I'm having trouble attracting robins and orioles and such to my property, and I can't afford to buy a bird table and have it installed this season. I don't have any lower branches on my trees, but I have heard from several sources that if I use galvanized nails, a few in a healthy tree won't bother it. I want to do that and put orange slices on them. But I have squirrels and raccoons. I've also been told to use roof flashing to protect that kind of feeding. My thought is to put it under and on top of the fruit to keep them away. Is that a good thought? And if so, will this kind of flashing work, I can't get to Lowe's this week to check it in person and the HD by me doesn't carry it - https://www.lowes.com/pd/TITE-...

Using conventional flashing on the tree is beyond me. Would appreciate any help and advice, thank you!

Hi Abbey,

You have to make your yard more attractive to the birds. Orange slices on nails is not it.

Add a water source, even if its a plant saucer sitting on a couple bricks or the ground so the birds have a place to bath and drink. Add some shrubs for protection. I don't feed the birds because I don't want to attract squirrels and raccoons but I do have a 'bird bath' that I fill with the hose every couple days.

I also have some native plants, and shrubs. Any kind of understory that offers perches and protection will do. If you have cats or dogs in your yard, the birds will be discouraged from visiting.

Hey Daisy! You've come in in the middle of a tragi-comedy in three acts! I am in the middle of a saga to make this yard a place for birds, bees and butterflies (my first spring and full summer here) -- I'm in a much more rural area than previously, but had birds at the other place without much effort. I have two bird baths, one with an exquisite dripping plastic jug over it, suet cakes and a black oil sunflower seed feeder -- too early for the important plants yet. And I've got American goldfinches, house finches, a Mr. & Mrs. Downy Woodpecker team and a Tufted Titmouse. A cardinal came the other day but sits in a tree in a neighbors yard and stares into mine. Don't ask me, but he's striking against the blue spring sky and the budding leaves! I hear all sorts of birds, but they're not coming in. I don't have any dogs or cats. Never saw a robin last year (moved at the end of July) but have seen them this year, they even fly through my yard sometimes, hop all around the neighbors', but they don't come in. And I've never seen a Baltimore Oriole in my life. So I'm looking toward expanding the band, if you will. That's why I want to put up the orange slices at least. I finally foiled the raccoons by zip tying the suet cake holders; now I'm getting cocky!

I suspect that once you get the rest of your plants in, the birds will find a reason to stop by.

I have Goldfinch, House Finch, California Quail, robins, sparrows, doves, Flickers and Hummers (I think they are moving through to somewhere else). Once in awhile, a Raven stops by. We have owls and several kinds of hawks. Recently, a pair of flycatchers have been in the neighborhood and I think I saw the first Bluebirds of the season.

I live in downtown Reno. I planted native plants and shrubs that have seeds the birds like. I have never convinced any of the birds to nest in my yard but I don't have any trees either. My husband even put up boxes but the birds have not used them.

Do the birds eat your suet blocks and black sunflower seeds? I put the sunflower seeds out but I mostly attract squirrels.

The suet caught on all of a sudden. I bought a two-armed shepherd's crook in January, put one suet cake in a feeder on each one at the end of January, when it was freezing here, and snowy. Nothing. They hung there for two months, then about a month ago or so, maybe, it started getting some customers. I bought the Squirrel Buster feeder for the sunflower seed maybe almost a month ago. I had that on a shorter crook, a single arm, out front, this one is about four feet high, I only got the other one home by the grace of God in the car without breaking a window. But that made it easy for a squirrel to jump on it, which I saw and freaked, but he couldn't get at the seed, the doors to the seed close with his weight, so...so I put that in the back with a suet cake, and put a suet cake out front -- something got it down on the ground, out of the feeder, and almost unbent the hook on top halfway straight -- sheesh! So THEN I put the two of them on one arm in the back, sunflower seed on the other one, and something came a couple of nights later and got one of the suet cakes out of the holder while leaving the holder on the crook, but it didn't eat all of it. SO NOW I ZIP TIED THEM BOTH CLOSED! Take that, Rocky! I'm expecting a second Squirrel Buster, you can't keep suet out in the warmer weather anyway, and so far, the birds I have eating the suet enjoy the sunflower seed, but robins and orioles like fruit and mealworms, not seeds and suet -- mealworms are a little pricey here, but I can do the fruit thing.

I have trees, but the yahoos I bought this house from cut off all the branches up to maybe the second story, so I can't hang anything from a tree. The birds are still skittish around me, they take off if I come out on the deck or into the yard, and they use my trees and the neighbors' as cover. I envy that assortment you have. Last summer, when I was wondering what was going on with the no bird, no birdsong thing, I was in the kitchen and heard birdsong very close by. Went to the deck door, and there were two bluebirds perched on the railing looking at me. They stayed maybe ten seconds and took off. Blue Jays I know, not bluebirds. I was stunned, and still think of it as a visitation of some sort rather than a bird sighting!

Hi there Abbey 😁
A retired friend of mine goes to a specialty store that sells bird seed.
He has all sorts of birds that we've never seen before. Its all in what kind of seed thats put out.
A particular seed, attracts, a particular bird.
Google. Bird seed.
ask feed or pet store.
Also ! This site has info on keeping varmints away.
😎😎😎

Yes, I can see why you said I came in middle act of a tragi-comedy. Those raccoons you have must weigh 50 lbs. One of the things DH got me while we still lived in California was a critter cam. They are relatively cheap but take the most incredible photos. I discovered all sorts of things were walking through our yard (it was an acre and a half in the middle of lots of farms). Raccoons, skunks, squirrels, 'possums, deer, peacocks... I think the only thing I never caught on the camera was the resident mountain lion. Now that would have been a great photo!

