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Bird Food: different kinds of foods for different kinds of birds
Thursday, 18th September 2014
Different kinds of bird foods do different kinds of jobs. Click here to see why...
Feeding wild birds doesn’t have to be complicated - good quality peanuts and a decent wild bird seed mix should be enough to set you up for a certain degree of success. But that’s unlikely to be enough to attract different kinds of birds and - if that’s your goal – there are a few things you should know...
It would of course be much easier if all birds used hanging feeders exclusively, but they don’t; they use bird tables, ground feeders, suet feeders and all manner of seed and peanut feeders. These feeding formats can be grouped into three main categories (ground, bird table and hanging feeders).
That’s three different feeding levels.
Three different foods – one for each level – would introduce food variety and - remembering that different kinds of food (and how they’re fed) will attract different kinds of birds – I suggest there’s a strong argument for taking a three pronged attack to providing bird food:
Study each bird food carefully, look at the ingredients and consider the texture, seed size and seed variety for yourself. Try to select three very different bird foods and see how many more different kinds of birds you can attract.
This approach can grow with time; for example, add a peanut feeder and place it in a different part of the garden, or, as we’re approaching autumn and winter, invest in a range of suet (http://www.haiths.com/bird-food/suet/) products and experiment to find the one that works best in your garden...
The birds will soon tell you.
It’s not an exact science, but that’s the beauty of feeding wild birds - we’re never quite sure what will turn up on the bird table, are we?
It would of course be much easier if all birds used hanging feeders exclusively, but they don’t; they use bird tables, ground feeders, suet feeders and all manner of seed and peanut feeders. These feeding formats can be grouped into three main categories (ground, bird table and hanging feeders).
That’s three different feeding levels.
Three different foods – one for each level – would introduce food variety and - remembering that different kinds of food (and how they’re fed) will attract different kinds of birds – I suggest there’s a strong argument for taking a three pronged attack to providing bird food:
- Seed mix for seed feeders
- Seed mix or softfood for bird tables
- Soft foods for ground feeders
Study each bird food carefully, look at the ingredients and consider the texture, seed size and seed variety for yourself. Try to select three very different bird foods and see how many more different kinds of birds you can attract.
This approach can grow with time; for example, add a peanut feeder and place it in a different part of the garden, or, as we’re approaching autumn and winter, invest in a range of suet (http://www.haiths.com/bird-food/suet/) products and experiment to find the one that works best in your garden...
The birds will soon tell you.
It’s not an exact science, but that’s the beauty of feeding wild birds - we’re never quite sure what will turn up on the bird table, are we?
Written by Simon H. King
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