Birds: encouraging into the garden

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The advice given here is for encouraging garden birds, although it will also help birds to survive the lean winter months.

When to feed birds

Garden birds benefit most from feeding all year round, but winter is a time to provide foodstuffs with a high fat content, to supplement their diet. Feed regularly so that birds will not waste vital energy visiting your garden when there is no food.

How to feed birds

Choosing feeders and providing water

• Use wire mesh feeders for peanuts and seed feeders for other seed
• Specially designed feeders are needed for the tiny niger seed, which is loved by goldfinches
• Food placed on wire mesh held just off the ground will entice ground-feeding birds such as robins and dunnocks
• Place fat blocks in wire cages. Balls in plastic nets are not recommended as birds, such as woodpeckers, can get their tongues caught. Create your own fat blocks by melting suet into moulds such as coconut shells or logs with holes drilled in them
• Keep feeders clean and, if possible, change their position in the garden to avoid fouling the ground underneath

Water is essential for bathing and drinking throughout the year. Provide water in a shallow container, preferably with sloping sides and no more than 5cm (2in) deep. During frosty weather, remove the ice so birds can continue to have access to water.

Preferred foods

Use different foods and recipes to entice a range of birds. Although fat is important, do also provide a grain mix or nuts to maintain a balanced diet. No-mess seed mixes are more expensive but the inclusion of de-husked sunflower hearts means there is less waste and debris under the feeder. Inferior mixes are often padded out with lentils and wheat.

Many birds have ‘favourite’ foods, so choosing certain types can effect what you see feeding in the garden. These are just some of the preferences:

• Insect cakes for tits
• Berry cakes for finches
• Finely chopped animal fat and grated cheese are welcomed by small birds, such as wrens
• Sparrows, finches and nuthatches enjoy prising the seeds out of sunflower heads. Also, leave seed heads on herbaceous plants overwinter
• Niger seed is liked by goldfinches
• Peanut cakes for starlings
• Fruit is favoured by thrushes and blackbirds. Scatter over-ripe apples, raisins and song-bird mixes on the ground for them. Consider planting berrying shrubs and trees, including favourites such as Malus, Sorbus, Cotoneaster and Pyracantha

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A selection of birdboxes. Credit: RHS/Advisory.

Problems

It is difficult to exclude bigger visitors such as magpies, pigeons and squirrels from a traditional bird table. Feeders give more control over what you attract and most designs can be fitted with squirrel guards or have the feeder enclosed by an outer cage that keeps out larger animals.