Attract birds to your window

BEING a bird never seemed quite as enviable as now. The coronavirus, locking the doors of millions of people around the world, has left many of us staring out the window, longing for the time when we were as free as a bird.

But there are easy ways you can bring the joy of those cheerful and chirpy sparrows closer to your windows.

Concertos of tweeting sparrows may be a rare pleasure in many cities these days, but all you need to do to turn on the birdsong is put a bird bath or a place to nest near the window closest to your new work-from-home desk.

Anyone who wants to do themselves and the sparrow a favour should buy a nesting box and attach it to the outside of their house or apartment block.

There’s also plenty you can do to attract birds in the garden if you have one. For instant results, bird experts recommend putting out a bird bath and a dust-bathing area. Pay attention to cleaning out the bath from time to time so they’re not bathing in their own filth.

For long-term and fruitful investments, try planting a dense hedge or a flowering meadow with local wild plants.

Not only will you make the birds your new friends, but also conservationists, who are appealing for people to create more bird-friendly urban places, such as dense garden hedges.

Particularly in spring and nesting periods, birds like the house sparrow like to make themselves heard, as they look for mates, scout out suitable hiding places and point out possible predators.

However, a lack of decent nesting sites, such as cavities in buildings and thick hedges, will lead to fewer sparrows being seen (and heard), according to conservationists like those at the Bavarian State Association for the Protection of Birds (LBV).