At Really Wild Bird Food, we’re no strangers to feeding birds. In fact, we’ve been providing Britain’s birds with nutritious and tasty meals since the nineties! On Street End Farm, just outside of Hampshire, we grow all sorts of healthy food for a variety of different garden birds.
Whether you’re looking to help out your local bird population or just enjoy a spot of bird watching, here are some of the key benefits you can reap by putting a bird feeder in your garden.
What are the benefits of feeding birds?
- Helping your local birds
- Protecting your garden from bugs and weeds
- Pollinating your flowers
- Watching the birds
- Keeping UK bird species off the endangered list
1. Helping your local birds
Your local birds may struggle to find sources of nourishment, especially if you live in a built-up area. Providing high-calorie foods for your local birds can be a literal lifesaver (especially during the winter months, when natural food sources are at their most scarce).
2. Protecting your garden from bugs and weeds
Birds are great for your garden! For one thing, they will sometimes eat seeds that would otherwise have grown into weeds. Draw birds to your garden with a feeder, and they might pick up a few extra snacks along the way. This prevents the weeds from growing and ruining your lovely flower beds. You might also attract birds that eat slugs, such as starlings, robins and blackbirds. This can be handy if those slimy so-and-sos have been treating your garden like an open buffet.
While birds may naturally flit through your garden on occasion, the best way to get them to eat your bugs and weeds is to properly invite them to your garden with a good meal.
3. Pollinating your flowers
For the most part, we associate pollination with bees. While protecting bees is still very important because they are great pollinators, there are also some birds who can pollinate flowers too. This is great, because pollination is super important for the flowers in your garden. It’s also crucial for food production!
Birds pollinate flowers when they are trying to eat nectar. While the most well-known avian pollinator is probably the American hummingbird, there are UK birds that occasionally enjoy nectar too, like blue tits. You may see goldfinches burying their long beaks inside teasel flowers to get at seeds! When birds stick their beaks into a flower, pollen will get stuck along the beak. This can then be transferred to other flowers, pollinating them.
SEE ALSO: Planting Wildflowers in Your Garden
4. Watching the birds
There are good reasons why bird-watching is such a popular hobby: it’s relaxing, it’s entertaining, and it can help you feel closer to nature. Birdwatching can even help you to improve your mental wellbeing! Once you’ve set up a feeding station in your back garden, you can simply sit and enjoy the sight of the birds – or you can hone your ornithology skills by keeping a list of the different kinds of birds you see! People with restricted mobility can enjoy this accessible hobby from the comfort of their own home or garden.
This is one of the major benefits of feeding the birds. If you’ve never experienced the thrill of running to the window to spot an unusual bird in your garden, then you really should give it a try.
5. Keeping UK bird species off the endangered list
While you might not see any immediate benefit from this on a personal level, this is possibly the most important point on this list. In the long run, preserving diversity in bird species is incredibly important for the ecosystem.
Birds help keep the population of small creatures they eat (like mice) from becoming a problem. Birds are also prey for a lot of wildlife. The loss of even one species of bird can have a significant impact on our entire ecosystem. By feeding your local birds – and putting up nest boxes to give them a safe place to rest – you can contribute to the preservation of bird populations.
SEE ALSO: Endangered UK Birds & How You Can Help Them
How to start feeding the birds
Interested in the above benefits of feeding birds? It’s really easy to turn these ideas into a reality. You can start feeding birds healthy and nutritious food with very little effort.
Firstly, pick out a bird feeder that suits your garden. We offer a great range for you to choose from, including both hanging feeders and bird tables. You might also consider putting up nesting boxes, which can offer your birds a place to shelter. It's also important to put out some clean water for birds to drink and clean with!
Once you’re ready to start shopping, simply click the button below to discover our huge range of bird seeds.
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