The Birds in your Garden

The high protein content of invertebrates is vital in promoting the rapid increase in body mass of chicks, and supplementary foods rarely match this.

Tim Harrison, examined this issue during his PhD and commented:

“Several studies have looked into the effects of providing extra food for birds during the breeding season, and the vast majority of these have found positive effects - for example, more young successfully reared. There remains a shortage of direct evidence from garden habitats, but the consensus indicates that spring and summer feeding will help birds as they nest.”

Food shortages can occur at any time of year, and the extra food provided via our feeders can make a big difference to the survival of many garden birds, as long as we provide the sort of high energy food. Initially, most birds with young to feed will use it to sustain themselves, but if their preferred food is in short supply, they will take it to the nest.

Breeding is timed to exploit the availability of natural foods e.g. earthworms for Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, and caterpillars for tits and most finches. So a successful outcome does require a helping hand from the weather. The early warm weather last year resulted in caterpillars and many other bugs emerging early in response, but birds can’t change their egg laying as quickly. Egg laying dates have moved forwards by several days over the last couple of decades, but this is a much slower process. The result was a poor breeding season however, I’m sure it would have been worse had the parents not been able to top-up on the supplementary food we provide. Which foods are best, though? A high energy content is vital, and that means avoiding starchy foods such as bread, and instead choosing sunflower seeds, sultanas, raisins and currants soaked in water, mild grated cheese, mealworms, good seed mixtures, preferably without peanuts, soft apples and pears cut in half, bananas and grapes. These are foods that give nesting birds a boost. If you do put out peanuts, make sure that they are fresh and dry, and are in mesh feeders that will not allow large pieces to be taken away. So, eyes open and good luck in identifying the various scruffy individuals you will see out there before they develop their characteristic pattern of feathers! It’s not always easy to identify juveniles unless mum or dad are there to help. One final thought: if you do have cats, it’s a very good idea to keep them in overnight when there are fledglings around. Much of the mayhem takes place in the early hours when adult birds are urgently trying to fill hungry young stomachs that have had no food since the previous evening, and they may be too busy to see danger lurking.ray: gbwmike@gmail.com.

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