Garden birds - what to see and how to attract them!

Gardens are the perfect opportunity for the budding birdwatcher to improve their ID skills, and knowledge of birding behaviour easily.

Go Birdwatching has brought you some simple guides on what you can see, and how you can go about attracting more birds to your garden.

Appetising foods that birds can't resist

If you want to attract more birds to your garden, getting the right food to put out for them is a good way to start. Below are some of the key foods that birds will be flocking to try:

HIGH ENERGY SEED MIXES
Though more expensive than standard seed mixes, high energy mixes are better suited to the needs of visiting birds. They tend to have a lower cereal content, which could help if you want to reduce the attractiveness of the food to visiting pigeons and doves. Good for finches, tits, sparrows and buntings.

SUNFLOWER SEEDS
Black sunflower seeds were introduced in the early 1990s and helped to revolutionise bird feeding by providing a high-energy food in an accessible form. Avoid the striped seeds as the birds find these more difficult to open and the contents don’t provide the same level of energy as the blacks. Good for larger billed finches, such as Greenfinch, and tits.

SUNFLOWER HEARTS
These are sunflower seeds with the husk already removed. Not only does this make them even easier for the birds to deal with, it also removes the unsightly mess of a pile of husks beneath the feeder. Of course, you have to pay more for these because the producer has removed the husk for you. Good for finches, tits and sparrows.

PEANUTS
While peanuts are high in the oils and proteins that the birds need for energy, many birds seem to have switched to sunflower hearts and high energy seed mixes. These alternatives are easier to handle so the birds can eat more in a shorter space of time. Either provide peanuts whole in a mesh feeder or as granules on a bird table. Good for Great Spotted Woodpecker and Long-tailed Tit.

PEANUT CAKE
Peanut cake and other forms of fat cake are a readily accessible form of food for small birds. Many peanuts cakes come complete with a hanger, while others can be placed in a suitable mesh feeder. Alternatively, make your own by using a hard fat (such as beef suet) and either make a cake or smear the fat into tree bark. Some mixes contain seed, others fruit or mealworms. Good for Long-tailed Tit, Starling and Treecreeper.

MEALWORMS
Either sold dried or live, mealworms are a firm favourite with some birds. While some are marketed as being ideal for growing youngsters, many birds ignore them as potential chick food, preferring instead to provide their chicks with caterpillars and small flies. The value of mealworms for young birds is as yet undetermined. Taken by adult Starlings, Blackbirds and Robins.

A year in the garden - what you might expect to see

Certain species such as Starling, House Sparrow, Collard Dove, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Blue and Great Tits are to be expected in any month of the year, but other species make more irregular appearances. Here's a guide to some worth looking for:

JANUARY: Fieldfare, Blackcap, Brambling
FEBRUARY: Mistle Thrush, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit, Siskin
MARCH: Rook, Goldfinch, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer, Tree Sparrow
APRIL: Magpie, Willow Warbler and other stop-over migrants
MAY: Swift, Spotted Flycatcher
JUNE: Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Jackdaw, Bullfinch
JULY: Green Woodpecker, Starling and other newly independent young birds
AUGUST: A quiet time, with many birds undergoing thei annual moult or feeding elsewhere
SEPTEMBER: Chiffchaff and stop-over migrants on their way south
OCTOBER: Blackbird, Chaffinch and Greenfinch, including newly arrived immigrants
NOVEMBER: Tawny Owl, Coal Tit
DECEMBER: Redwing, Waxwing, Starling, Lesser Redpoll


For more advice and ideas on how to attract birds to your garden, get the latest issue of Go Birdwatching by clicking here.