Food that attracts wild birds to your garden can help draw them in, but there are certain items that should not be fed as these could potentially make them sick or even kill them.
Many people offer kitchen scraps and food to their backyard birds as feeders, but what type of food should be given out to these feathered friends?
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Kitchen Scraps and Pantry Grains
Gemma Sharp of Garden Bird advises, ‘Kitchen scraps can make an excellent way of augmenting feeder supplies and attracting different species. These foods include cooked potato, soaked sultanas and finely grated mild cheese (great during the winter), among others.” Her article offers further tips for what food should be offered as offerings to birds.
Vegetables and fruit provide valuable sources of nutrition. Leafy greens such as bok choy, silverbeet, spinach and carrot tops are highly sought-after by garden birds; other favorites include bananas and berries.
Rice is another beneficial kitchen scrap for birds to consume, providing carbohydrates and essential nutrients. When offering it at their feeding station, plain varieties should only be offered without adding extra sweeteners such as sugar.
Bird Seed
Bird feeders help birds stay closer to their nests, decreasing the chances of predators like mice and squirrels entering. Furthermore, it provides them with sustenance so they can focus on raising their families without stress. Furthermore, these bird feeders may help control pests, weeds and pollination issues as well.
Bird seed mixes can be purchased from specialty stores, hardware and general pet food stores. A high quality mix will include black oil sunflower seeds to attract chickadees, woodpeckers and other desirable species as well as nutritious millet, cracked corn and safflower seeds as well as nuts such as peanuts.
Avoid low-cost seed blends that may contain fillers such as milo or oats that birds don’t consume or need, which will end up on the ground and attract unwanted scavengers and rodents. Also try to steer clear of bread as this lacks nutritional value and could make the birds sick; if necessary, remove any hulls or other inedible debris so as to prevent rodent infestation and spoilage.
Nectar
Wild birds don’t necessarily rely on plants alone for sustenance, so having feeders with various kinds of foods available will attract different species and ensure that all your chosen ones come.
Flower nectar differs from honey in that it combines water with various sugars as well as proteins, salts, acids and floral oils in addition to trace amounts of proteins, salts, acids and floral oils. Nectar traits vary among flower species and may indicate how well they attract different pollinator assemblages [1].
Offering different food types and positioning the feeders at different locations will encourage different bird species to visit your feeders. Also make sure there’s ample fresh clean water available – even offering dishes of melted snow or ice! For instance, ground-feeding blackbirds enjoy eating sultanas; pinhead oats may attract long-billed dunnocks; high quality peanuts can provide protein for robins while stale bread with soft grated mild cheese is popular with several species during winter.
Nesting Materials
Nesting material can increase the amount of birds that visit your garden. This is especially important for species such as bluebirds, robins and chickadees that build their own nests – such as bluebirds.
Moss, twigs, rootlets, dried grass and leaf litter debris and even dried lichen make great nesting materials for backyard birds. You can provide this natural material by leaving nooks in your yard where this debris can collect or by placing nesting boxes where birds can find shelter from predators.
Avoid placing synthetic materials such as cotton string, yarn and pet hair near birds to reduce the chance of them getting caught or injured by them. Also try not to leave household items out such as dryer lint which holds moisture that chills baby birds or promotes mold growth and dirt, or yarn which might contain pesticides from detergents and fabric softeners contaminating it further.
