what to feed the birds?

what to feed the birds?

what to feed the birds?

Birds play a vital and integral part in our gardens. Well-fed birds associate our gardens with a source of food and will visit more often foraging in the borders for tasty morsels and feeding on insect pests that might otherwise devour and decimate our vegetable crops and flowers.

As winter approaches it becomes more important to support our garden community with supplementary feeding.

If the temperature drops below freezing they will use up more energy just to keep warm, to replace that they will need to consume high-energy foods, and this is where gardeners can help. By putting out foods such as sunflower seeds, husk free mixes and fat cakes it can really make a difference to their survival rate.

Garden birds devour all manner of garden pests including the eggs of slugs. To create a bird friendly garden you need to do more than just feed them. A fresh supply of water is essential for all wildlife. A garden pond will attract a variety of beneficial creatures into the garden but be sure to create a shallow edge so that they can easily escape if they fall in. Plant a mixed hedge this autumn. Use native species such as hawthorn, blackthorn, wild rose, holly, hazel and elder. A wide variety of shrubs and trees will provide vital shelter and nesting sites for birds as well as autumn and winter food from any nuts or berries.

Open structured trees such as sorbus and lilacs provide further roosting sites within the garden. Make the most of walls and trellis by planting clematis and ivy; these are great nesting sites for the birds.

Support the birds that visit your garden with carefully tailored feed. Every group of birds has a preferred type of food and feeds in a different way. For example robins, blackbirds and thrushes are ground feeders, and like a diet rich in insects. Good quality bird food is now mixed to suit different birds.

A quick visit to the garden centre will reveal a huge range of foods and feeders. These are generally aimed at attracting broad families of birds and even specific species. Peanut feeder are a popular choice for many types of Tit such as blue tit, great tit and long tailed tit, but if you are lucky they will also attract great spotted woodpeckers and if you're in the right area and really lucky then maybe a nuthatch too. Seed feeders, filled with sunflower hearts rather than sunflower seeds are great attractant and treat for greenfinches, house and tree sparrows, but also for blue tits and great tits too.

When a friend is poorly and confined to the house, make them a gift of a bird feeder and some bird food and help them site it somewhere that they can enjoy the antics of their feathered friends and bring hours of entertainment and help to support these beautiful wild creatures.

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