Winter for Garden Birds

With winter drawing in and temperatures across the country plummeting, life is once again about to get tough for the UK’s wild bird population. Freezing conditions, combined with a lack of food, mean that their survival skills will be seriously tested.

A bird can use around 10% of its body weight keeping warm during a cold night in winter, and a prolonged cold spell can easily prove fatal if reserves aren’t sufficiently replenished during the day.

This is why it is so important to provide the wild birds in your garden with a plentiful supply of high energy food during the cold winter months of October to March – it can be the difference between life and death during this part of the year.

Step one is to introduce a bird feeder and/or bird table to your garden, making sure it is high off the ground and in a place where the birds will feel safe and undisturbed (avoid positioning them near to fences, walls or hedges, where cats or squirrels can reach them).

Make sure that the feeders are full for the birds' early morning feed and again for their pre-dusk feed. It is important to keep the feeders clean and free from droppings or mouldy food, as this can lead to infection.

So which foods are suitable? Peanuts are a sure-fire favourite, but don’t buy damp or mouldy ones as they could contain poisonous fungus called aflatoxin. Fruit and seeds will be snapped up, with sunflower seeds ideally suited to feeding young in the nest.

Fat balls are also ideal for providing birds with a nutritious, prime food source and you can even feed them kitchen scraps such as bread, fat, suet and pastry.

A useful tip is to make sure you drop some food on the ground, as some birds prefer to not to dine at feeders or tables. Finally, don’t forget to provide them with a fresh supply of water every day.

In addition to feeding, you can also put up nest boxes to provide roosting sites for breeding birds. The natural nest sites on which many of our bird species depend, such as holes in trees and buildings, are fast disappearing as gardens and woods are ‘tidied’ and old houses are repaired.

Nest boxes can be fixed to walls, trees or building - again, choose somewhere high above ground level, as this will allow for easy flight access whilst also being out of the reach of predators.

All this nourishment and shelter will attract all manner of species of bird to your garden, including house sparrows, starlings, blackbirds, robins and tits, thrushes, and chaffinches.

To return the favour the birds will eat many garden pests, such as slugs, snails, grubs, wireworms, caterpillars and insects. They’re also fascinating to watch and their daily antics will soon have you hooked and have been known to keep .

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