The Secret to Getting Birds Into Your Garden

Jul

The secret to getting birds into your garden is very simple. Plant two to three small trees, a couple of shrubs, add food and water and they will come - eventually.

Birds need somewhere high to perch, where they feel safe and can check out the food source. They need shrubs they can dive into to hide from predators, such as birds of prey and cats.

To keep the birds in your garden for longer periods of time, you'll need to provide an environment where bugs want to live. The birds will stay for longer while they hunt for those bugs. To increase the number of bugs you will need to change the way you garden. Preferably tidy up less, create dense planting, add fruiting plants and leave your grass to grow longer - by tidying up less it gave me the opportunity to sit in the garden and start drawing all the wildlife and flowers which I haven't been able to do for many years. And who doesn't want to reduce their workload, no matter how enjoyable you find it.

As our garden matures different species of birds arrive year on year, 2022 has been the greater spotted woodpecker year as we have a male and female coming in with their off spring. I have a robin who followers me around when I'm pulling invasive weeds out, a female blackbird that followers me around no matter what I'm doing while she makes it quite clear she expects some extra food. And best of all was when a collard dove, who lost her partner, kept following me around the garden until I worked out she might want some food, once I put some extra sunflower hearts down for her she flew off and immediately came back with two babies, she now often flies in while I'm sitting in the garden and asks for food.

The more you watch and interact with the wildlife in your garden, the more you realise just how smart they all are, and that they don't mind being near you if they feel safe.

Below is some general advice about attracting birds to your garden:

Provide natural food sources

Trees and bushes that produce berries are a great favourite with birds.

I have a hornet crab apple tree that produces tiny yellow apples the blackbirds devour within days of ripening. Blackbirds usually strip the blueberry bush before we get to harvest them as well. We have grapes, hips (dog rose), haws (hawthorns), sloes (blackthorns), pyracantha berries in every colour, apples, pears, blackberries, raspberries and mountain ash tree berries. Often the birds have stripped all the fruit before we get a chance to have even one.

Providing shelter for other insects and caterpillars helps birds top up on plenty of protein. Leave the grass a bit longer, don't clear up flower beds as often, and let the leaves stay where they fall. What I've found is the birds and worms tidy the garden up for you, just not as fast as I can do it.

Provide shelter

Birds need shelter from the cold. Dense, evergreen conifers, trees, and shrubs are especially good, as is mature ivy. Just make sure your walls are sound before you plant ivy. If not, build a support and let it grow over that. Some birds will shelter in empty nest boxes, snuggling together for warmth.

Provide water

Birds need a good supply of water at all times to drink and bath in. Bathing makes feathers easier to preen, keeping them waterproof and insulating.

We have a traditional bird bath, large plant trays, small plant dishes and old plastic meat trays (well washed) under trees and bushes where the birds feel comfortable taking a bath and drinking water. Birds of all sizes absolutely love all of them. The meat trays are a particular favourite with robins and dunnocks.

Keep the water and dishes clean, make sure the birds can make a quick get away into a bush if a predator enters the garden. In winter defrost frozen water with some warm water from your kettle.

Provide supplementary food

Originally bird feeding was encouraged during winter months, now it seems to be a year round requirement. Thankfully research is currently underway to find out if and when we should be feeding birds, until we have that answer try to feed the birds as and when you can afford to.

If you fill feeders up at the same time every day/week the birds will arrive and wait in your trees, you can hear their calls increase as you walk to the feeders. As soon as your back is turned they fly in.

Provide nesting sites

Mature hedgerows (native or non-native) will give the birds somewhere to nest. Brambles and Ivy also make great nesting sites, which also provide shelter for butterflies, spiders and ladybirds.

You can also add nest boxes in sheltered spots, high enough so cats can't get to them.

Don't prune hedges between March to at least July to avoid disturbing nests. I tend to leave mine until October.

Protect from cats and other predators

Birds won't visit your feeders if they don't feel safe. Hanging feeders near to trees and bushes gives birds somewhere to fly to for cover until danger has passed.

Move feeders around as predators form a hunting routine and visit places that consistently have easy prey. By moving things around it may take them a couple of days to spot the new location.

