One of the absolute joys of having a garden is seeing the wildlife it attracts – not least the birds. During lockdown, this benefit has been doubly significant for me. I’ve even grown to love the pigeons which seem to spend the entire year mating on the top of our old cricket net! But as we head towards winter, the sources of food for birds will inevitably become more scarce. This has prompted me to wonder how to look after garden birds. What are the things we can do in our gardens now, to help them survive until spring?
Well it appears that there are 17 easy things any of us can do. For the most part these tips centre around the three key ingredients a bird needs – food, water and shelter.
How To Look After Garden Birds – Food
Whilst I have no trouble keeping up my fat supplies, it’s a massive test for birds in winter. They need a mix of food stuffs.
1. Know Your Nuts
Crushed or grated unsalted nuts attract robins, dunnocks and even wrens. While clever old nuthatches and coal tits may hoard peanuts. But as with all these things there are a couple of caveats. Firstly, apparently peanuts can be high in a natural toxin (called aflatoxin), which can kill birds, so always buy from a reputable dealer. The RSPB has an online shop, so that may be worth checking out.
Never feed birds salted or dry roasted nuts. They may be a lovely accompaniment to my evening gin and tonic but they’re deadly for birds.
Also don’t put out loose peanuts during spring or summer as they will be a choking hazard if fed to baby birds. It’s best to put nuts in a wire mesh feeder.
2. Mealworms
These are a great source of protein and are loved by blue tits, robins and may even attract pied wagtails into your garden! If you’re not sure what a pied wagtail looks like, you’re not alone, I had to look it up – but what a beauty it is!
Constantly buying mealworms can be pricey so some people breed their own! Here’s how It may be a money-saving wheeze but I’m really am not up for that. Having been responsible for feeding live meal worms to a son’s bearded dragon for many years, I’ve had quite enough of the live critters! So I will confine myself to the shop-bought, dried variety.
However, even if I go this tame route, there are a couple of tips which I will need to follow. Firstly to reduce any risk of salmonella I should only provide small amounts of meal worms so they get eaten quickly. Also, I should soak dried mealworms in warm water for 20-60 minutes before putting them out. This apparently provides valuable moisture content and makes it easier for younger birds to digest the worms.
3. Don’t Forget Fats
Mr F-W often puts out suet balls and that’s good as suet is high in fat, and can really help birds pack on the pounds (OK ounces) when they need to most.
However I didn’t know that fat hung up or rubbed into the bark of trees is a great help for treecreepers, goldcrests and many other species of birds.
You can also make or buy fat balls. But if you buy them, don’t leave the balls in their plastic net bags as birds can get tangled in them.
4. Avoid Seed Slip-Ups
Sunflower seeds – if you’ve grown sunflowers resist tidying, leave the heads for sparrows and finches to munch. If you haven’t grown one you can easily buy the seeds but you may not know (I didn’t) the oil content is higher in the black than the striped ones, and so get them if possible.
Mixed seeds – there are plenty of other seeds you can buy for birds. But the RSPB warns to avoid seed mixtures that have split peas, beans, dried rice or lentils as only large species of birds can eat these them dry. These ingredients are apparently added to some cheaper seed mixes to bulk them up!
Also we also must avoid any mixture containing green or pink lumps as these are dog biscuit, which can only be eaten when soaked. Who knew bought seed mixes could be such a tricky business.
I certainly don’t want more pigeons in my garden, not least because they deter other smaller birds. So I’m avoiding mixes with wheat and barley grains as they’re really only suitable for pigeons, doves and pheasants.
Of course, if you have spent seed heads in your garden, that’s a wonderful natural solution to all of this. Don’t cut them back. They are a great food source for the birds.
5. Food from the Home
Our kitchens may also contain useful foods for birds. For instance pinhead oatmeal is brilliant for many species. While if you have soft fruit or overripe apples or pears heading for your compost heap, chop them up into small pieces and sprinkle them onto your grass – for thrushes and blackbirds or on your bird table. The options don’t end there. Porridge oats, grated cheese, unsalted bacon, cooked rice, cooked pasta, the insides of cooked potatoes and pastry are all said to be good sources of energy for birds.
However, avoid these no nos! Lots of people put out stale bread for birds – but this isn’t very nutritious. Others, thinking that all fat is good for birds, may put out the remains of the turkey fat. I know I’ve done this in the past. But apparently it’s very bad for garden birds. However other Christmas favourites – bits of mince pies or cake crumbs will be excellent for them.
6. Mix Up Your Feeders
When it comes to how birds should be fed, a bird table, seed feeder and peanut feeder seem obvious, but remember, even here there are things to think about. For instance the right one for you depends on which types of birds you want to attract to your garden. So I’m going for a variety!
A bird table – will bring starlings, wood pigeons and doves to your garden.
Seed feeder – hanging a seed feeder in a bush or tree will attract finches, tits, and robins.
Peanut feeder – will make you popular with woodpeckers, blue tits and crows.
7. Keep It Clean!
Whatever you go for, there are several nasty diseases that birds can catch from dirty feeders so make sure to clean them regularly.
Also move bird tables and feeders every couple of weeks so that diseases don’t build-up on the ground underneath them. This is tricky for me to do so I’m going to clean the ground under my feeding stations every two weeks.
How To Look After Garden Birds – Water
I have to admit I often forget to check the water we’re offering the birds. Yet it is just as important as food.
