Feeding the birds in our gardens is a growing activity with over 26 per cent of the UK adult population feeding our nations birds, providing local birds and other wildlife with supplementary food and encouraging nature to thrive.
Despite the growing trend in bird feeding across the country, figures from the 2012 RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch show just how bird populations have declined in recent years to reach an all time low since the survey began more than thirty years ago.
Traditionally common birds, such as the unmistakable glossy purple green Starling, are seeing the most rapid decline in numbers. The Starling is now red listed as a bird of high conservation concern with other bird species such as house sparrows, blackbirds and robins also in decline.
Frances Halstead from The Surrey Wildlife Trust shares her top five tips on looking after our garden birds this winter and turning your garden into a haven for wildlife:
1. Don’t be too tidy in your garden – Try and leave flowering plants to die and set seed, these seeds are an important source of food for garden birds.
2. Provide a variety of food for the birds in your garden – You’ll attract more varieties of birds with a mixture of seeds, nuts, fat balls and mealworms
3. Keep your bird table and feeder clean to prevent the spread of infection
4. Provide plenty of water for your garden birds, its important for them to be able to clean their feathers as well as drink from this
5. Plant berry bearing shrubs, this will provide a great source of food and shelter
The team at Squires garden centre have suggested wildlife-friendly plants and shrubs to attract birds into your garden;
1. Pyracantha – This thorny evergreen shrub produce bitter berries perfect for birds to feed off and also provides dense cover for roosting and nesting birds.
2. Cotoneaster – These shrubs produce bright red berries, which are highly attractive to blackbirds and thrushes.
3. Salix Caprea Pendula – A common species of willow, this deciduous shrub often contains aphids and sawflies in its leaves, perfect for birds to feast on!
4. Lonicera – Commonly known as the honeysuckle, with over 180 species, climbing types will attract greenfly and in turn, garden birds.
5. Ivy – Mature Ivy covering a wall makes an ideal nesting place as well as housing insects too!
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