Wild Birds Unlimited

Many kids today don't seem to know how great the outdoors is. It's like they've chosen to "go screen" instead of "going green." Fortunately, bird feeding and other birding activities (building a feeder, filling feeders, watching and even sketching birds) are wonderful ways to bring children closer to nature. Go here to download some fun activities just for kids: www.wbu.com/kids-activities

Want to learn more?
🎙️ Tune in to the latest Nature Centered Podcast where John & Brian are joined by two very special guests, kids who love bird feeding, Xander and Rhain. Prepare to be inspired by their passion and love for birds and bird feeding. They also share their tips for helping more kids get into the hobby. Listen to Why Kids Love Bird Feeding here: wbu.com/podcast

Featured Feeder: Tidy Cylinder Feeder (Blue)
WBU Food: No-Mess Cylinder

Did you know that you can reduce pesticide usage by shopping at WBU?

WBU seed blends do not contain fillers which means a reduction in pesticide use across thousands of acres of crops! What an easy way to protect our birds and the planet! To learn more about how to , visit: https://www.wbu.com/save-the-song-birds/

Whether you're looking for a way to feed your birds while on vacation or want to enjoy longer views of the birds at your feeders, Seed Cylinders are a great addition to any backyard. We carry a variety of Seed Cylinders that are designed to meet your birds' seasonal needs.

Featured Birds: Carolina Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker & House Finch
WBU Food: Large Supreme Cylinder
Feeder: Large Tidy Cylinder Feeder

John & Brian are joined by two very special guests, kids who love bird feeding, Xander and Rhain. Prepare to be inspired by their passion and love for birds and bird feeding. They also share their tips for helping more kids get into the hobby. Tune in today: www.wbu.com/episode-87-why-kids-love-bird-feeding

Congratulations to Barb and Chip Whipkey, owners of the La Plata and Lexington Park, MD stores. They were awarded the Franchisee Honor Award at the recent Wild Birds Unlimited Enterprise Leadership Conference in light of the impact they have made within the Wild Birds Unlimited community and beyond. Learn more about the prestigious award here:

Barb And Chip Whipkey Honored With Franchisee Honor Award By Wild Birds Unlimited - The BayNet LEXINGTON PARK, Md. – Barb and Chip Whipkey, proud owners of Wild Birds Unlimited (WBU) stores in Lexington Park and La Plata, Maryland, have been honored with the prestigious Franchisee Honor Award at the annual Enterprise Leadership Conference held in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Franchisee Honor ...

How cool would it be to officially have your own yard recognized as a Certified Wildlife Habitat®️ by the National Wildlife Federation? 🤩 Now through July 31, Wild Birds Unlimited customers get 20% OFF Habitat Certification with promo code: ✨ GARDEN20 ✨
*Offer valid only in the US

Get your yard certified: https://certifiedwildlifehabitat.nwf.org/?campaignid=WH20JSU&utm_source=partner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WBU&utm_content=WBU_parntership

Happy Independence Day! Today, let's take a moment to appreciate the simple joys of life, like taking a stroll outdoors and watching the birds. 🌟

Featured Bird: Eastern Bluebird
Feeder: APS EZ-Attach Feeder Cup (Red) with Mealworms

Birds always need a reliable source of food, especially during the summer when they are caring for young fledglings or preparing for another brood. Our Seed Cylinders are the easiest, longest-lasting and most convenient way to feed the birds. Made of tightly-packed ingredients, such as seeds, nuts and more, Seed Cylinders help you meet all of your birds' nutritional needs for summer.

Featured Bird: Carolina Chickadee
WBU Food: Nutty for Nuts® Cylinder
Feeder: Tidy Cylinder Feeder

Happy Canada Day! 🍁 We hope you enjoy the day and celebrate outdoors! Whether it's a hike through the forest, a peaceful stroll by the lake, or simply enjoying your backyard, we hope you find joy in connecting with nature. 🌲🌻

Featured Bird: Canada Jay

Available exclusively at Wild Birds Unlimited, SuperSuet™ is loaded with our highest level of protein and fat to support the birds' nutritional needs and give them the boost of energy they need to make it through the day. It's a high-fat, high-calorie food that's a favorite of many insect-eating birds, including woodpeckers, chickadees and nuthatches.

