Is it okay to feed my bird visitors my store bought (probably from west coast) red cherries?

[CTyankee]

I don't want them to go to waste but we're not eating them up fast enough. They have pits.

I have a number of birds who regularly visit the bushes and trees by the side of my house where I have a window and can see their coming and going. I don't know much about what grows there and I don't know my birds (I wish I knew more!).

I don't want to hurt them but I don't want to waste these lovely deep pink cherries...

[LakeArenal]

1. Yes. We grew cherry trees just for birds.

Cherry farmers have to cover the trees with nets to keep birds from eating them.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. The birds will be happy to have them.

I have a cherry tree in my yard. It's a rare year when I get to the cherries before the birds do. When the tree was smaller I tried netting it, but one day I found a bird tangled in the net and I felt so bad that after I cut the bird loose I took down the net and let the birds go for it.

[CTyankee]

3. Oh good, I'll put them out on some newspaper.

How do they manage the pits?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. I think they peck at the cherries and eat around the pits.

My tree is left with nothing but pits hanging from the tips of the branches where the cherries were - the birds who eat the cherries are probably too small to swallow the pits.

[CTyankee]

5. Maybe I should just scatter them on the ground to make it easier for them to peck at.

I have such a nice variety of tree/bushes. I used to have honeysuckle and hummingbirds would come around the first of May. That got overgrown and our neighbor ruthlessly cut it down and there are no more hummingbirds....so sad.

[lillypaddle]

6. What timing

I put my slightly aging, leftover cherries out on the stoop starting yesterday, and the birds (maybe the chipmunk, too) scarfed them up in no time. This had never dawned on me before. I'm guess that any kind of fruit would do.