Even amid the dead of winter, it’s always a cheery sight to see birds visit the garden. Much of nature will be hibernating, but robins, wrens, sparrows and blackbirds are a few British garden birds flying about during the colder months.
Our gardens can serve as a refuge for birds in need of food and shelter. The nice part is that households can help without necessarily having to buy or plant anything new either – experts say the common ivy plant is immensely helpful to robins and other feathered creatures. According to the Woodland Trust, “Ivy and honeysuckle are also popular with birds – they provide dense cover, fruits and attract insects for birds to feast on.”
“It may not be fashionable to grow ivy on walls and fences, but it’s an absolutely excellent plant for providing nest sites for colonies of house sparrows as well as robins and wrens,” notes the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
Canal & River Trust hail holly and ivy as a “winter haven” for birds. The charity says ivy berries are a good winter food source, noting: “It’s estimated that these berries have the same number of calories as a chocolate bar, gram for gram. Darkly coloured and rich in fat, they grow in abundance along our canals and rivers.”
Although ivy blooms in November, they explain birds will eat shorter-lived fruit like holly berries first and eat the more robust ivy berries from December onward.
Another garden job to can cross off the list is being meticulous with lawn mowing. For example, the RHS says dandelion seedheads are food for goldfinches, whilst short grass allows blackbires, thrushes and starlings to find worms and other invertebrates to eat.
In general, a bird-friendly garden includes a mix of plants, trees and shrubs are those that provide food or shelter.
Shrubs that grow berries, like hawthorn and elder trees, are a valuable resource to birds. By May, the latter will bloom big heads of creamy coloured and highly fragrant elderflowers beloved to humans as well as wildlife.
Crab apple trees and rowans may attract waxwings whilst bullfinches are “particularly keen” on guelder rose berries, says the RHS.
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