Living Garden

Nesting boxes
• Why a nesting box?
• Guests in the nest
• Placing out the nest
• Cleaning the nest

Bird tables
• Why feed birds?
• How do birds eat?
• What do birds eat?
• Species at the bird table
• Placement
• Cleaning
• Endangered bird species
• Put out water!

Butterflies
• Daytime butterflies

Different seasons require different kinds of bird food

There is a difference between seeds and seeds
There is a great difference between different brands of bird seeds. What may seem cheap in the store is often rather expensive when considering the contents. Often distributors will thin out a mixture with beans, dried rice, lentils and halved peas. Avoid these mixtures as only larger species of bird can eat them dry.

Avoid thinned out mixtures
A large percentage of oats in a mixture can also be a drawback as it is only the yellowhammer that eats this as a preference. In addition, the half-eaten oat shells will litter your lawn considerably more than other types of seed. The better mixtures contain sunflower seeds and hemp seeds, which have a high fat content, or pieces of corn or peanut granules.

You will get your money’s worth if you buy pure sunflower seeds instead of a poor mixture. However, the very best feed is a well composed mixture with a lot of sunflower seed and very little oats.

Provide water as a complement to dry food
The drier the food provided to the birds the more important it is to also provide them with fresh, clean water every day. An interesting fact is that if you give your birds water, the amount of birds in your garden will increase by 50%.
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The feeding
Don’t forget that birds can litter quite a bit. If there is too much bird food that falls to the ground it can attract rats or start to mould and become inedible. Also, try to make sure birds don’t jump around and leave droppings at the feeding spot as this can lead to the spreading of contagious diseases.

Protein is important in the summertime
It is in the summertime that birds need food rich on protein, especially while in moult; this is when they change their plumage. Black sunflower seeds, crushed oats, soaked raisins and currants, mild cheese and mealworms are good mixtures for birds who feed on insects.

Good seed mixtures without peanuts are always good for this time of year. Avoid giving peanuts, fat and bread in the summer as it may be harmful to the chicks.

The migratory bird’s winter menu
Hemp seed is suitable for the European greenfinch, the chaffinch, the brambling, the house sparrow, the tree sparrow, the great tit, the blue tit, the marsh tit, the willow tit and the bullfinch.

Oats, pieces of bread, cooked unsalted rice: House sparrow, yellowhammer

Tallow, lard, fat, coconut fat and unsalted butter: Very suitable for birds who feed on insects, such as tits, the goldcrest, the common tree creeper, the robin and woodpeckers

Wild bird seed, linseed: House sparrow, tree sparrow, chaffinch, brambling, greenfinch, common redpoll, siskin, dunnock

Apples, pears, bananas, rowanberries and berries from the white beam: Popular among blackbirds, starlings, blackcaps, robins and bohemian waxwings

Small seeds: millet, wild bird seed, linseed among others attract small birds such as sparrows and finches, goldfinches and dunnocks.

Wheat and barley: Often a part of many common mixtures but actually only suitable for wood pigeons, stock doves and pheasants, who will scare away smaller birds, so this type of food is best avoided.

Crushed oats: fine for many birds.

Sunflower seeds in general: greenfinch, great tit, nuthatch, bullfinch and hawfinch.

Black sunflower seeds: Excellent food all year round and in some respects even more popular than peanuts. There are more oils in black than striped sunflower seeds, which is why they are better for birds.

Beech acorns: Chaffinch, brambling and nuthatch.

Peanuts in a net bag: Fatty and popular food for greenfinches, tits, sparrows, nuthatches, green woodpeckers and siskins. Avoid salted or roasted peanuts. Buy the seeds in a pet or specialised food store so that you can be certain that they are free from aflatoxin.

Read more about the Multiholk from Wildlife Garden »