9610 Village Place Boulevard
Brighton, MI 48116
January 2026
This weather brings out hungry critters that are looking for food, and they can become a nuisance. Luckily, squirrels and raccoons are not big fans of Hot Pepper food, so they’ll turn tail when they get a taste. All of our foods have a Hot Pepper version, so you can continue serving a variety of foods and attract different species of birds to your yard. It might take your birds a few days or weeks to catch on, because the bright orange might not immediately be recognized as food, but give it time and you will see it work it’s magic. We always recommend handling hot pepper food with gloves on, if you need some just ask! Visit us or shop online with us at order.wbu.com/brighton for all your bird feeding needs.
If Eastern Bluebirds have enough resources, they’ll stay throughout the winter. Our sales associate Jamie has his blues only during the colder months, and usually for a few days. This year he got them to use this Exclusion Cage Feeder for mealworms, and they have been with him for weeks! By offering their favorite foods like mealworms, suet, sunflower chips, dried fruit, and Bark Butter® Bits, they are more likely to stay in the area. A heated bird bath is another great way to increase the amount of birds you see in the winter, because an open, reliable water source is very attractive to all your feathered friends.
Contact the store for class registration at 810-522-5520 or register online HERE.
What is something that you can do in your everyday life to help save songbirds? Every year up to 1 billion birds have been estimated to die after striking windows in the U.S. and Canada. During the day, they view them as reflections of their habitat and perceive them as something they can fly through. At night, migratory birds are attracted to city lights and collide with buildings.
There are several solutions to this, but the easiest ways are installing window screens, or adding stickers, film, paint or string (no more than 2 inches apart) to break up the reflections in the window. Also, place bird feeders less than 3 feet or 10 or more feet from a window. The closer the feeders, the less force they have to hurt themselves, while the farther away gives them enough room to prevent crashing into the window. A combo of these methods is the best way to prevent strikes.
Our customer M.P. had a Northern Flicker visit their Bark Butter® a few weeks ago! M.P. said that this individual always announces himself before coming in for a landing, so there is enough time to get the camera ready. This Flicker is a regular visitor at some other feeders like M.P.’s Suet Cylinder Log Feeder, medium hopper, and a large, pole-mounted tray feeder. The best food to offer for attracting these large woodpeckers are suets and peanuts, so if you have those in your feeders it might draw them into your own backyard! If you want to learn more about this beautiful bird, check out www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker.
Birds are in constant motion, and it is estimated that during the winter months our feathered friends can expend about 60% of their energy generating enough body heat to keep them toasty warm through the 13–15-hour long nights. This makes fat an important resource for their survival because this process can use up 75-80% of their fat reserves - that’s almost 10% of their body weight!
To keep our backyard buddies in tip-top shape we have to provide them with a diet that will best suet their needs. Suet is the best food to add to your set up, and keep full, throughout the season because it is the purest form of fat that the birds can process and absorb efficiently. SuperSuet™ has the highest percent of fat compared to our other cakes, at a whopping 62% crude fat! The mixture of peanuts, mealworms, and tree nuts makes it a great offering to any bird
Our Winter Superblend™ is another great food source to offer your birds to keep their little furnaces stoked. It comes in loose seed or seed cylinders and has at least 42% crude fat content from sunflower seeds, Nutrasaff, peanuts, and tree nuts. This can be mixed with any type of seed blend to add that extra nutrition, or it can be served separately. Plus, you might get some different visitors like Carolina Wrens or Red-breasted Nuthatches.
If you don’t have a feeder that can use either of the foods mentioned above - our Bark Butter® products might be an easier option. There is a spreadable suet that can be smeared right on a tree in your yard or on top of a feeder or a nugget form that can be added to loose seed or served in a tray feeder. And with a crude fat content of 31%, it will surely give the birds that extra bump they might need.
Please stop by the store or give us a call if you want to learn how to create the best backyard for your feathered friends!