8. Water – How Much?
Apparently, birds typically need to drink water twice daily, and those eating seeds need water more regularly because of their dry diet. So put out a dish of water – or a shallow bird bath. But again remember to clean the dish every day.
9. Anyone for Table Tennis!
If it gets very cold, there’s a risk the bird drinking water will freeze. To avoid this happening, a neat trick is to put twigs or even a table tennis ball in the water. Obviously, do not use anti-freeze! Do I really need to tell you this? I doubt it dear reader!
10. Be Cat Conscious
My dog Bunty keeps the cats out of our garden; even though she’s pretty deaf and blind, she can still sense them at 50 paces. However, for those without a ‘Bunty’ on patrol, the RSPB suggests feeders and bird baths are out in the open, to avoid cats being able to hide and stalk. Some even suggest planting a thorny bush below a bird table to inhibit cats!
How To Look After Garden Birds – Shelter
When considering how to look after garden birds, don’t forget shelter – and start thinking about this early. Add any bird boxes to your garden before the height of winter. This will give non-migratory birds the chance to settle before the coldest weather comes in.
11. Have A Head For Heights
Apparently different birds like bird boxes at different heights, so bear this in mind if you can. Sparrows, tits and starlings like a bird box that’s about 3 metres above the ground. Whereas robins and wrens like to be lower than 2 metres and hidden in amongst plants. Having just found this out, I’m going to go outside and check what heights we have ours at.
12. Avoid Sun Traps
Phil and Kirsty might bang on about location location location as being important for us humans but it seems it’s crucial for birds too. The advice I’ve gleaned is to avoid putting bird boxes in full sun or where they will be exposed to strong wet winds. Also try to ensure the birds’ flight path into the box is clear and accessible.
13. Know What Suits
It seems intuitive that larger birds, such as woodpeckers and starlings, require a large nesting box with a small hole on the front. While small birds including tits and sparrows prefer small boxes. However I didn’t know that if you’re hoping for a robin to nest in your garden, you need an open-fronted box.
14. Avoid Gimmicks
You can see at garden centres and on Ebay bird boxes made of all sorts of strange materials and many are brightly coloured. Forget such gimmickry. They probably won’t attract birds and if they do they may be dangerous, providing insufficient protection in winter or overheating. It’s by far best if nest boxes are made out of wood, and this should be at least 15mm in thickness to keep the temperature inside nice and even for the birds.
How To Look After Garden Birds – Gardening Tips
I’ve found all of this advice which I’ve unearthed really helpful, but surely as gardeners there are plenty of things we can all do to encourage birds into our gardens and look after them when they come? Well according to the experts there are three fundamental things we can do in terms of our gardening habits.
15. Don’t Be Too Tidy
When I think about it, it makes no sense to put out bird tables and feeders but to then cut back and remove the natural food sources in the garden! Many weeds and garden plants have seeds that provide a really valuable source of winter food for birds. Furthermore, old stems can provide a home for things like aphids and spiders which birds in the cold winter months will want to snack on. So I’m going to really resist the urge to tidy.
16. Put Away the Pesticides
Using pesticides to kill weeds, slugs and insects will inevitably damage our bird populations so we need to avoid them wherever possible. You may recall that I recently wrote about the natural alternatives to pesticides. Check out the blog here. It include more natural ways to deal with problems such as aphids.
17. Pick Your Plants
Finally, no blog on how to look after garden birds can ignore planting. For instance, I know first hand from the ivy all over my shed just how popular it is with birds. I see thrushes and blackbirds darting in and out of it constantly, and we’ve had blackbirds nesting in it.
But apparently ivy is even more of a boon for birds than I appreciated. The flowers attract insects, which in turn provide food for robins and wrens. Then when the black berries appear in the middle of winter, they’re munched by everything from thrushes, waxwings, starlings and jays, to finches and blackbirds. But beyond this, the leaves provide food for caterpillars of the holly blue butterfly, as well as nesting and roosting shelter for birds. I had no idea it was so useful to birds. Makes me love my ivy covered shed even more!
This is prompting me to take an even closer look at what else I can offer in my garden. For instance I’ve read that holly is great for song thrushes, blackbirds, fieldfares and redwings who all love holly berries in late winter. I don’t have any, but maybe need to remedy that. I also don’t have teasels in my garden but goldfinches and sparrows love them.
I’m also going to plant sunflowers in pots on my patio next year, and leave their seed heads to provide a natural food source for long-tailed tits and finches. In fact I may plant up a swathe of them in containers for my ‘hot corner’ which features orange, red and yellow planting. They’d look really lovely there.
There’s so much to write about in terms of the choice of plants for birds, that I think I’ll do whole separate blog on it. I’ll write this later in November.
In the meantime, while it’s tempting to panic about how little is in my cupboards and fridge as we head into this next lock down, (especially as three of my grown-up kids are living with us at the moment – eek!) I’m going to also concentrate on the birds and what’s going into their tummies. I’ll check my bird boxes and bird table and get the bird feeders cleaned and loaded up with a good mix of food. I’m not going to cut back anything in the garden. I’m going to use this lockdown as an opportunity to re-double my efforts to look after the birds this winter.
Gold finches also like verbena bonariensis seeds and the plants are so fashionable! They self seed round my garden from leaving the seed heads for the birds, and are perennial, but easy to pull up and give away if you have too many.
That’s a great shout Glenys. I’ll be covering plants for birds in a separate blog later this month and will definitely include verbena …you’re right the birds love them
A lovely post, thank you