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Bird Houses and Bird Feeders from Backyard ChirperA birdfeeder or bird feeder is a device placed outdoors to supply seeds such as millet, sunflower seeds, safflowerseed, rapeseed, or canola seed to birds. Hummingbird feeders, rather than dispensing seed, supply liquid nourishment to hummingbirds, in the form of a sweet mixture often coloured red to attract the birds. Oriole feeders also supply such artificial nectar, but are coloured orange instead, and designed to serve orioles which have a differently-shaped beak and tongue. Suet feeders are yet another type, typically a metal cagelike construction, with a plastic coating to keep birds' eyes and feet from freezing to it, and containing a cake or thin block of suet to feed woodpeckers, flickers, and sometimes nuthatches. Bird feeders are a must for home birdwatching, and many people have webcams trained on their feeders, where birds often congregate. While bird feeders are thought of as winter projects, urban and suburban areas can benefit from bird feeders year-round. The absence of plentiful food sources, as well as the increasingly toxic environment created by the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers can make the process of finding safe and plentiful food difficult for birds which find themselves in urban/suburban areas. A bird bath is essentially a man-made puddle on a pedestal with a shallow basin filled with water for bathing and drinking. Used in combination with bird feeders and species-appropriate shrubs and trees, a bird bath is a powerful attraction for birds, especially during droughts. An important feature of a bird bath that should be considered in designing one, is a place to perch, to avoid the risk of birds drowning. This requirement may be fulfilled simply by making the bowl or container part shallow enough to allow birds to perch in the water. Another way is to add a number of clean stones inside the bowl, to create places on which a bird might stand. Consideration should also be made to the issue of housecats or other predators, by placing the birdbath in a location where the birds can see the area around it, and where there are no hiding places for predators to lurk. This is one of the reasons birdbaths are customarily placed on pedestals.
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