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Attract birds to your garden by feeding responsibly | Beneficial Animals | Gardening Australia



To feed or not to feed? That is the question. Urban ecologist Darryl Jones says feed! But do it the right way.

Ultimately, feeding birds is something we do for our own enjoyment but if you follow the three important points – hygiene, quality and quantity – then you won’t do any harm.

Hygiene

“Really, one of the most important things is keeping the feeder clean” says Darryl. Every day the feeder needs to be swept clean with a brush, to remove any droppings or any food that hasn’t been consumed. The feeder then needs to be sterilised; you can do this by wiping it down with vinegar on a cloth and allowing it to dry in the sun.

This needs to be done before feeding every time, to prevent the feeder spreading disease among local birds.

Darryl has two types of feeders, one solid enough for large birds and one designed to keep out larger birds. Plastic is easier to keep clean than terracotta or metal.

For a really thorough clean:

Scrub all feeder parts with a firm brush and hot soapy water
Bleach by immersing the feeder in a mixture of 1 part household bleach 9 parts water
Dry in the sun

Quality

The quality of the food you’re putting out is the next thing to think about.

DO use:

“Appropriately mixed” bird seed with a variety of different sizes
Small, cut-up fruit, such as grapes, strawberries, blueberries, apple, even frozen peas.
Dry dog food or even garden worms for magpies and predatory birds

DON’T use:

Cheap seed “that won’t be eaten than anything other than pigeons”.
Mince
Bread
Black sunflower seed.

Quantity

Darryl puts food out about a cupful of food at random, at different times of day to avoid feeding birds developing a routine.

“It’s just like a cup of tea and a biscuit with a visitor – just a top up on what they might eat in a day, a treat.”

He adds that modern cultivars of native plants that flower for many months can attract more aggressive birds; it’s better to grow plants that attract insects (even pesky insects that eat your plants!), which form the bulk of many birds’ diets, and to include grasses in your garden for seed-eating birds.

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21 Comments

  1. Jason Walker

    Normally these video seem pretty good. But the bird in the thumbnail (Rainbow Lorikeet) is the last bird I'd want in my garden…

  2. J M R

    Since last Summer's bushfires, we've been getting Rainbow Lorikeets among others in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. They're quite fond of an apple or a handful of raw unsalted peanuts too.

  11. Niamh

    should you scare away pest birds like mynas and pigeons so natives get priority?

  16. David Gorman

    Great explanation and very informative Darryl. How do i attract the Rozellas/Lorikeets etc BUT keep the Cockatoos away ?

  17. Amy Winehouse.

    Try putting a cupful a day where I am in the UK – 2mins later Pigeons, Doves,Starlings and Magpies hoover it up.I've tried all sorts to attract smaller birds I have quite a few different hangers a very large and a small table and give a great variety of seed and mealworms plus leftover food they never run dry and 2 lots of fresh water. The pigeons etc… scoff all the surface food and starlings the surface and the feeder foods it's been the same for years. I had 3 nesting box's for years which I saw the odd small bird fly to but they've never nested in them. I even bought a big plastic cage and cut holes just big enough for small birds to get the seed inside hoping to deter the bigger birds.I left in hanging on a tree for months with plenty of seed inside they could easily see but not one was eaten total waste of time.

  18. Jenny

    This advise is the ''worst' advice . People feeding birds is taking away their independence , to feed themselves, by nature they don't need YOU!!!. you are training them to depend on you, not on themselves they need to be in the wild, not in a person's backyard, there is nothing ''cute'' about your advice. Also birds will hang around your neighborhood , and dropping their pooh, and noise and the worst attracting other birds in the neighborhood , which is dangerous, harmful to health, and noise, etc. dropping your food into someone's else yard , attracting ants, rats, more birds, etc.

  19. Stikibits

    This is such an irresponsible and harmful clip from ABC.

    Feeding wild birds is only ever harmful no matter how much you claim otherwise.

    It's a completely selfish and harmful practice to feed wild birds.

    Leave the wildlife alone to be wild. They're not your pets and you're messing up the birds, the environment and biodiversity.

    The ABC should be telling people to stop meddling with wildlife, not encourage the exact opposite.

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