Make your Garden a Bird Feeding Station this Winter

Garden Organic head gardener Emma O’Neill shares why it’s important not to overlook your garden birds this winter – and easy ways to turn your garden into a bird feeding station

Birds are one of the best friends a gardener can have: helping control pests, providing lively songs and sounds, and offering much-needed colour and entertainment in those long winter months. At our organic demonstration garden in Ryton, we have a family of sparrows living in our hornbeam hedge, robins who follow us around checking for worms, and blue tits using our nesting box. There’s always plenty of regular visitors looking for food, water, and shelter.
It’s a good idea to think about bird feeding all year round. In spring, they need to feed their young; in summer, the ground can get dry and make it difficult to forage; in autumn, they are moulting and preparing their bodies for winter; and in winter, it’s all about survival. In addition, if you feed them like this, they don’t waste precious time in those winter months visiting gardens that don’t contain food sources.

A natural bird feeding station
Wintertime is an especially critical time for all our wildlife, and birds are no exception. The temperatures drop, and the light levels are low with fewer daylight hours. When considering how to help your feathered friends, it’s a good idea to start with what you already have in your garden before rushing out to buy expensive feeders – in fact you can turn your garden into a bird feeding station using what you already have.
A couple of simple tips that you can follow without spending additional money, are to leave seedheads on some of your flowers. If, like me, you’re a neat gardener, then just select those plants that will really benefit the birds, such as coneflowers, globe thistles, and sunflowers. Even better if you can create a small ‘wild’ patch where you leave it to die down and turn to seed.
Go for a diverse range of plants. Shrubs and trees are particularly important during the winter months when food is scarce – and January is a good time to plant. Hedging is an excellent way to assist birds with places to shelter, nest, and feed. Try natives such as hawthorn, blackthorn, dogwood, and hazel. Our British native hedge at Ryton is always attracting visitors, and the spiny, dense foliage offers protection from predators and shelter, as well as berries and flowers.
Shrubs such as pyracantha can be stripped of its berries within a week, and cotoneaster, roses (with hips), and mahonia can all be popular. Add in some climbers such as honeysuckle and ivy, and, if you have the space, a tree such as a crab apple (Malus sylvestris) – and you have some fabulous natural bird feeders.
Water is also an important addition – providing drink and somewhere to bathe. This can be important in the winter months to ensure feathers stay waterproof. A pond is ideal, but bird baths work well. Make sure they’re in a more exposed location so birds can’t be sneaked up on by predators.

Other foods for birds
Favourite foods vary from bird to bird, so a range of food sources is always best. You can supplement natural sources with scraps from the kitchen such as cooked pasta and rice, unsalted uncooked bacon rind, grated cheese, raisins, and sultanas. Avoid cooking fat, anything with salt, and mouldy food. Blackbirds and thrushes love fruit, so any windfall apples and pears will be a treasure trove of calories, and they don’t mind if it’s bruised or squished!
Always try to source organic bird food so you know that it hasn’t been treated with harmful chemicals during the growing process or manufacture. Peanuts, seeds such as millet, oats, and nyjer, suet balls, and mealworms are readily available. Remember, with peanuts, small chicks can choke, so they need to be in a small mesh feeder for safety.

Where to place your food
To prevent predators, place the feeders up high and pop bird tables out in the open. Don’t put food directly onto the ground. Rats and squirrels can be problematic, and while several feeders now claim to be squirrel-proof, I’ve found it’s very much trial and error. To limit rodent problems, only put out what the birds can eat within a couple of days, and move your feeding stations around to prevent a build-up of spilt food in the same place.
Always remove mouldy food and clean your feeders – and water baths – weekly. This is important to help stop the transmission of diseases, which can lead to bird deaths. If you have a cat, consider getting a bell on its collar, and if you have dogs, please check any food sources won’t harm your pet if they end up eating it.

Bird feeding basics: What do birds like to eat?
Here is a list of some of our favourite birds and what they like to eat best – try to incorporate this into your bird feeding stations where possible:
• Robins – ground feeders, bird feed mix, sunflower seeds, fruit, insects, worms
• Chaffinch – also a ground feeder, insects, caterpillars, and seeds
• Sparrow – hanging bird feeders, grains, seeds, sunflowers, insects, aphids
• Bluetit – peanuts, fat balls, insects, spiders, aphids
• Blackbird – worms, spiders, snails, fruit, berries

For more organic gardening advice, head to gardenorganic.org.uk, where you can also find out how to support the charity by becoming a member.

Looking for a bird-feeding project to do with kids? Try making these lard cakes - they’re super easy!

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