Natural ways to feed the birds:
Masses of mulch: Mulching borders and adopting a no-dig method on veg beds using layers of compost means that moisture is better held within the soil. This results in creatures such as worms remaining closer to the surface, and birds such as blackbird and song thrushes can probe through the crumbly top layer for food, even in hot dry weather. Leave the leaves: While it is certainly a good thing to rake leaves off lawns in autumn to keep the grass healthy, don’t then throw the leaves away. Pile them up under bushes and in corners of the garden where they can be flicked through by birds during the winter.
Include a pond: We all think of a pond as a place where birds can drink and, if there is a ‘beach’, have a bathe. But ponds and the bushes and trees around them are a focal point for so much insect life that they are a magnet for feeding birds, too. Migrant warblers such as chiffchaffs and willow warblers will always home in on a pond in a garden.
Cut out the chemicals: It is easy to ignore the knock-on consequences of using pesticides in the garden, but when you consider that their effect is to remove low layers of food chains, then it is only logical that it will affect every layer above them. As a simple example, if you kill the ants in your lawn, there will be nothing for green woodpeckers to feed on, because that is the bulk of what they eat.
Keep an area of lawn mown:
There is much attention these days on letting lawns grow into minimeadows, and quite rightly because only then can meadow butterflies, grasshoppers and other creatures of long grass survive. But blackbirds, song thrushes and starlings also need short turf where they can forage for leatherjackets and worms, so good lawn management for wildlife is all about variety – aim for some long and some short.