Bird Feeding Tips: food and feeders

we get loads of requests at Sussex Wildlife Trusts about feeding birds and it's a really brilliant idea especially in the winter so we've made a couple of short films just to give you some tips about it I suppose the first thing is to really sit wonder why we bother feeding the birds at all what does it do well the fact is in when it's really cold in the winter birds do die from starvation their small bodies just can't cope with the cold at night they need lots and lots of food on board just to get them through the night that's why you often see them feeding like crazy at about four o'clock in the afternoon just as it's getting dark they're trying to fill their bodies up with fat just to get them through that very cold nighttime period so feeding birds in winter actually does help keep your garden birds alive but I suppose one of the best reasons to feed birds is simply that we enjoy seeing them in the garden looking at birds in the garden has a really therapeutic effect for people of all ages and it's a great way to get the family involved in bringing nature into their lives right let's start off then by having a look at some of the different kinds of food available on the different sort of feeders we can use I suppose the the staple sort of diet the one basic thing everybody knows about is peanuts okay and peanuts a good food because they're full of fats they're full of proteins and the birds love them but there is a word of warning with peanuts up to me so and that's that they can contain these toxins called aflatoxins it's caused by a sort of fungus or mold that can grow on the peanuts now all peanuts are supposed to be tested for these because they're very dangerous they can actually cause cancer in birds and in people as well for that matter so that means that you must be careful where you buy your peanuts from make sure you get them from a reputable supplier whoever that is but basically good garden centers decent pet shops and especially if the peanuts has got a brand name on them okay let's have a look and see what else we've got this is a general sort of table seed contains all sorts of things like sunflower hearts that all corn chips various other kinds of seed to over here we've got this Niger seed which is really only useful for goldfinches I won't talk about that in a minute then we've got my favorite over here this is sunflower hearts or sunflower kernels there's some flowers with the black bits already taken off and they are fantastic and then finally of course we've got fat balls so what do we do with all of these things well let's have a look so let's start off with peanuts then typical sort of wire mesh holder but what's really important is that the entire thing is made of metal you do get plastic ones and even ones with plastic mesh they won't last two minutes if there's any squirrels around they'll have those apart in seconds the more metal the better really but if squirrels are still a problem then you can get squirrel-proof ones obviously the squirrels can't get through the sort of cagey bit on the outside but the small birds blue tipz great tits finches should be able to squeeze through the bars but they also does stop some other birds from getting at your peanuts but you know you can't have it both ways but these will stop the squirrel attacks okay what else have we got for the Niger seed which is mostly used just for gold finches can you say have a look at this soaked through a close-up you see these tiny little holes these tiny little slots in it they're only just big enough for gold finches to get they're very thin little beaks in and get this tiny seed other birds other finches can't really cope with it because it's just they have no bills are not fine enough so I just see there's an option but be honest I'm not that keen on it I don't see the point in just favoring gold finches and not you know feeding everything else at the same time and to be honest in my garden I've got both Niger seed available and some flower hearts and the gold finches take no notice whatsoever of the Niger seed I think it's a little bit of a waste of time but it's your choice so for the sunflower hearts themselves then you want a decent seed feeder and again one that's preferably made a metal rather than plastic because otherwise the squirrels will be in in no time and wreck it I've had this one for some years quite frankly and it's still in great condition and it's one that comes apart quite easily for cleaning and we'll have a look at cleaning a little bit later on also we've got the suet balls now there's an important thing here they always come with this little net on it you want to get rid of that it doesn't happen very often but there are recorded cases where small birds have got their feet trapped in the netting and they've become completely trapped and can't get away so you want to get rid of that but then put the suet ball in some kind of holder like that otherwise the squirrels will come and just take the entire thing away and that would be it that'll be the end of it I've also had foxes even sort of pinched them and sort of carry them off so if they're in a thing like this the birds can get at them so it is brilliant because it's got so much energy in it it's fantastic winter food but it's probably not necessary to use these suet balls in in the summer don't be tempted to use the fat from your roasting tin to make your owns or fat balls up that kind of fat is is quite different it can get onto the birds feathers and clog them up they can't sort of preen and link and keep them clean and it's just not a good idea so what do we do with the table food well you can make a table out of almost anything at all something like this which is just a piece of marine ply stuck on a bit of log there and that's absolutely fine problem is as soon as it gets windy the whole lot just flows away and also the pigeons tend to come along and gobble up the whole lot in no time at all but that still has its uses alternatively you can have a decent table like this which is a shop purchased one the important thing about this table is there lip here which stops the birdseed sort of all blowing away straight away whenever it gets windy but also there's a gap in the lip there's a bit where there's sort of not really any lip at all and that means that the rain and water can sort of wash away and it's easy to clean the thing you know you can brush brush old food away from it quite easily I've also adapted this one a little bit I put these little twigs in between the sort of uprights and that's just to slow the wood pigeons down a bit they still manage to get in and I don't mind feeding with pigeons but the problem is they'll get in there gobble up the whole lot in five minutes and there's nothing left for anybody else so that helps to just slow them down a little bit don't forget there's one more final thing you can do and that's just sprinkle some food on the ground and that's great for things like blackbirds caffeine cheese thrushes lots of birds that can't use bird feeders and some are a little bit nervous of going into tables like this so food on the ground is also really useful as well now one big problem in the winter is ice forming on the top of your birdbath that's a bit of a disaster that's no good to birds at all and they need just as much water in the winter as they do in summer especially if it's frozen because they can't get water anywhere else the only really effective way to prevent ice forming on your birdbath is to get rid of all of the water in the afternoon just as it's getting towards dusk time you need to tip your whole lot out and leave your birdbath dry overnight then first thing in the morning fill it up again I use hot water out of the hot tap in the kitchen at least that gives it a fighting chance then of staying unfrozen for quite a few hours and that's really the only effective way of preventing ice our next video will look at where and when to feed your garden birds and tackle that all-important subject of preventing disease so be sure to have a look at that too you

Channel: Sussex Wildlife Trust

Views: 250,376

Rating: 4.870769 out of 5

Keywords: Sussex Wildlife Trust, nature, wildlife, Sussex, bird feeder, garden birds, how to feed garden birds, what to feed garden birds, fat balls, wildlife garden, gardening for wildlife

Id: 1jEtmGrnpyA

Length: 8min 50sec (530 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 10 2013