Keep it clean

Many birds are getting sick and passing on nasty diseases because people are not cleaning their feeding areas enough. Effectively you could be killing the birds with kindness if you don't keep feeding stations clean.

Give everything (feeders, tables, and baths) a good scrub with hot soaping water. I also leave mine in diluted bleach for a couple of hours, before soaking them in hot soapy water again.

Birds drop food from their mouths, poop in their water and on the feeders and this builds up on a daily basis. This isn't a problem in the wild because they wouldn't have this amount of food in one location all the time, giving nature enough time to clean up on its own. But when we constantly put food out in the same spot without a break, cleaning becomes vital.

If you spot a sick/diseased bird, then take all your feeders in and don't put any food out for a few months. Hopefully this will help to reduce the spread of diseases as the birds won't be eating in as close a proximity to each other. It's a good idea to let your neighbours know as well if they put bird food out.

Move feeders around your garden on a regular basis, this allows nature to take care of all the dropped food and bird poop that is on the ground.

Use a reputable bird food supplier

Buy the best you can afford, but certainly get it from a reputable supplier such as the RSPB.

Cheaper mixes can contain fillers such as millet or wheat which will only bring in the pigeons because the garden birds won't want it. Using a reputable supplier should mean the seeds are responsibly sourced.

Don't use pesticides

Many birds will eat insects from the ground, those insects could have consumed pesticides from your gardens. Birds also nibble on weeds and grass, again if pesticides are present then the bird is getting a good dose of that poison.

Specific birds favourites

Starlings like grubs found naturally in your lawn.

House sparrows, tits, gold finches, woodpeckers, greenfinches and many other birds enjoy sunflower hearts and peanuts. Some like them on the ground while others prefer them in hanging feeders.

Long tailed tits like fat balls, buggy bites and peanuts, and they like them hung up in a feeder.

Thrushes and blackbirds adore fruit. They like fat balls mixed with dried fruit, leftover fruit and any fruit found on trees and bushes.

Robins love worms, that's why they follow you around the garden when you have been digging. Blackbirds and robins will often visit your flower beds shortly after watering as this brings the worms up. They also enjoy mealworms thrown around the garden. Dried ones are fine, magpies will dip them in any available water for a soak before eating them. The fresh ones always make a welcome treat.

Conclusion

My Grandmother had a wild and untidy garden, my mother had a traditional tidy garden with cottage style flowers. Both had different types of wildlife. So I decided to go in the middle, test out a theory, see what happens then repeat. I usually do a bit of research about flowers and plants that attract certain bugs, grow it from seed (cheapest option) and see what happens. If I see there are lots of bugs attracted to it I grow more. I do the same with cultivated plants, native and non-native species of everything, I'll stand in a garden centre and follow the bees and butterflies, if they stay on a plant for a while, then I'll take that plant home with me. I try to stick with plants that will not require the soil to be altered or fed my soil, and I'm now moving on to drought tolerant plants because of the lack of rain in Suffolk.

I started testing plants out myself after many people within a Facebook wildlife community constantly told me to remove my laurel bushes as they have no benefit to wildlife, yet the flowers bring in the bees, bugs like to sun on them, ladybirds and caterpillars pupate on them, leaf cutters bees take sections of the leaves and the birds hide in them. If I had removed them, I would have never known what they give to wildlife. I was also told you can't grow anything under laurels, I've found you can't grow anything directly underneath them like most trees and bushes, but lots of things will grow just in front of them.

Before you decide to remove any plant, to make way for something you think is better for wildlife, take time to observe the plant for an entire year before you take it out, you could be destroying an entire eco system, then starting from scratch to create another one.

Try things out for yourself and have fun while you do it. Observing the natural world is relaxing and can feel like a treasure hunt at times. There are going to be beasties that you just don't like, and others that will fascinate you, but the more you observe wildlife the more you realise how clever they are. If you choose to visit a garden centre, stand back and observe where the bees, insects and birds are - buy those plants. Include wildflowers, mostly grown from seed, because they are disappearing from their natural habitat, not all wildflowers will be suitable for your garden but sowing from seed and using a mix can be very cost effective if you don't know what type of soil you have. It's ok to start wild flower seeds off in pots, this means you can plant them exactly where you want them.