Featured Bird: Downy Woodpecker
WBU Food: SuperSuet® Cake
Feeder: EcoTough® Tail Prop Suet Feeder

All birds need water, whether they are regular visitors to your feeders or not. Offering a dependable source of water is probably the simplest and most important step you can take to help birds regulate body temperature and keep feathers in top-flight shape. In simple terms, water - especially the sound of water - is a bird magnet! Add a bird bath or dripper to your yard and enjoy the show as birds of all types stop by to drink, bathe and preen.

Summer is the most heavily bird-populated season in most of North America, and the most abundant season for birds to visit feeders. Having access to a reliable source of supplemental foods, rich in protein, fats and calcium has been documented to facilitate higher nesting success rates and greatly benefits birds during molting season. Keep your birds happy and healthy by keeping your feeders full this summer. Your birds will thank you by filling your backyard with color and life!

One of the most important things you can do to care for your birds is to keep your feeders clean. We suggest cleaning them every few weeks or more frequently as needed. This also helps to attract more birds, which is always fun! Explore proper feeder cleaning techniques here: https://www.wbu.com/bird-feeder-care-cleaning/

It's the first day of summer! Time to stop by your local Wild Birds Unlimited store for the most seasonally savvy foods to feed your feathered friends! Enjoy the sun, the beautiful weather, and most importantly, your backyard birds!

Featured Bird: Hooded Oriole
Feeder: Oriole Feeder with Nectar

Thinking of taking down the feeders for the summer??? Don't do it! You'll regret missing out on ALL the fun that summer bird feeding has to offer! From fledglings and juveniles to tired parents and molting birds all will be grateful you've continued to feed them during the heat of the summer.
Keep in mind that birds NEVER rely on a bird feeder or become dependent on the feeders. They will keep a well balanced diet despite your feeding habits but to enjoy the hobby most, we recommend keeping the feeders up year round!

We are thrilled to host Daytime Emmy Winner and New York Times best-selling author, Christian Cooper, next week at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (Newfields) in light of WBU’s annual Enterprise Leadership Conference. Christian has served as president of the Harvard Ornithological Club and currently serving as vice president of New York City Audubon. We look forward to Christian sharing his passion for birding and commitment to promoting safe, accessible green spaces, especially for youth in underserved communities. Learn more here: https://discovernewfields.org/calendar/christian-cooper

The first day of summer, or the summer solstice, is June 20. That's when the sun is at its northernmost path in the sky, resulting in the longest day and shortest night of the calendar year. So get outside! Enjoy the sun, the birds and your backyard!

Featured Bird: American Goldfinch

Wild Birds Unlimited is honored to be mentioned as a top franchise for culture by Franchise Business Review ⭐

Happy National Pollinator Week! This week we celebrate all the tiny heroes - birds, bats and insects - that play a crucial role in our ecosystem! You can help these animals thrive by planting pollinator-friendly gardens, reducing pesticide use, or by supporting local conservation efforts. Every action counts in protecting these vital species!

Featured Pollinator: Monarch Butterfly

Oh, the wisdom of dads! From showing where to find food to how to pick the best seeds and insects, they make the early days away from the nest a little easier. Sorry for the confusion, those are just bird fathers. Our dads are great, too! Happy Father's Day!

Bird dads come in all shapes and sizes, but it's their role in raising their offspring that really sets them apart. From Downy Woodpeckers' dedication to hummingbirds' complete absence in raising their family, bird fathers' roles vary greatly. Look for these and other seasonal behaviors as more and more fledglings show up (with or without their fathers) in your backyard.

Featured Birds: Chestnut-backed Chickadees

It’s fledgling season. Here’s a helpful guide should you find a baby bird

Especially during the summer months, offering a dependable source of water in your yard is vitally important for helping birds. They use it to regulate body temperature and to keep their feathers in top-flight condition. It will also significantly increase the variety of birds in your yard. Water, especially the sound of water, is nothing short of a bird magnet! So, whether it is to help birds or to up the entertainment value of your hobby, providing a safe, clean source of water is truly more important than ever.

