Bird feeders and bird baths can be a real lifesaver in harsh winter months.  Wild birds depend on every seed or insect they find in the winter.  A bird needs to find enough food to store energy for a cold winter's night.  And the search begins again every morning.

High energy food is important.  Suet, peanuts, black oil sunflower seed and thistle are high protein energy foods for birds.  Feeding birds can be as easy as tossing some cracked corn and millet on the ground.

Fresh water is also very important because natural resources may be frozen or full of salt from the roads.  While birds will and do eat snow, this lowers their body temperature and uses valuable energy to warm back up.  Offer birds some water with a heated bird bath.  Heaters cost no more to run than a light bulb and can save a birds life.

Birds also need shelter and protection from the elements.  Natural habitat become less and less available each year.  Plant evergreens, hang a roosting box or keep your Christmas tree in the yard a little longer.

An added bonus of feeding birds during winter: birds will grow accustomed to visiting your yard.  In the summer they will continue to visit your yard and eat the caterpillars, snails and other harmful bugs that snack on your garden.