Could Your Garden Feed Birds All Winter Without Buying Bird Food?
Could Your Garden Feed Birds All Winter Without Buying Bird Food?
The best bird feeder in your garden might be a plant you didn't cut down in September.
As autumn arrives, many of us perform almost the same gardening ritual.
We cut down the dead flowers. We remove old stems. We rake up leaves. We prune shrubs. We tidy borders and perhaps take several bags of garden waste away.
Then, only a few weeks later, winter arrives and we go out and buy bags of bird seed, sunflower hearts, peanuts and fat balls.
There is something slightly strange about that sequence.
We remove much of the natural food from the garden — and then pay money to put food back into it.
I am certainly not suggesting that people should never feed garden birds. Supplementary feeding can be extremely useful, particularly during prolonged cold weather.
But perhaps we should start thinking about the garden itself as a bird feeder.
A sunflower head can hold hundreds of seeds. A hawthorn hedge can carry berries. Ivy provides shelter, insects and later fruit. Fallen leaves shelter invertebrates. Crab apples may remain on a tree long after autumn has passed.
With a little planning, the garden can become a living winter larder.
And unlike a plastic bird feeder, much of it replenishes itself every year.
Birds Were Feeding Themselves Long Before We Invented Bird Feeders
It sounds obvious when you say it, but birds survived British winters long before anybody hung a feeder from a garden pole.
Different birds have evolved to find food in different ways.
Goldfinches are particularly good at extracting small seeds.
Blackbirds and thrushes eat fruit, berries, worms and other invertebrates.
Wrens hunt through vegetation, bark and crevices for tiny insects and spiders.
Robins spend a great deal of time investigating leaf litter and disturbed ground.
Sparrows and finches eat seeds, but many birds also depend heavily upon invertebrates.
So a genuinely bird-friendly garden needs more than one food source.
The aim is not simply to grow an alternative to a packet of sunflower hearts.
It is to create a small functioning ecosystem.
The Cheapest Wildlife Improvement May Be To Do Nothing
One of the easiest changes you can make this autumn costs precisely nothing.
Do not cut everything down.
Plants that flowered beautifully in June and July may still have an important role in December.
Their dried stems may contain seeds.
Their hollow centres may shelter insects.
Their leaves may hide spiders and beetles.
Their seed heads may provide direct food for birds.
There is, of course, a difference between creating wildlife habitat and simply abandoning the garden.
Paths can still be cleared.
Diseased material can still be removed.
Areas close to doors, patios and paths can remain tidy.
But perhaps the back of a border, a corner beside a hedge or an area behind a shed could be allowed to remain slightly more natural.
Sometimes gardening for wildlife is as much about what we decide not to do as what we actively do.
Sunflowers: Grow Your Own Bird Seed
Sunflowers are probably the most obvious example.
We usually grow them because they look spectacular during summer.
Bees and other pollinating insects visit the flowers.
Then the flowers fade.
The enormous seed heads remain.
And that is often exactly the moment when the gardener cuts them down.
Instead, leave some standing.
Finches and sparrows can pick seeds directly from the heads.
Sunflower seeds contain oils and protein, making them an excellent high-energy food source during colder weather.
There is also something satisfying about watching birds feed from a sunflower that you grew yourself.
Some seeds will inevitably fall.
Some may germinate next spring.
Your bird feeder may even start reproducing itself.
Teasels: Nature's Goldfinch Feeder
Teasels are another superb example.
Their tall, spiky seed heads are attractive in their own right, particularly when covered with frost.
More importantly, they contain seeds that Goldfinches are particularly well equipped to extract.
A Goldfinch hanging from a teasel head is one of those wonderfully natural garden sights that is far more interesting than simply watching a bird land on a plastic feeder.
So instead of looking at a dead teasel and thinking:
"I really ought to cut that down."
Try thinking:
"That is a bird-feeding station."
Teasels can also add height and structure to a winter border when many other plants have disappeared.
Don't Forget Seed-Producing Grasses
Grasses are sometimes overlooked because their seeds are less obvious.
