How to attract birds to your Garden

It takes very little money to attract birds to your garden, and you’ll be rewarded with hours of enjoyment. No matter where you live in our country, you can enjoy an abundance of wildlife right outside your window by investing in wooden bird feeders. They come in many different shapes and sizes, depending on what best suits your needs.

The natural (indigenous trees and bushes) versus artificial foods (foods you provide on a feeder) debate has been raging for years. Although the responsible use of “artificial” foods will not harm birds, the provision of more natural foods is the preferred way of feeding the birds in your garden.

Bird seed mixtures have been specially developed to meet the dietary requirements of wild and garden birds. The seed is mixed with a variety of balanced feeds to attract various bird types. So why not start spring with a blast of beauty by attracting beautiful birds to your garden.

Ask a horticulturist at any of our Garden Centres for advice when selecting indigenous plants to attract birds to your garden. Our nurseries have special sections dedicated to indigenous plants and information indicating what sort of birds are attracted to the plant in question.

Despite indigenous plants being the preferred choice for feeding garden birds, providing them with apples and bananas on a bird feeder is a fun part of gardening. You can keep your bird feeder very simple or you can decide to build or buy a feeder with lots of gadgets that may fit into the theme of your garden. Stodels has a wide selection of bird feeders available and we stock the very popular Nature’s Feeds range too.

Special feeders that provide “nectar” for sunbirds, in the form of sugar water, are also available. It is preferable to try to incorporate plants that have nectar-carrying flowers. However, it is interesting to see how the sunbirds feed on sugar water and other bird species may also rely on this food source.

The placement of your feeder is very important. Place the feeder within easy reach of the birds and where they will feel secure. If you have cats or dogs, try to place the feeder in an area where they cannot attack or chase the birds away. Also make sure that, if they do have to flee, there is a hiding place, like a tree, in the vicinity.