Birds

Birds offer something for everyone, and it's hardly a chore to maintain a healthy bird garden - is it? Hang out a good quality bird feeder, fill it with clean healthy bird food and the birds will quickly reward us with their presence. Entertainment on one's doorstep and the good feeling of playing a small (but nonetheless important) part in naturally history conservation for the cost of a meal. If the food's good enough, the birds will return daily and you'll soon become one of their favourites haunts. 



With spring only days away, birds are preparing for the breeding season - the extra daylight triggers the change in birds' behaviour and it's a welcome and iconic sight to see Blue Tits inspecting nest boxes and Blackbirds perched on garden fences with twigs in their beaks which - from a distance - look like comical drooping moustaches. 
 
Watching birds build nests can often seem like a comedy of errors; however, they know what they are doing and they'll soon be surprising you with their nest building prowess. In fact keep in mind that some birds may even have started building more than one nest as they're still keeping their options open. The female will select the best build and then the pair can turn their attention to their young. If this isn’t entertainment at its best I don’t know what is.

It’s handy to know which birds to expect in your garden and Haith’s have a neat device to help with this research: they’ve taken The RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch data and organised it in a way that one can search bird popularity by county or species. It’s equally entertaining, though, to simply watch...and wait...to see what turns up at a feeding station...

Identifying birds by species is talent that’s relatively easy to improve, with time. Haith’s Bird A to Z is simple to cross-reference and search results helpfully display the seeds and foods your bird guests are likely to feed upon.

Birds supply a bounty of entertainment and I hope you enjoy watching them in your garden this coming spring.