Yet a patch of ornamental grass, meadow plants and other seed-producing perennials can provide food for small birds.
Again, the key is resisting the urge to cut everything down in early autumn.
Dry grasses and seed heads can also look beautiful in winter.
They catch low sunlight.
They collect frost.
They move in the wind.
A wildlife-friendly garden does not have to look neglected.
It can look intentionally different.
Grow Berries As Well As Seeds
Seeds are only one part of the winter menu.
Fruit and berries become particularly important when insect activity falls.
A hawthorn hedge loaded with red haws is effectively storing energy for wildlife.
Blackbirds, thrushes, Starlings and other birds will all make use of berry crops.
This leads to one of the most useful principles in environmentally friendly gardening:
Choose plants that perform several jobs at once.
A hawthorn hedge can:
form a boundary;
provide nesting cover;
produce spring flowers;
support insects;
produce berries;
provide shelter from winter weather.
Compare that with a solid fence.
The fence mainly performs one function.
The hedge performs many.
Crab Apples: A Small Tree With A Big Wildlife Value
A crab apple can be an excellent choice for an ordinary garden.
It provides spring blossom.
Pollinating insects visit the flowers.
It provides structure and shade.
Then it produces fruit in autumn.
Some varieties retain fruit well into winter.
That fruit can become useful food for birds when other resources are disappearing.
Even if you already have an ordinary apple tree, the same principle applies.
You do not necessarily have to harvest every last apple.
Leaving a few sound fruits on the tree, or allowing a small number to remain beneath it, can provide another food source.
Not everything the garden produces has to be taken away.
Ivy May Be One Of The Most Useful Plants In The Garden
Ivy is often treated with suspicion.
People worry about it climbing trees, fences or buildings.
There are certainly places where ivy needs managing.
But from a wildlife perspective, mature ivy can be extraordinarily useful.
It flowers comparatively late in the year.
That provides nectar when relatively few other plants are flowering.
Later it produces berries.
Its dense evergreen foliage provides shelter.
Its leaves and stems harbour insects and spiders.
That means one mature ivy plant may simultaneously provide:
late-season flowers;
berries;
insects;
nesting or roosting cover;
protection from cold weather.
Few garden plants work harder.
Insects Are Bird Food Too
This is one of the most important parts of the whole subject.
A bird-friendly garden should not be designed only around seeds and berries.
Many birds continue to search for invertebrates throughout the winter.
Robins, Wrens and Dunnocks spend huge amounts of time searching among leaves, stems, bark and soil.
That means anything we do to encourage insects can indirectly feed birds as well.
A log pile is therefore not merely an insect habitat.
It is part of the bird-feeding system.
The same applies to:
fallen leaves;
hollow plant stems;
patches of longer grass;
hedges;
compost heaps;
dead wood;
undisturbed corners.
If every fallen leaf is removed, every dead stem is cut down and every insect is sprayed, a substantial part of the natural food chain disappears.
Perhaps We Should Spray Less
There is little point creating a garden for birds and then systematically eliminating the insects those birds eat.
A few aphids, caterpillars or beetles do not necessarily mean that the garden has failed.
They may mean the ecosystem is working.
Of course there are times when pests cause serious problems, particularly around food crops.
But chemical spraying does not always have to be the first response.
Birds themselves are part of the garden's pest-control system.
So are ladybirds.
So are spiders.
So are predatory beetles and many other organisms.
The greater the biodiversity in the garden, the more opportunities there are for natural control.
Autumn Leaves Are Part Of The Pantry
Leaves deserve another mention because we are so conditioned to regard them as waste.
They certainly need removing from slippery paths and places where they can block drains.
But beneath shrubs and hedges they can be extraordinarily useful.
They provide cover for insects and other small animals.
Watch a Blackbird carefully and you will often see it throwing leaves aside with its beak while searching underneath.
Instead of exporting every leaf from the garden, consider sweeping some beneath the hedge.
Nature will process them.
Soil organisms will break them down.
Insects will use them.
Birds may feed among them.
And eventually the leaves become part of the soil.
That is a far more circular system than putting every leaf into a bin.
