Encourage wrens to make their home in your gardens by leaving out a specific food that they love
Encourage wrens to make their home in your gardens by leaving out a specific food that they love(Image: Getty Images)
Wrens are gorgeous birds to have around your garden, and with nesting season in full swing, plenty of the fine-feathered friends will be looking for a new home. Nesting season typically runs from March to September, so if you’re looking to help encourage birds – particularly wrens – into your garden to make their home there are a few things you can do.
If you’re not sure where to start, all you need to do is think about the type of food you can lay out for them to feast on. Not only does having wrens present in the garden make for a wonderful wildlife display, they can also target pests without you even realising.
This is because they love to feast on insects. So if you’re looking to attract more of the tiny birds to your garden, the best food you can offer wrens during the spring is mealworms.
Mealworms are a great choice of food for wrens, over seed mixes and fat balls(Image: Getty Images)
Sean McMenemy, founder of Ark Wildlife, told Ideal Home: “If you want a chance to spot one out in the open, try offering mealworms.
“Live is best, but even dried mealworms can provide a useful boost and may tempt them into view, if only for a moment.”
Mealworms are a great source of protein and calories for birds, and can be given to them all-year round. They are particularly good for wrens when it comes to breeding season and in colder weather.
All you need to do is sprinkle mealworms into some feeders or onto the ground. By sprinkling your garden with mealworms during spring, it actually helps parent wrens to feed fledglings, providing vital nutrients for chick growth.
It’s also recommended that gardeners leave out other natural food sources too. According to gardening expert Sarah Raven, planting the likes of panicum, myrtle, amaranth, crab apple trees and sunflowers are the best bird-feeding plants you can add to your garden.
These plants will help attract both predator and prey, including a number of insects that the wrens can feed on. Sean told Ideal Home: “Planting a mix of foliage and flowering plants helps build a natural food source, encouraging insects that wrens depend on.
“Areas of low growth, leaf litter or even a quiet corner near a compost heap can quickly become feeding grounds.”
Really Wild Bird Food explained that as wrens tend to forage close to the ground, adding mealworms to bird feeders or mesh ground feeding trays are the best way to attract them to the garden.
The brand wrote: “If you’re feeding your local wrens mealworms, you can also scatter them in a sheltered area under dense vegetation for added security!”
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