How to attract birds to your garden

Create a haven for birds in your garden, or even on your windowsill with our top tips on gardening for birds.

What to plant?

Choosing plants with lots of seeds is a great way to provide food for birds, bringing them back to your garden time and time again. Think sunflowers, goldenrod, pearl millet and cosmos.

Berries are the other key thing to look for when using plants to attract birds to your garden.

Birds will eat come to your garden to eat berries from plants like:

  • Rowan
  • Hawthorn
  • Guelder rose
  • Holly
  • Honeysuckle
Hawthorn berries

Hawthorn berries keep birds fed in the colder months. CC BY-SA 2.0 Sarah Smith

Ivy not only has berries but also provides foliage for keeping away from predators and building nests in. Ivy berries also stick around late in the year, when other food is scarce.

The plants in your garden don’t just help birds by providing food for them, but by keeping their prey thriving too.

Wildflowers are not only beautiful, they’re also great food for insects like caterpillars and hoverflies that birds love to eat.

Wildflowers in the Horniman Gardens with the Bandstand in the background

Wildflowers at the Horniman Gardens

Why help birds?

Bird numbers have declined hugely – in the past 60 years we have lost 38 million birds in the UK.

There are multiple reasons for this. Rising use of pesticides and fertilisers have reduced insect numbers – an estimated 40% decline in insects worldwide in fact. This drastically reduces the food available for birds.

UK Farmland birds, whose numbers are declining most of all, also face habitat loss.

In the face of this it’s vital that we help birds where we can.

Birds play a vital role in the British wildlife ecosystem. They eat pests and help get rid of weeds. They also help with pollination – pollen sticks to their bodies and as they fly around it moves from flower to flower.

Other ways to help birds

Join the thousands of people each year who do the Big Garden Bird Watch each year. Report the birds you see in a location to the RSPB and help monitor bird numbers in the UK.

When the weather gets warmer leave your garden a bit untidy – revel in the nature of it all rather than clipping everything away. This allows insects to flourish, providing more food for birds.

Similarly leave your grass long. If you can’t bear to leave it all long, create meadow patches in your garden. Even a strip of longer grass will make a huge difference.

Water or bird baths will also attract birds to your garden, especially in the summer months. If you can, use water from a water butt rather than from the mains.

Bird boxes also provide a vital nesting location for birds. Make sure your box is placed in a location where no predators could get to it.

Long grass and mowed paths in the South Downs Meadow

Patches of longer grass at the Horniman

No garden? No problem?

If you don’t have a garden there are still ways you can encourage birds to your local area. Window boxes can still provide much needed food for birds and contribute to a green corridor in an urban area.

If you have a balcony, you can still hang some bird feeders around to give our winged friends a helping hand in the winter months.

Another key way to help birds is to make small tweaks to your windows so that birds don’t fly into them. Check for any confusing reflections on your windows, or even add anti-collision window stickers.

Four birds in a bird bath

A bird bath in your garden helps keep birds hydrated CC BY-SA 2.0 Snowmanradio