Seasonally Savvy: Caching

Wild Birds Unlimited

September to December is peak caching time with up to 200 feeder visits per bird per day. Prepare for fall caching by offering blends with sunflower seeds, chips, peanuts, tree nuts and more. A consistent food source helps birds reduce stress and maintain a healthy body condition in the coming harsh weather.

Chickadees

Chickadees prefer to cache black oil sunflower seeds; sometimes husking and eating a small portion before hiding it in or under bark, dead leaves, knotholes, clusters of pine needles, gutters, shingles or in the ground. They like to cache seeds within 130 feet of bird feeders; within your yard or a neighbor’s yard. Sunflower seeds mimic many tree and flower seeds.

Nuthatches

Nuthatches prefer heavier sunflower seeds over the lighter ones. Be sure to have some husked sunflower seeds in your blend as they like these 25% more often than ones in the shell. Nuthatches prefer to hide foods on deeply furrowed tree trunks and the underside of branches. They are also known to hide seeds under a shingle or behind wooden siding.

Jays

Jays love to cache peanuts; especially peanuts in the shell. These mimic acorns and pine nuts. They bury them in the ground and are known to cache about 100 in a day; emptying a feeder in no time. Watch them make repeated trips to your feeders and fly off. Try counting how many small seeds they can stuff into their crop before flying off to cache them. Some have stuffed up to 100 sunflower seeds in one sitting. They can travel up to a few miles away to bury their nutritious treasure.

If you would like to learn more about caching, head to your local WBU store. And, to learn even more about feeding the birds and enjoying nature in your backyard, listen to our podcast, Nature Centered. Episodes can be found here, https://www.wbu.com/podcast.

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