An easy activity to get kids excited about nature, whilst giving you a little wildlife joy from your window.
You can witness unforgettable wildlife moments – all from the comfort of your own window! By providing food in your garden or green space, you’ll get the chance to admire fanciful feathers up close and watch epic dramas unfold between species. It’s a great way to get kids excited about nature, and we’re sure you’ll enjoy it too. Stuck on where to start?
Take a look at the RSPB online shop, where we sell lots of good quality bird products.
First up, there are some foods you should never put out.
All salted foods, as they dehydrate birds.
Cooked food, as this can attract unwanted visitors, such as rats.
Loose peanuts. Keep peanuts in a suitable feeder so small chunks can be nibbled.
Dry, hard foods or bread during the spring or summer months. Parent birds might take these back to their nests and their young can choke on it.
Poor quality peanuts can carry the aflatoxin fungus, which kills birds if they eat it. Make sure you buy peanuts that are guaranteed aflatoxin-free from a reputable supplier.
Here are some food you should put out.
Seeds mixes
Sunflower seeds or hearts
Nyger seeds
Peanuts
Live or dried insect foods, like mealworms
Lard and beef suet
Bruised fruit such as apples and pears
Between beginning of May and end of October, pause filling your bird feeders with seeds and peanuts. There’s an increased risk of the disease spreading in the summer and autumn months. But that’s also when natural food for birds – like bugs and berries – is easier to find.
During these months, it’s okay to offer small amounts of mealworms or suet instead, which can also be fed year-round. Soak mealworms in water before offering to make it easier for chicks to eat them and also to increase their water content. In hot weather suet may go soft or spoil, particularly homemade fat balls/cakes, and we advise avoiding them.
During the warmer months, it’s important to purchase suet products that that state they are resistant to melting in hot weather. The RSPB Super Suet products are resistant to melting in heat.
There’s a lot more food available naturally in summer, autumn and even early winter, as flowers set seed and berries ripen. Come winter, when berries and insects are scarce, your feeders should see lots of feathered visitors.
By investing in quality feeders, you can keep food dry to stop it going off and help reducing the risk of spreading disease.
A hanging plastic feeder containing sunflower hearts. Great for finches, tits and sparrows.
A hanging mesh feeder with peanuts. Great for tits and Nuthatches.
A hanging mesh feeder with fat balls. Great for tits, sparrows and Starlings.
A hanging mealworm feeder or scatter a small amount on the ground. Great for Blackbirds and Robins.
Peanuts and fat balls are regularly sold in nylon mesh bags. Never put out any food in mesh bags. These may trap birds’ feet and even cause broken feet and legs. Birds with a barbed tongue, like woodpeckers, can become trapped by their beaks.
Place the feeders high enough so they are out of reach of ground predators like cats. They should be a couple of metres away from thick cover like bushes, so that small birds can beat a hasty retreat from aerial predators such as Sparrowhawks.
Avoid putting them below places birds roost or perch on, such as under trees, to prevent droppings getting on the food.
If you don’t get any visitors, just try a different location. It's a good idea to move the feeders to different locations regularly, ideally weekly, so that you don’t get a build-up of debris or droppings underneath.
Keep food in cool, clean rodent-proof storage bins.
Clear up under your feeders regularly to avoid a build-up, which also helps keep the rodents away.
Make sure to adjust the amount of food based on demand to avoid overfeeding. Food in feeders should be eaten within a day or two; don't let uneaten food sit out there for too long. When refilling feeders, make sure to empty out the old food.
Avoid flat-surfaced feeders. Research has confirmed that there’s a higher risk of the disease spreading on flat surfaces, where contaminated food can collect for other birds to eat. This means bidding a fond farewell to feeders that have any flat surfaces – including bird tables.
Unhygienic feeding stations can quickly transmit diseases between birds. Wash them down with a mild disinfectant and hot water every week, rinsing fully and drying before filling with food.
Rats, mice and squirrels can wolf down what was meant for smaller birds. The best solutions are:
Feeders with 'guardian' cages around the outside - small birds can slip through the gaps but larger creatures can’t
Weight-activated feeders which close off the feeding ports when something heavy like a pigeon or squirrel sits on them
Pole guards/baffles can be attached to feeding station poles to prevent animals from climbing up
Specialised deterrents for squirrels. These can be especially effective.