The Father-of-the-Year Award could go to the woodpecker dads that visit your feeders. During the daytime, dad woodpeckers often share equally in the nesting duties with their mates, but come nighttime, the fathers often solely incubate the eggs and brood the nestlings. In contrast, male hummingbirds play absolutely no role in helping their mate during nesting or in raising their young.

One action you can take to help is to keep your windows safe for the birds! A couple simple ways to do this is to set up a window feeder or by applying window gems! For more tips, check out this page: https://www.wbu.com/window-strikes/

Featured Birds: Pine Siskin & American Goldfinch
Feeder: Feeder with Sunflower Chips

After fledging, young male and female cardinals can be pretty hard to tell apart! At that time, both look like a less vibrant version of an adult female but are not identical.

You can tell a cardinal is a juvenile and not an adult female because youngsters have a gray or black bill, a shorter crest, and lack the adult female's red-orange highlights. Often young appear bigger than their exhausted parents, so size is not a significant identifying factor here.

Have you seen any young cardinals in your yard? Watch them through early summer as they molt in their adult feathers! 😍

Hummingbirds are so amazing and truly special. Here are just a few little things about hummingbirds that are a really big deal: -Small Wonders: Despite being the smallest of all birds, with more than 330 species, they are the second largest family of birds in the world. -Location, Location, Location: Hummingbirds are only found in the Western Hemisphere. -Fancy Flyers: The undisputed avian aerobatic flight champions, hummingbirds can hover and are the only birds able to fly backwards and upside down. -Big Appetites: They ingest up to eight times their weight in solid food (insects/spiders) and liquid (nectar) every day. Now is the time to have your feeders out and filled with nectar so you don't miss these tiny marvels!

Birdie, the kitty from the Wild Birds Unlimited Lexington Park, MD location got some lovins' from her friend, the UPS driver yesterday! 🐾🩷

Birdie is a working cat who works at the Wild Birds Unlimited store in Lexington Park, Maryland. She regularly demands attention from store visitors and UPS drivers are no exception

Whether he is full of bad jokes or words of wisdom, Dad deserves a gift as special as he is. From exclusive bird feeders to hardware and bird baths, we carry a variety of products that your Dad can enjoy - in his own backyard. Shop now for the best selection of great Father's Day gifts for Dad and Mother Nature.

Featured Bird: Western Tanager
WBU Food: Olive the Owl Seed Character
Feeder: Flyin' Bistro™ Cylinder Feeder

This Father's Day, June 16, help dad enjoy his yard with the proper bird feeding setup that features the best food and feeders. We offer a variety of hardware and food/feeder combos that can be personalized for any yard.

Featured Bird: Tufted Titmouse
WBU Product: APS Hanging System
WBU Product: APS Finial- Chickadee

Fun fact about your striking blue backyard birds, their feathers aren't actually blue, they're more of a grey color but its the microscopic structures in the feathers that reflect blue light, giving them their beautiful blue appearance. How cool is that?

John Sommer, general manager of Wild Birds Unlimited in Little Rock, AR shares tips on responsible hummingbird feeding! Read the article here:

Feeding hummingbirds means being responsible for their health | Arkansas Democrat Gazette Since late March and early April, ruby-throated hummingbirds have been returning to the state as part of their annual spring migration from Mexico and Central America. These amazing birds are among the most fascinating of bird species and Arkansans are enthralled with them, putting up feeders so the...

Now through July 31, the National Wildlife Federation is offering Wild Birds Unlimited customers 2️⃣ 0️⃣ % OFF Habitat Certification with promo code GARDEN20. https://certifiedwildlifehabitat.nwf.org/

🐝 🦋 June is the perfect time to celebrate the bees, butterflies, birds and the other little critters that help habitats thrive. Many pollinator populations are in decline and this decline is attributed most severely to a loss in feeding and nesting habitats. You can help by adding native plants to your yard.

🌼 Wild Birds Unlimited is proud to be the Champion for the National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat® program. This initiative shows nature enthusiasts like you how a few simple additions can make a big difference.

Ready to learn more about increasing the birds and pollinators in your space? Check out the latest Nature Centered Podcast episode: Habitat for Birds & Pollinators: www.wbu.com/podcast

Featured: Butterfly & Hummingbird
Visiting a Zinnia flower, native to SW United States and Mexico