When wanting to attract a wide variety of birds to your garden, it is important to offer a good selection of wild bird food. It’s best to avoid prepared foods that contain cheap fillers like whole oats, which have little nutritional value, or seed that is high in cereals.
Start out with a few fat balls, black sunflower seeds or sunflower hearts, and peanuts which can be used in feeders. Sunflower hearts are great for all wild bird species, as the outer shell has already been removed, leaving only the nutritious hearts. Many smaller birds can’t remove the tough outer shell of a sunflower.
Place the food out at the beginning of each day to allow birds to replace the energy lost overnight, and then top it up mid-afternoon to ensure your garden attracts as many birds as possible. It’s important too, that once you have started to feed the wild birds, to continue to feed them, as it’s possible they will become reliant on your help to survive and raise young fledglings.
In our Wild Bird Section, you will find a range of wild bird foods and other items such as wild bird food holders, wild bird nesting boxes and houses, wild bird tables and accessories for your back garden.