Gardening with
Wildlife in Mind

Birds

• Feeding birds all year round is now recommended by the RSPB; but seed is best in the nesting season – not peanuts.
• Place bird tables and feeders out of the reach of cats.
• Garden bird feeders are known to have attracted 81 different species in 2000.
• Sparrowhawks have to eat too – and they may take small birds from your garden.
• Trellises erected 20cm or so away from walls can provide safe spaces for nesting birds.
• Many bird species can be attracted to nest in gardens with artificial boxes.
• Most small birds will die in their first year: neither sparrowhawks nor magpies have any long-term effect on the numbers of their prey species.
• Experiment with different sorts of food to attract birds to your garden.
• Over-stocked bird feeders can attract rats. Try not to let seed build up on the ground.
• Honeysuckle and ivy provide a valuable nectar source and cover for nesting birds.
• Berry-bearing plants such as cotoneaster and rowan feed winter birds and may even attract exotic species such as waxwing in winter.
• If you have an apple tree, leave a few rotten apples in the autumn for blackbirds.
• Fit your cat with a bell – it gives small birds a chance.
• The berries on many ornamental plants like Amelanchier, and Leycesteria are as attractive to birds as native species.
• Birds need water as well as food – keep it unfrozen in winter.
• Grow hops in a hedge and leave the stems over winter to form a safe haven for sparrows when a sparrowhawk visits.
• Don’t put up nestboxes in full summer sun – chicks can overheat and die.
• Smear fat on tree trunks to attract great spotted woodpeckers.
• Leave windfall fruit lying for the thrushes.
• Brush your dog outside, so birds can line their nests with the fur.
• Leave teasels standing throughout the winter to attract goldfinches.
• When teasels have been stripped of seed, smear the heads with fat and wedge in sunflower seeds.
• Some garden birds like dunnocks prefer to feed on the ground, so put seed under as well as on the bird table.
• Siskins are especially attracted to peanuts in orange mesh bags.
• Varieties of rowan and Pyracantha with yellow, pink or white berries are less attractive to birds than those with red berries.
• In a dry spring, moisten a patch of soil for house martins to gather mud for their nests.
• Do not feed birds anything salty – it can dehydrate and even poison them.