While it is considered best to continue bird feeding over the winter months if you started, your backyard birds should be ok when you are away. Birds have adapted to Canada’s winters and should be able to find alternate food sources.
However, you can always:
1. Ask a neighbour if they can fill your feeders a few of times a week while you are away.
2. Use larger feeders when you are away so the feeder doesn’t have to be filled or filled as often.
3. Gradually reduce the amount of food you put out before you leave so birds can slowly find alternate food sources.
But please don’t lose sleep while you’re relaxing on your well-deserved break. If you live in an urban or suburban setting, you may have a neighbour or someone close by who is already feeding the birds. So there’s probably already a food source close by that your birds can make use of.
Research has been done on this and it has been shown that some birds only use supplemental bird feeders for 25 per cent of their daily winter diet, the remaining 75 per cent comes from natural food sources.
So other than bird feeders, your backyard may naturally have other food sources available – if you have trees and shrubs and didn’t cover your plants in the fall, birds will make use of those dried seed heads and berries as well as any insects that have buried themselves under bark and other hiding areas.