Hey Philip!!

Mountain lion, whoah! When I moved here, I was talking to the guys in the office when my car was being inspected, and they were giving me the low-down on the wildlife, and one guy said his sister called him up frantic because there was a bear in their yard. He said, where are the kids, and she said, with me, and he said, you're all in the house, and she said yes, and he said, well, stay there and let me get back to work!! Wild peacocks in Nevada? I never knew! If you get a shot of that and post it in the bird photo forum, you might topple the Black Bellied Whistling Duck from its (literal) perch!

I have a trail cam, but it's out front, my neighbors have plowed into my fence three times and destroyed 12 feet of it, but won't admit it, and the cops don't want to be bothered, said it was done by DEER. Huge, angry, prehistoric, steroid-addled deer, presumably. So I had to spend a hundred bucks on a trail cam to keep an eye on it. Now you know why I can't spring for mealworms! So per usual, the varmints that are giving me the most problems are the two legged variety!! And it hasn't caught a shot of any animal, just people walking their dogs and cars!

Philip, I am starting to get the hang of who-eats-what, but I don't know if this flashing that I linked to will keep raccoons from gripping the tree.

Oh, sorry! Peacocks were in CA. Nothing here but raccoons, squirrels and skunks. Here's a couple photos for you (from California)

Don't apologize, it's me, you clearly said California, I'm going for my reading comprehension training right after I get my wildlife management badge!

I love the pea fowl pics! I'd love to get a couple to roam around here, but they're not nice birds and they make that unholy racket. That's a beautiful shot of the deer.

Yes, there are thousands of peafowl roaming around the CA river system. We had a hen that moved into our chicken coop one winter - the kids named her Big Bird. She stayed for five or six years (She left home to lay her eggs then brought her chicks back).

That is the smaller of the two deer that spent their time in our yard. There was also a bevy of does and fawns.

That link you gave for self adhesive flashing is not a good idea to stick on the tree trunk. Even the trunk needs to breath, and it would be a haven for insects to hide and diseases to breed if you put it on. In addition, as a tree grows, the trunk also grows in width, and you would be constricting it. It's like you would be putting a girdle on it.

You could fit aluminum duct work loosely around the trunk....
http://www.homedepot.com/p/6-i...

Hi Rick, thanks for answering, I thought it was too good to be true.

I would need to put the flashing above and below the fruit, so even if I just put it around the tree at the bottom, I still couldn't stop the raccoon from accessing the fruit from above; besides, I don't think the flashing unsecured would work, some raccoon practically made a fork out of a suet cage the other night, clever little stinkers. Some guy on YouTube used camo straps to secure flashing on a tree, and if nothing else, they cost more than I'd want to spend on this.

I don't think the soil here is very good, we had one of those classic rainy days here today when robins should be pulling worms out of the ground faster than they can eat them, and nothing. Perhaps I'll see if I can maneuver another one of those shepherd's crooks into the car and put fruit in the suet cages. With the cages zip tied and the crook greased (one squirrel went home tonight to put an ice pack on his head!), I might stand a chance. again for helping!

@Garden10, The standard squirrel excluder for shepherd's crooks seems to be the old-fashioned metal Slinky. You can get an idea of how it works here: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/20...

Mac, if I still lived in a colonial, I'd be afraid to buy a slinky because it would probably never make it outside, but in a split level, meh It's not foolproof, of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
From the vids I watched, you really see how easily people can turn into Carl Spackler!

Frankly, I would be afraid of coming out one morning and finding that one of them had hanged itself on it, then I'd be going back into the house and NEVER COMING OUT AGAIN...

Not to do a commercial, but I've found that that Squirrel Buster feeder really does work, keeps the seed dry, easy to fill and to clean, and they can't get at it. I'm trying to keep them off the crook so they don't weaken it or knock it over, and the grease seems to be working. I still don't know what I'm going to do about the raccoons, orioles and robins, oh my

Orioles will drink sugar-water from a hummingbird feeder (or you can actually buy an oriole feeder that has a slightly different shape) hung from a pole. You can make your own sugar-water: put half a cup of sugar and one-and-a-half cups of water into a small saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Do not boil. Allow to it to cool before pouring it into the feeder.
You will need to take the feeder indoors at night or the raccoons will drink it dry.

Orioles love grape jam just hang something to hold the jam from a shepherds hook. We feed it every year putting out a couple of tablespoons at a time so in case it rains the jam doesn't get diluted to much. My FIL made feeders using a small can (like baked beans or veggies) tipped on its side and turning up part of the edge of the can kept the rain out and prevented the jam from running out also provides a perch, he then painted the can bright orange to attract the birds. The orioles even bring their babies it is great fun watching them feed their young. We have orioles make their nests in tall trees around here often hard to see until the trees drop their leaves in fall. Here we tried the orange slices with poor results what really works it the grape jam.

June, I have two hummingbird feeders set up on my deck, never seen one of those in person either, and the orioles are welcome to use them!

Hi Betty, I have had grape jelly/jam recommended to me, but in my research travels, I've also seen some stuff about it not being good for the birds. But those were general writings, and all the personal recommendations have agreed, and come from experience. I think I'll give that a try and forget about the oranges, and I guess I will try another shepherd's crook, grease the pole, and say a prayer (that sounds awful!!)

Want to attract robins? Plant strawberries.

One person's meat is another person's poison!