How to Feed Garden Birds All Year Round – Seasonal Bird Feeding Guide

Children often have lots of questions about feeding garden birds; should you feed birds all year round? Can birds eat peanuts? What do garden birds eat? How to prevent bird disease?

Creating encounters with wildlife for our children can be hard. Wildlife gardening is one of the simplest ways to introduce them to nature. Kids love helping prepare and put out bird food as well as watching the birds arrive and learning to identify them.

In this simple tutorial learn: –

• what to feed garden birds to attract a wide variety to your garden
• how to identify birds
• how to make a hanging bird feeder
• how to maintain bird feeder hygiene as well as
• how to enter the Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of January each year or
• join an ongoing scientific study (see link at bottom of page).

Create a Wildlife Encounter for Kids

Not my best photography ever (mostly through windows), these photos are all taken in our back garden to show it really is worth making the effort to feed the birds.

Feeding garden birds is many people’s first step towards creating a wildlife garden. But where do you start? Duck feeding at the park is great for toddlers, but what about in the garden?

How to Feed Garden Birds

You will need:

• Various bird feeders – seed containers and fat ball holders
• A bird table or hanging pole
• A bowl or bath for water
• Wild bird seed
• Dried mealworms
• Household scraps – ensure they are bird-friendly (see below)

What to do:

Feed the right food – read on to learn which birds eat what, where and what they prefer to eat and how to identify birds

Use different feeders – encourage a variety of birds to the garden with different feeding methods (see below)

Consider garden size & safety; do you have trees, bushes etc? Are there local cats? Don’t position feeders where cats can easily get to them

Be patient – if you’ve not fed birds before, they can take a few days to get used to something new in their environment

Maintain good hygiene – VERY IMPORTANT; clean bird feeders regularly to avoid the spread of disease. Always use a bird-friendly cleaning fluid. There’s a photo in The Hall of Einar’s blog post showing a very poorly Chaffinch, possibly due to poor feeder hygiene.

What Type of Bird Feeder to Use

Wooden bird tables work well, with or without roofs. You can even make your own.

A metal bird feeding pole with hooks for different hanging feeders, a water bowl and a flat tray is excellent for feeding multiple species.

We also put food on the lawn for ground feeders and sometimes hang fat coconuts in the trees.

Try a window-hanging feeder. It’s surprising how many birds are courageous enough to use it so close to the house. They’re a great idea for the housebound and for children to see birds close-up.

Hoping Mr Robin will hop down for some mealworm!

What to Feed Garden Birds Season by Season

Many people feed garden birds in harsh winter weather but not everyone knows that the UK’s declining bird populations benefit hugely from year round feeding. Here’s a summary of seasonal variations: –

WINTER

• Ensure a daily supply of fresh water when natural water is frozen
• Wild bird seed, Nyger and peanuts can be bought at most pet shops. Hang them in feeders around the garden. Replenish regularly
• Fat balls and suet feeders provide instant energy in cold weather
• Remove mesh wrappers from fat balls to avoid birds becoming tangled if you can’t find mesh-free fat balls
• Clear snow from an area of grass for ground feeders

SPRING

• Feeding chicks and fledglings is exhausting so continued feeding is a great benefit for tired parents
• Don’t feed whole peanuts as young birds can choke on them
• Dried and live mealworms are excellent nutritional treats for adults and juveniles alike

SUMMER

• Continue basic seed feeding as food shortages can occur at any time
• Provide fresh water during dry weather

AUTUMN

• As per winter, with high fat foods and daily fresh water
• Put out old apples for ground feeders

You’ll get great results from putting out food for the birds. It’s good for them, good for us and excellent for our children’s natural well-being.

Summary – Dos and Don’ts

1. Identify your regular bird visitors & provide the relevant food
2. Always put out fresh water, all year round, especially in freezing conditions
3. Consider cats and position feeders so cats can’t reach them
4. Feed a variety of food according to species e.g. ground or seed feeder
5. Use a variety of containers e.g. coconut shell, wire hangers, window feeders
6. Feed all year round
7. No whole peanuts in spring and summer to avoid young choking
8. If you have a larger garden put food in different locations
9. Maintain feeder hygiene to avoid spread of disease
10. Maintain personal hygiene after handling bird feeders
11. No mouldy or salty foods
12. Beware of pets as raisins can be poisonous to some dogs
13. Soak bread in water and feed in small pieces if you must feed it at all

How to Identify Garden Birds

Putting out the right food for your garden visitors means learning which birds are visiting you.

To identify garden birds use the RSPB’s handy identifier or British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)‘s great video tutorials for identification.

To identify birds by their song, try the free Birdsong ID App. It is best used to confirm a birdsong – Caroline uses regularly to listen to & memorize but I’ve personally found its recording and playback function is not ideal.

Which Birds Eat What in the Wild?

Once you know who’s who, how do you know what to feed them?

SEED EATERS – these birds like all kinds of seeds, small insects, caterpillars etc.

• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• Coal Tit
• Goldfinch
• Greenfinch
• Sparrow
• Collared Dove

GROUND FEEDERS – these eat worms, slugs, snails, flying insects, fruit (apples), scraps etc.

• Blackbird
• Chaffinch
• Dunnock
• Pigeon
• Robin
• Starling
• Thrush
• Wren

What to Feed Garden Birds

Nyger seed is great for Finches and Sparrows, requiring a special feeder for the tiny seeds. Our Collared Doves have even learnt to balance the feeder to get at the Nyger!

A no-mess (seeds already hulled), high-energy seed mix is good for general seed-eaters in a standard feeder. A a squirrel-proof hanger or half-coconut shell for fat balls is useful too.

Most people hang peanut feeders but we’ve found the birds shun them in favour of seeds.

A tray can be used for seeds, dried mealworms and household scraps – ours attaches to our feeder stand.

Bread isn’t great for birds. It has little nutritional value and can swell in their stomachs so if you must feed it make sure you have soaked it well and put it out wet and soggy. This goes for ducks too – seeds only please! Read my duck feeding guide here.

Both the RSPB and BTO have lots of detailed information on bird feeding.

To learn how to make our simple coconut shell hanging fat feeder read my post How To Make a Coconut Bird Feeder.

Top Tip

Putting Nyger seed out is the number one way to attract a variety of species, particularly Finches, to the garden so I highly recommend adding Nyger to the menu.

Join a Garden Birdwatch

Now you’ve attracted birds to your garden why not enter the RSPB’s Annual Big Garden Birdwatch which takes place at the end of January.

Sign up for a free pack. Record what you see during one hour (over the weekend of the 26th-28th January 2019) . Upload or post your results online and receive a free certificate from the RSPB.

To record your garden birds ALL YEAR ROUND, in an ongoing nationwide scientific study, join BTO’s Garden Birdwatch where you record the birds you spot on a weekly basis. It costs £17 for a year including a quarterly magazine and a free wildlife and bird book.

More Reading

For information on how to hang a bird box in your garden read Love Nests on Valentine’s Day

Here’s what happened when a feather-footed dove came to visit, and don’t forget the ducks in my Duck Feeding Guide.

For ideas on connecting with nature and getting the family outdoors more try my Go Wild series – at home, in the garden, and further afield.

Bird ‘Flu

For maximum protection and to help prevent bird flu and other diseases, ensure you disinfect bird feeders regularly and thoroughly wash your own and children’s hands after handling feeders.

Don’t let that stop you feeding the birds.

Get feeding and enjoy the closeness of nature in your own garden.