Peanuts should be left in gardens this winter for one particular reason. The recommendation was offered by the gardening website Love the Garden, which provides valuable tips on everything gardening, from how to care for your lawn down to how to get rid of pests and unwanted creatures.
On the website’s Birds and Wildlife page, it shared crucial information about the survival of birds during the colder months, and the importance of helping them specifically during the colder months.
It explained: “Survival can be challenging at any time of year, but in particular during the cold winter months. Small birds especially struggle due to having a large surface area and comparably small volume.
“This means they lose heat to their surroundings very quickly and must eat a lot of food to replace the energy lost. Many of us want to help them out but aren’t sure what to feed birds in winter, which doesn’t need to be the case.”
In a list of food suggestions, the experts noted that peanuts are a good option for feeding birds during the winter.
They wrote: “Peanuts are rich in fat and protein and are popular with tits, greenfinches, house sparrows, nuthatches, woodpeckers and siskins. When crushed or grated they will also attract robins, dunnocks and occasionally wrens.”
It is important to ensure that the peanuts left out for birds are fresh and sold for human consumption, or purchased “from a reputable feed shop, as some can contain high levels of a natural toxin that can be lethal to birds”.
Salted or dry-roasted peanuts should never be left out for birds, as they can also be harmful to them.
Birds should also have a fresh supply of water that they can drink from and clean in. You don’t need a birdbath to ensure water is provided; you can also use a shallow dish filled with water and raised off the ground.
A tip to prevent the water from freezing in cold conditions is to place a small plastic ball on the surface. The movement in the wind will stop the water from freezing over.
Ensure you are cleaning feeders weekly and water containers daily to prevent transmissions of diseases and keep birds safe.
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