Gardeners have been urged to scatter peanuts on their bird tables this month in a bid to help cold and starving birds in the Christmas season.
A lot of common British birds, including the perennial festive favourite the robin, don’t fly south for winter and in fact remain in the UK where they’re forced to fight for increasingly scarce food supplies in ever colder conditions.
But according to experts at Ark Wildlife, you don’t need posh bird foods or expensive specialist ornithology supplies from garden centres in order to keep the robins, wrens and other December garden visitors from going hungry.
In fact, you can simply use peanuts to feed the birds in your garden. Ark Wildlife says: “A wide variety of birds will eat peanuts if they are left out. Common garden birds that will eat peanuts include wrens, great tits, blue tits, woodpeckers, jays, doves and crows.
“If you leave peanuts out for the birds in your garden, make sure you place them well out of reach for other creatures as squirrels will also eat them.
“You can also use peanut bird feeders which allow birds to peck at the peanuts whilst avoiding the risk of choking.”
According to the experts, it’s generally better to avoid peanuts in shells unless you want to aim them at larger birds like jackdaws and jays.
It adds: “Not all birds can deal with peanuts in shells, but larger varieties – such as jays, jackdaws, crows and magpies – will quite enjoy the challenge. For smaller birds – such as robins, sparrows and wrens – it can be safer to provide shelled peanuts, allowing them to get the goods quickly, before predators can pounce.
“If you do leave peanuts in their shells, there are ways you can make the experience more enriching for birds. String some together and hang them around the garden, or push them into holes in a tree or log.
“Peanuts are an excellent food source for birds and you shouldn’t hesitate to leave them in your garden. They are easy to source and refill – just make sure they are unsweetened and unsalted. Peanuts are high in fat which means that they provide a lot of energy and calories, which is especially important during the cold months. Birds can store them away for winter if they need to.”
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