Songbirds are a wonderful garden visitor. Not only are they beautiful to watch, but they can help keep pests such as bugs at bay and help with pollination.
Your garden may be birdless right now, but following these tips will have chirpy voices visiting your garden on a regular basis in no time.
Songbirds you can attract to your garden include:
• Bluetits
• Blackbirds
• Robins
• Nightingales
• Skylarks
• Song thrush
• Wrens
• And many more!
Read on to find out the simple steps you can take to attract songbirds to your garden.
Introduce food
Providing food for songbirds is one of the best ways to attract them to your garden. From bird feeders of peanuts, sunflower seeds and suet balls to natural feeds such as wildflowers, regularly offering a food source will see your garden become a regular stop for local songbirds.
You can find out more about what type of food to put out and when here through RSPB.
Set up some nesting boxes
The birds that visit your garden for food frequently will want to stay closeby to avoid long journeys. Creating a safe place for them to nest will encourage them to make your garden their permanent home.
The best type of nesting shelter will depend on the type of bird. You can find out more about nesting boxes for songbirds here on the RSPB website.
Add a bird bath
Alongside a food source, water is a vital element in attracting songbirds to your garden. Birds depend on fresh clean water for drinking and bathing. Adding a bird bath to your garden provides the visiting songbirds with a drinking and washing station.
A bird bath doesn’t have to be anything fancy, either. It can just be a shallow bowl or tub of water, which should be filled no more than two inches deep. Where possible this should be placed out of reach of potential predators and refreshed as frequently as possible.
Deter predators
If you’ve done all of the above, you’re likely to have songbirds visiting your garden more regularly. Now that you’ve done all the hard work, the last thing you want is for the beautiful birds to be scared off.
To prevent the likelihood of this, it’s important to deter any potential predators. The main predators of songbirds include:
• Cats
• Buzzards
• Sparrowhawks
• Kestrels
Songbird nests are also at risk from predators, including:
• Woodpeckers
• Magpies
• Jays
• Crows
• Squirrels
Deterring these predators is an ongoing challenge, but making the effort is worthwhile to help protect the songbirds and their nests. Cats can be deterred with cat scarers, while bird scarers can be used for unwanted Aves.
Following these simple steps will help encourage beautiful songbirds, help diversify the nature in your garden and even help protect rarer and diminishing breeds.
For more gardening advice, browse our other blog posts here.