Get Feathered Friends to Flock to Your Feeders This Winter

Attracting birds to the garden can be an enjoyable and rewarding activity, with many studies suggesting that being around nature can have a beneficial and prolonged impact on our mental health and wellbeing. As well as being a positive experience for us, it also helps protect and provide food and shelter for feathered friends throughout the year, especially when the weather is cold and natural food like worms, insects and berries are scarce.

Encouraging birds to the garden is simple and anybody can do it, regardless of how much outdoor space is available. Expert wildlife brand, CJ Wildlife, has shared its three tips to get birds to flock to your feeders!

Provide a wide range of food

When it comes to bird food, the choice can be overwhelming. With so many options available, it can be quite difficult to know which is best! But this all depends on the birds you see mostly in your area and what types of foods they prefer. To encourage specific species, try providing their favourite meals, for example, tits are predominantly seed-eaters, but in the colder months enjoy tucking into a high-fat food, like suet pellets for extra calories and warmth. Robins eat a wide variety of bird food, including seeds, dried mealworms, nuts, dried fruits, and CJ Wildlife’s Best Robin Blend Seed Mix. Great spotted woodpeckers enjoy peanuts, sunflower seeds, and fat balls, such as the Ultimate Fat Balls, as they contain an array of nutritional and energy-rich ingredients to keep them well throughout the winter. A good all-rounder is a calorie-rich seed mix like, CJ Wildlife’s High Energy No Mess. This mixture has been expertly blended to contain nutritious, energy-rich seeds and grains which will keep all species of feathered friends well-fed and energised all year round.

Use different types of feeders

Different birds prefer to eat from different feeders. Robins and blackbirds are known ground feeders and prefer to enjoy their meals from the floor or on flat, sheltered feeding tables like the Greenwich Wall Mounted Bird Table. Siskins, sparrows, and finches enjoy perching on seed feeders for their dinner, so opting for a hanging feeder with metal fixings is best as they are more resistant to the cold weather. For protection against those pesky squirrels, choose a seed feeder with a Guardian Cage, like the new Milan Guardian Bird Seed Feeder, as this ensures small birds can get to the seed with ease, and deters large birds, predators and squirrels.

Mesh feeders for peanuts and suet pellets are popular with clinging species like woodpeckers, nuthatches, and tits. Remember that whole peanuts should only be fed to birds in a mesh feeder, as this prevents small or young birds from choking. The mesh size should also be large enough to prevent beak damage, but small enough to not allow large pieces to fall out. The National Trust Apollo Peanut Feeder is a popular choice and allows multiple birds to feed at one time.

The best way to encourage a wider variety of birds to the garden is to place an array of feeder types, so all birds feel welcome! Just be sure to regularly clean them with a veterinary-approved disinfectant to prevent diseases.

Create a wildlife-friendly garden

A wildlife-friendly garden doesn’t mean a wild garden! Just a few conscious decisions which benefit wildlife all year round. The key is to introduce a mixture of small habitats such as dense shrubs and plants, like ivy and firethorns. These are great choice to provide birds with shelter and cover from predators, as well as food and roosting opportunities. Planting insect-friendly flowers and plants is a perfect way to introduce more natural food choices to the garden - cornflowers, marigolds, and honeysuckle are just some options! Incorporating flowers that have edible seeds like sunflowers and wildflowers is also a great addition and can create a stunning burst of colour in the garden during the summer months. Hang a nest box

Adding nest boxes to the garden is an easy way to provide birds with a space to shelter over the winter months, and then nest in the spring! When choosing the box, it’s best to pick one with insulating and durable materials, just like the WoodStone Seville 32mm Nest Box, made from a combination of FSC wood fibres and concrete to create a warm and resilient nest box. The insulating materials of WoodStone also keep a constant internal temperature inside the box, meaning feathered friends can escape the harsh cold of winter. Add a splash of water!

A fresh supply of water is also key to encouraging birds to the garden, even in the winter! Bathing is vital for birds’ survival, and being able to clean their feathers in clean water each morning will help prepare them for another cold night ahead. Providing water is simple, either choose a bird bath like the Silbersee Pedestal Bath, which is made of heavy-duty plastic, making it weatherproof and frost-tolerant or create your own mini wildlife pond using an old plant pot, pond liner, and stones for perching! Remember to keep them topped up each day with clean, fresh water and sanitise regularly with a veterinary-approved disinfectant to prevent illness.

For more advice on encouraging birds to your garden, or to browse the entire selection of bird and garden wildlife products, see www.birdfood.co.uk