Water Is Just As Important As Food
Food gets most of the attention because we can easily see birds eating.
Water is just as important.
Birds need fresh water for drinking.
They also need it for bathing.
Keeping feathers in good condition is essential because feathers provide insulation as well as allowing flight.
A bird bath does not need to be elaborate.
A shallow container can work perfectly well if it is kept clean and birds can get in and out safely.
During freezing weather, check it regularly.
Remove ice and replace the water where necessary.
Do not add salt, antifreeze or chemicals.
A simple supply of clean water may be one of the most valuable things in the whole garden.
Think In Layers
A useful way to design a garden for birds is to think vertically.
At the top might be a small tree such as crab apple, rowan or another fruiting species.
Below that might be a hawthorn or mixed hedge.
Ivy could climb a suitable fence or structure.
Perennial flowers and sunflowers could occupy the middle level.
Grasses and lower plants could produce smaller seeds.
Leaves and dead wood could support insects at ground level.
Suddenly even quite a modest garden contains several ecological layers.
Each offers different feeding opportunities.
That creates far more wildlife value than a lawn surrounded by a fence.
You Do Not Need A Huge Garden
This idea is not restricted to people with acres of land.
A small suburban garden could contain:
one compact crab apple;
a short mixed hedge;
several sunflowers;
a few teasels;
seed-producing flowers;
ivy on a fence;
a small log pile;
a bird bath.
A courtyard could use large pots.
Even a balcony can contain flowering plants, seeds and water.
The key is not size.
It is diversity.
Try A Winter Bird Larder Experiment
This autumn, try an experiment.
Choose one part of the garden and deliberately manage it as a winter bird larder.
Do five things:
Leave several seed heads standing.
Leave some fallen leaves beneath shrubs.
Leave berries or fruit available where practical.
Create one small pile of logs, sticks or woody prunings.
Keep a source of clean water available.
Then watch what happens.
Do not judge the experiment after two days.
Observe it across autumn and winter.
Which birds arrive?
Do Goldfinches visit the seed heads?
Do Blackbirds investigate beneath shrubs?
Does a Robin search around the log pile?
Which berries disappear first?
Do birds start using the garden in ways you had not noticed before?
Watching birds forage naturally can be much more interesting than simply watching them queue at a feeder.
Should We Stop Buying Bird Food?
Not necessarily.
In a small garden, natural food may not support every bird throughout an entire winter, particularly during very cold periods.
Supplementary feeding can still be useful.
But perhaps the key word should be supplementary.
Instead of assuming that birds can only be helped by buying food, we can create a garden where food already exists naturally.
That also has another advantage.
A bag of seed provides food.
A wildlife-friendly garden provides food, shelter, breeding opportunities and biodiversity.
A Different Way To Look At An Autumn Garden
Perhaps we need to change the way we look at the garden when summer ends.
A brown sunflower head is not rubbish.
It is stored food.
A teasel is not something waiting to be cut down.
It is a Goldfinch feeder.
A hawthorn hedge is not merely a boundary.
It is a berry crop, insect habitat, nesting site and shelter belt.
A pile of leaves is not automatically untidy.
It may be where tomorrow's bird food is living.
And ivy is not simply something climbing a fence.
It can be a flowering plant, berry crop, shelter and insect habitat all at the same time.
The Cheapest Bird Food May Already Be Growing
Going green is often presented as something that requires buying something new.
New insulation.
New technology.
New appliances.
New equipment.
But wildlife gardening often teaches almost the opposite lesson.
Grow more.
Throw away less.
Cut down less.
Spray less.
Leave a little more behind.
A packet of sunflower seeds planted in spring can produce hundreds or thousands of seeds by autumn.
A berry-producing hedge may feed wildlife for decades.
A pile of leaves costs nothing at all.
And once a functioning habitat begins to establish itself, one part supports another.
Plants support insects.
Insects support birds.
Birds help distribute seeds and become part of the wider ecosystem.
That is much more interesting than simply hanging another feeder from a pole.
So before you cut down that final brown seed head this autumn, stop for a moment.
There may already be somebody waiting for dinner.
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