Kitchen scraps can help garden birds survive the winter monthsAlex Evans Deputy Audience Editor and Sam Dimmer East Midlands Head of Brand
06:00, 13 Dec 2025
Grapes are one of the key kitchen scraps you can put on a bird table(Image: Alex Evans)
Households with bird tables are being advised to share kitchen leftovers, including grapes, this December for a crucial reason.
With fridges and cupboards often overflowing with food, particularly as Christmas approaches, gardeners are now being urged to make use of any remaining grapes by placing them on bird feeders.
Indeed, fruit that remains edible but unwanted makes ideal food for bird tables. Slightly damaged apples and pears, overripe bananas and past-their-best grapes can all be placed on bird tables before spoiling, providing vital nourishment for birds during winter when natural food sources become scarce and temperatures drop.
According to gardening website Bird Spot: “A bird table is the perfect way to feed your garden birds leftovers. All sorts of food from your kitchen can be put out on a bird table, and this is a great way of feeding birds without having to buy bird seed. Leaving out your leftovers also helps with reducing household waste.
“Birds will happily tuck into bread, cake, and biscuit crumbs, mild cheese, bacon rind, cooked potatoes, vegetables, pasta, and rice.
“You can also serve up fruit such as apples, pears, bananas, grapes, and plums, even if they’re bruised or starting to go soft.
“Chop them up into small pieces and scatter some under your bird table, as ground-feeding birds in particular enjoy eating fruit.”
This approach will draw a diverse range of birds to your feeders, such as robins, sparrows, doves and dunnocks, reports the Express.
They explained: “Many species of garden birds will use a bird table, including collared doves, robins, sparrows, and dunnocks. Even though they prefer hanging feeders, blue tits, great tits, and coal tits will also use bird tables, particularly if you offer them peanuts.
“Sunflower seeds attract goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, and bullfinches, while fruit will be favoured by blackbirds and thrushes.
“Start off by placing kitchen scraps on your bird table, so if it takes a little time for the birds to find it, you won’t waste money by throwing away uneaten food.
“Then, when you start to have plenty of visitors turning up, you can experiment to find out which food different species prefer.”
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