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CREATING A BIRD-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT IN YOUR GARDEN IS EASIER THAN YOU THINK AND MEANS YOU CAN ENJOY OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS ALL YEAR ROUND
BIRDS bring a garden to life. It’s not just the colour and movement, it’s the fun of getting to know the regulars and spotting unusual visitors.
While it is true that most common birds will visit just about any garden occasionally, to attract the greatest number and the biggest range of species you need to upgrade your hospitality rating.
So what do birds look for in a garden? Their top priority is food. Putting seed on bird tables and peanuts in hanging feeders instantly earns you one star.
You’ll draw more visitors, at least for flying visits. The birds feed, then they are off again.
To persuade them to stay longer, the garden layout needs to make birds feel safe and provide perching places where they can sit and sing.
But you don’t need to make a wild garden. Just beef up borders with shrubs and evergreens and plant a tree or hedge so they can make a quick retreat if startled.
If your planting scheme includes plenty of dual-purpose plants that look good and have edible berries, fruit or seed heads, you will make the garden even more irresistible to birds.
Shrubs, evergreens and hedges make great backgrounds and give a garden a year-round framework, while berries, seed heads and fruit bring seasonal interest. So good design makes yours a two-star bird garden.
Bird-friendly gardening techniques are good for another star, so give up chemicals and don’t tidy up too much during the nesting season.
Even something as simple as digging your vegetable patch over every few weeks in the winter turns up new supplies of grubs, which always keeps the insect-eaters interested.
But eating isn’t all birds want to do. They also need water to drink and to bathe in. So put in a wide, flat-bottomed bowl, a birdbath or a shallow, dripping water feature that birds love to shower in, and you will have earned a fourth star.
If there is room, a pond with gently sloping gravel beach edges allows whole flocks of birds to splash around at the same time and makes a much more glamorous garden.
A five-star garden is one birds want to nest in. Having hedges and a tree or two helps, of course, but you will increase your chances enormously if you put up suitable nesting boxes located to suit individual species.
Bluetits, for instance, like boxes with small round entrance holes. These boxes should be placed about 10ft up on the north-facing side of tree trunks.
Robins, however, prefer a lower position and their nesting boxes should have wide slots in the front and be well hidden. But as all breeding birds need peace and quiet, your nesting boxes should be in out-of-the-way corners.
In practice, the best nesting sites in gardens are usually dense climbers on walls, trellises, fences or pergolas. Virtually any type of climber or wall shrub does the job in spring and summer – honeysuckle, winter jasmine, climbing roses, ivies and vines are all good.
Increasing your star rating really pays off. As well as the usual starlings, robins, blackbirds and collared doves that are likely to call in, you may be visited by passing blackcaps, willow warblers and redwings.
So play your cards right and you could have a little wildlife sanctuary all year round.
And if house sparrows, which are in decline in this country, take up residence, congratulate yourself on your hospitality – and have a sixth star.