jays.

Hanging feeders, because they blow in the wind, are generally used by birds, such as chickadees, titmice, nuthatches and finches, that can hang on while feeding.

While studies have shown that birds do not become dependent on feeders in the winter, having a predictable food supply provides many benefits for the birds, especially during periods of extreme cold weather.

Finches & Juncos

Tufted Titmouse

Carolina Chickadee

Ground Tray Feeder

Dinner Bell

NEW: Fundamentals Buffet Tray

This feeder allows birds to easily find their food by sight and is open for easy access to wildlife.

This versatile feeder holds seeds or blends, some Suet Snacks, a seed cylinder or mealworms.

Designed to provide birds with a variety of food choices, our Fundamentals Buffet Tray Feeder features four separate feeding stations.

Check local store for product availability

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Decorative APS Deck Setup Pictured Left to Right: Female Northern Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadee

Colors:

Black

Cinnamon

New Hardware That Combines Form and Function Most decorative bird feeding station hardware is created to be more aesthetic than useful.

Our Decorative Advanced Pole System® (APS) hardware is designed to be eye-catching as well as functional. Available in two colors, cinnamon and black, our Decorative APS is easy to construct and maintain and can be used for feeding or housing birds, hanging plants and more.

Like the original APS, all Decorative APS parts are powder coated to prevent rusting, and they fit together easily with no special tools required.

The modular design of APS allows you to add or subtract hardware parts and other accessories to create and customize the setup that best suits your yard and the birds you want to attract.

Pictured Left to Right: Downy Woodpecker, Mourning Dove, American Goldfinches APS is protected by U.S. Patent No. 6,386,142

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Check local store for product availability

Providing Water for Birds The Importance of Water in Winter Birds continue to need a source of water for drinking and bathing during winter. Providing a reliable source of water when natural sources are frozen can attract more birds to your backyard than just feeders alone.

Clean feathers help birds stay warm, and a bird bath is often the only way for some birds to drink and stay clean when it’s extremely cold. Research has shown that a chickadee with well-maintained feathers can sustain a 70° (F) layer of insulation between the outside air and its skin. Bathing is also important in cold weather to keep feathers in top condition.

Bird baths come in many shapes, sizes and materials.

They can be placed on the ground, mounted on a pedestal or hung.

If predators such as cats are around, place your bird bath 10 to 12 feet from shrubs so predators can’t sneak up on birds. Also, place your bird bath away from your feeders so droppings and hulls won’t dirty the water.

Bird Bath B Heater (Above) This bi bird bath heater helps keep a bird bath free of ice in temperatures t below -20° F.

Metal Bird B Bath (Left) ba are durable, versatile and can be easily Metal baths a moved about your yard. These baths work well w th a bird wi bi bath heater and can be used in freezing with conditionn without cracking or breaking. conditions

In areas where the weather can turn cold and possibly freeze the water in bird baths, use a bird bath heater or a heated bird bath.

Heated Bird Bath (right) This durable, plastic bird bath provides a reliable source of water, even to temperatures below -20° F. Easily mounted to wood deck rails, it features a built-in 150 watt, fully grounded heater that is thermostatically controlled to conserve energy.

Pictured: American Goldfinch Check local store for product availability

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Optics and Nature Education Resources Helping Bird Enthusiasts Learn More Thayer’s Guide to Birds of North America

Perhaps a backyard bird feeding station isn’t enough to meet your birding needs. Perhaps you want to get a closer view of your birds and you desire to learn more about the birds you see.

The Guide to Birds of North America is the most comprehensive, user-friendly bird guide software available that can help you identify birds from the U.S. or Canada by color, size, habitat, location or sound. It also enables you to download bird songs to your iPod/mp3 player.

There are numerous products available, but we’ve chosen the best optics, books and other nature education resources to meet your needs. Whether it’s identifying a new bird in your backyard or finding a pair of binoculars for a nature hike, we have what you need to enjoy the hobby more.

Eagle Optics binoculars are well-known by nature enthusiasts for being quality products. That’s one of the reasons we proudly offer them to you.

EO Ranger SRT 8x42 Binocular The Ranger SRT 8x42 Binocular provides outstanding views of any birds or critters you can spot from as close as five feet. The binocular’s sleek, lightweight design makes it easy to handle during long days on nature trails.

EO Triumph 8x25 Binocular

BirdCam®

The Triumph 8x25 Binocular uses carefully ground lenses with full multi-coatings to deliver bright, sharp views. Small in size, these binoculars feature new twist and lock eyecups that adjust quickly, offering ample eye relief and a comfortable, full field of view for eyeglass and sunglass wearers.

Get a bird’s eye view of your feeder or nest box visitors with BirdCam. It is a motion-activated, weatherproof digital camera that can be mounted to capture video or pictures to be uploaded on your computer or PDA.

iFlyer Scanning Wand Identify birds by sight and sound. Just press a button, scan a barcode and iFlyer plays a high-quality digital recording of a bird’s song. Place the removable “ScanCode” stickers in your favorite field guide.

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Check local store for product availability

More Than a Hobby Making a Difference in Our Communities Bird feeding is more than a hobby; it’s a way to connect with the outdoors and help the natural environment around you. By providing quality products, service and an inspiring shopping experience, Wild Birds Unlimited has been helping people enjoy birds and nature for more than 25 years.

Pathways To Nature Conservation Fund The Wild Birds Unlimited Pathways To Nature Conservation Fund® (www.pathwaystonature.com) was established in 1999 and has been responsible for more than $2.2 million in projects at 25 sites across North America.

These projects include the creation and maintenance of trails, boardwalks, wildlife-viewing platforms and nature center exhibits. The 25 recipients of Pathways To Nature grants jointly provide habitat and protection for 37 animal and plant species that are found on the U.S. Endangered Species list.

Pathways To Nature for Kids According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study, today’s overscheduled youth spend an average of 44 hours per week staring at some kind of electronic screen, creating America’s first generation to grow up emotionally and physically disconnected from nature.

For years, our mission has been to bring people and nature together by offering products that make enjoying the outdoors easier. In 2007, we created Pathways To Nature for Kids (www.pathwaysforkids.com), an initiative that gives children from across North America opportunities to connect with the natural world.

In partnership with the National Audubon Society, Pathways To Nature for Kids provides about 250 scholarships annually for young people to attend summer camps at more than 30 Audubon Centers across the United States.

Pathways To Nature for Kids also supports the National Wildlife Federation Green Hour® (www.greenhour.org) Web site, which, provides parents, caregivers and educators with a daily calendar of exploration ideas, resources and an online community forum to get kids outside every day.

www.audubon.org

www.greenhour.org Check local store for product availability

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Dark-eyed Junco

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