Recently the county of Sonoma has issued a statement asking its residents to take down all backyard bird feeders. This request came to help curb an outbreak of salmonella among native finches. While naturally occurring, diseases like salmonella are aided in their dastardly ways by bird feeders that are not being properly maintained. (Yes, we envision all harmful bacteria and viruses with twirlable mustaches and monocles. We watched too many cartoons growing up and for that, we apologize.)
To thwart a disease outbreak and prolong the life of your feeder you need to both choose the correct feeder for your yard and your ability to care for it. Then you need to keep it and the environment around it neat and clean. Don’t worry we have, of course, made a list for you:
-For Easiest Cleaning
multi-use bird feeder cleaning brush, Ace number 8405318
-Choose plastic or glass feeders (Some are even dishwasher safe)
-Rubber gloves protect you from salmonella amongst other things
-Make sure you have the appropriate brush to ensure all parts of the feeder is clean
-Seed feeders
-At least once every two weeks-
seed feeder copper/glass Ace number 8206179
-Dump old seed
-Take apart and hand wash with dish soap and warm water
-Once a month use a 1part bleach to 9 parts hot water to sanitize
-Rinse thoroughly
-allow to fully dry
-refill and rehang
-Nectar feeders
–Once every 3-5 days-
Hummingbird feeder ace number 8028526
-dump old sugar
-Wash with warm water and a bottle brush
-Do not use soap
-allow to dry thoroughly
-refill with fresh sugar mix
-rehang
-All feeders
-Keep the ground under the cleaner neat and clean
-refresh mulch/ground cover periodically to cover bird droppings
-Keep the area around the feeder clear of any detritus.
-Keep birdbaths clean as well, if they do not have running water, they will also need to be cleaned of stagnant water and scrubbed down once every two weeks.
-multiple feeders can feed more birds AND keep the populations down at single feeders lowering the chance of birds getting each other sick (Social Distancing works for birds too!)