Encouraging birds to your garden is easy if you do a few simple things.  Provide them with shelter in the form of trees, hedges and shrubs, add a few nest boxes, make sure there is a clean source of water and of course, feed them.  In my garden I regularly use peanuts, sunflower hearts, mixed seeds and niger seed as well as apples and table crumbs. 

Its also really important to make sure there is plenty of insect food for many different species.  This means avoiding pesticides of all types in the garden.  Predators (including the birds) will soon build up in number to establish a balance in your garden and you will find you have few, if any problems with pests.

Feeding your birds

Feeding the birds with seed mixes and peanuts, which more than thirty percent of us do in one form or another, is a very important aspect of wildlife-friendly gardening and nowadays contributes to the conservation and survival of many species. It is important to use good quality mixes of seeds, sunflower seeds or peanuts, to ensure that you are not introducing disease of any kind.  Cleaning your feeders and bird tables is also very important.  There are several bacterial and viral diseases that birds are prone to, and these can be passed from one bird to another in their droppings.  Many kinds of feeder are available, or you could try making one of your own like the log feeder here.

Both the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) and the RSPB advise that we feed our garden birds throughout the year, rather than just in the winter months.  Mixed seeds, black sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts and peanuts from hanging seed feeders or on a bird table can be fed all year round.  These seeds are highly nutritious and provide adult birds with extra energy to search for the natural food needed by their chicks in the spring as well as being a vital food source in the winter.  

Different bird species prefer different types of food, so the more variety available at your bird table and in your feeders, the greater the variety of birds will visit your garden.  You can also feed kitchen scraps, such as bread or cake crumbs, small pieces of cheese, and fruit such as apples which may be past their best.  A mixture like this will attract blackbirds, thrushes, blue tits, great tits, sparrows, starlings, green finches, chaffinches, collared doves, dunnocks and robins. Niger seed will attract goldfinches. In more rural gardens, you may also see great spotted woodpeckers, and in the winter, redwings and fieldfares.  

Providing natural food

A well-designed and effective wildlife garden will always make provision for its wildlife visitors by incorporating plants that provide natural food.  There are many trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants that will encourage birds to the garden.  Most native trees and shrubs will support large numbers of insects - these in turn will attract insect eating birds like the tits, robins, wrens and warblers.  A tree of any kind in the garden will provide a song post for birds, as well as a source of insect food.  If you can plant a native tree, so much the better.  Good native trees for birds include oak, wild cherry, goat willow, silver birch, holly, hawthorn, rowan, crab apple and wild pear.  Some non-native trees are also good for birds, especially the flowering crab apples, willows, Prunus species and the varieties of elder.  Shrubs with berries will encourage birds to feed in your garden in the autumn and winter.  Plants such as Cotoneaster, Berberis, holly, Pyracantha, hawthorn, blackthorn, dogwood and many other berried plants will bring birds to the garden.  It is important to note that as a very general rule only red or orange berries are palatable to thrushes and blackbirds.  Yellow berries, now common on some varieties of shrubs, are often not eaten.  In springtime baby birds in the nest need the protein-rich diet supplied by insects and other invertebrates, and at the beginning of winter seeds and berries provide the nutrients birds need to see them through the cold weather ahead.  There was a time when this natural harvest in the countryside, together with spilt grain and weed seeds from fields of stubble, provided good pickings and a vital food supply for all manner of bird species.  Sadly this is no longer the case.  More and more birds need to rely on our gardens as a source of food at all times of year so once you start feeding the birds it is important to keep feeders topped up at all times.   

Putting nest boxes around your garden can be immensely satisfying.  Robins, wrens, blackbirds, great tits and blue tits, will all very readily use an artificial nest box in the right situation.  Boxes should be attached to trees, fences or walls, facing north, north east or north west .  South facing boxes can get too hot and nestlings may overheat and die, so never place a box in this situation unless it is very well shaded by branches, or climbers.  East facing boxes may be exposed to cold spring weather, so use your discretion when siting your box.  The height of your box from the ground will vary with the species you are trying to attract.  Blackbirds, robins and wrens will all nest quite low down but in general look at putting your box at head height or above.  You can also buy artificial nest boxes for swallows and house martins.  Many birds prefer to choose their own nest sites.  Prickly bushes such as holly, hawthorn, pyracantha and berberis make good nesting places for those species that won't use a nest box.

If you enjoy watching the birds in your garden, and would be interested in helping with a Garden Bird Survey, the BTO runs a Garden BirdWatch scheme.  Participation entails counting and listing the birds seen in your garden on a weekly basis.  They provide recording sheets and an excellent quarterly newsletter.  For more information contact the BTO at The Nunnery, Thetford, IP24 2PU.  Tel 01842 750050 or visit www.bto.org/gbw