November 18, 2007 - Bird Restaurants Welcome to the Nature Notebook. If a new restaurant opened in your town, but did no advertising whatsoever, chances are it would be a while before you found out about it and tried their fare. A similar situation happens when you put out bird feeders this time of year. Birds aren’t aware that there is food waiting for them and it might be some time before they discover this new food source. If natural foods are abundant birds will take advantage of those first. Mild temperatures keep seeds and berries available longer than in wintry conditions, so birds forage for these natural foods. But once colder temperatures arrive and snow covers the ground, birds search more widely for food. Once birds discover feeders they supplement their natural foods at a time when they need the additional energy and food is scarce. Be patient; they will come. This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.