Feeding Garden Birds

WHY FEED BIRDS?

By providing food and water you can:

Increase the number and variety of birds in your garden.

Enjoy seeing wild birds at close quarters.

Help birds survive periods of severe winter weather.

Help ensure birds are in good breeding condition in spring.
WHAT FOOD TO PROVIDE
Kitchen scraps

Crumbled-up brown and white bread is suitable, but moisten if very dry.
Mouldy bread is unlikely to harm birds.

Pastry is popular.

Cooked rice, brown and white (without salt).

Dry porridge oats or coarse oatmeal.

Fat, including suet, is particularly welcomed by tits and great spotted woodpeckers.

Bacon rind chopped up finely can benifit robins as well as tits, but avoid very salty bacon.

Grated cheese is a favourite with robins.

Bones with some fat or meat attached are good, but keep small bones (especially those of
poultry) out of reach of cats and dogs.

Potatoes - baked (cold and opened up), roast and even mashed, are suitable.

Dried fruits, such as raisins and sultanas are particularly enjoyed by blackbirds, song thrushes
and robins.

Apples, including bruised and part-rotten ones , cut up are very popular with all thrushes
(including blackbirds) and starlings.

Bird cake - make by pouring hot fat (suet or lard) onto a mixture of ingredients such as seeds,
    nuts, dried fruit, oatmeal, cheese and cake (use about one-third fat to two-thirds mixture). Stir well
    in a bowl and turn out on the birdtable when solid. An empty coconut shell makes an ideal bird
    cake "feeder".
Bird Seed
Proprietary mixtures are available for wild birds and are advertised in Birds, the RSPB quarterly magazine for members. The better ones contain plenty of flaked maize, broken peanuts and sunflower seeds. Small seeds, such as millet, attract mostly house sparrows, dunnocks, finches, reed buntings and collared doves: flaked maize is taken readily by blackbirds and dunnocks, while tits and greenfinches favour peanuts and sunflower seeds. Pin-head oatmeal is excellent for mant birds. Wheat and barley grains are often included in seed mixtures, but they are only suitable for pigeons, doves and pheasants which feed on the ground.
Peanuts
These are rich in fat and very popular with tits, green finches, house sparrows and, if you are fortunate, nuthatches, great spotted woodpeckers and siskins. You can buy peanut kernels (whole, broken or sliced) for wild birds in bulk from dealers advetising in Birds. Crushed or grated nuts attract robins, dunnocks and even wrens. Salted peanuts should be washed thoroughly and dried immediately in an oven before being put out for birds.
Coconut
Fresh coconut in the shell is very popular with tits. (You can put bird cake in the empty shell). Desicated coconut is unsuitable as bird food.
Mealworms
These are relished by robins and may attract insect eating birds such as pied wagtails. Supplies can be obtained from advertised dealers in pet and wild bird foods.
HOW TO FEED BIRDS

Bird tables - make a simple tray mounted on a post, or on brackets to a window sill, or suspended from a tree branch. It needs a raised rim to retain the food and a few holes drilled in the tray to allow any rain water to drain away. A gap at each corner of the rim will allow you to clean away any uneaten food. Ready made bird tables are sold through the RSPB gifts catalogue.

Nut baskets - (wire mesh containers, plastic mesh bags and spiral feeders), seed hoppers, half coconuts (hung upside-down so that rainwater will not collect in them), tit-bells,(eg a plastic cup hung upside down and filled with fat, cheese etc) and peanuts in the shell threaded onto string, can all be suspended from your birdtables, above a window or from a tree. They attract greenfinches, house sparrows, and tits which you can watch performing their acrobatics.
WHEN TO FEED BIRDS

There is no need to provide food from the end of April and early October, but recent evidence suggests that you will cause no harm if you wish to continue feeding. Do crush nuts or soak bread, though. Greenfinches, which have a rather late breeding season benefit if finely crushed peanuts or sunflower seeds are available in May. During a drought, when the ground is hard, you can help blackbirds and thrushes by putting out soft food such as fruit and grated cheese.

In severe weather, when natural food is hard to find, put out food regularly twice daily if possible; in the early morning and again in the afternoon. Clear away any left over food before evening to stop any rodents from feeding, and also to keep a build up of stale food. By moving the feeding site about the garden the risk of disease to the birds will be reduced.
DRINKING WATER
Birds appreciate a source of water for drinking or bathing all year round. You can buy bird baths from the RSPB and at garden centres.

TO FIND OUT MORE
BBC/RSPB Videoguide to British Garden Birds with David Attenborough - available from the RSPB at the address below.
Birds in your Garden - by Nigel Wood. 1985, Hamlyn.
The Bird Table Book - by Tony Soper. 1987. David and Charles.
The Garden Bird Book - edited by David Glue. 1982. Macmillan
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The RSPB warmly thanks the British Trust for Ornithology (particularly David Glue) for helpful advice.
The RSPB is the charity that takes action for wild birds and the environment. Do you care about wild birds and the countryside enough to support us? If so write to at The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire. SG19. 2DL. Tel: 01767 680551 Fax: 01767 692365.

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