Unpopular take: my messy native plant bed pulled in more birds than my neighbor's 4 fancy feeders
I used to keep everything tidy with three tube feeders and a spotless lawn, then I let half my yard in Dayton go to native weeds and it changed what showed up. Two springs back my neighbor Bill had four clean feeders and a mowed yard, and I counted 6 species at his place versus 19 at mine over the same morning. The chickadees and goldfinches spent more time picking seeds off my coneflowers and joe pye weed than at any tube. I'm not saying feeders are pointless, I still run a suet cage in winter, but people act like a feeder is the whole game when the bugs and seed heads are what really do it. Anyone else noticed their native patch beating the feeders, or is it just my yard?