Our advice for feeding your garden birds.
How and when to feed them?
By definition, garden birds are wild birds which need to find their own foodto meet their needs. These little birds can swallow up to half of their body weight per day.
But you have perhaps wondered if you should give them food. This may be advised in certain periods. Particularly in winter, when their energy requirements are higher.Species which do not migrate are faced with lowering temperatures and therefore they use more energy.
Added to this is the fact that, for many years, hedges have been becoming scarcer and this is where garden birds find their food. This is therefore leading to a reduction in their food source. Some regions of France are trying to counter this with policies to regrow hedges. Until we can reap the effects of these policies, we can make up for this shortage by providing food.
Put the food on feeders and make sure that it does not get too soft or too dry. The most important thing is to provide a supplementary food supply, without the birds becoming entirely reliant upon it.The risk in this case would be that these birds would stop looking for their own food. If you were to go on holiday and nobody was around to feed them, they would be confused and would not know how to feed themselves.
The vet's advice
“The majority of garden birds are seed-eaters, some areinsectivores. However, birds adjust very easily and eat what they can find, even if this does not correspond to their usual diet.Therefore, if you give them seeds when they prefer insects, they will eat them anyway, as long as it nourishes them. Garden birds also like food rich in oil,which is very nutritive. You can, for example, give them sunflower fat balls,which they particularly like. Just make sure that the fat does not become rancid as this can cause poisoning.
Don’t forget to install a little bowl of waterbecause it is difficult for garden birds to get any, especially in towns. They can also bathe in this bowl, which amuses them. Ensure that this bowl is sufficiently high off the ground to be protected from cats, which are the main threat for garden birds.”