Blue tits and Co.
The best tips for feeding domestic birds in winter
Native bird species such as the greenfinch need help looking for food in winter. (Symbol image)
© Gints Ivuskans / shutterstock.com
In the cold winter months, native songbirds need help in finding food. This is how bird lovers can help.
It is difficult for birds to find food during the cold season. This is why it is helpful to provide them with food in the garden during frost and snow – typically from November to the end of February. Not only the birds are happy about this, but also bird lovers who feed properly will get their money's worth and can watch the greenfinch, blue tit and Co. at the winter bird feeder. According to ornithologist Prof. Dr. Peter Berthold ("Feeding birds, but correctly"), additional feeding has become a necessary survival aid for many bird species. There is one thing to watch out for.
Find and place the right feeding place
A bird feeder looks cute, but it can have disadvantages in terms of hygiene. The Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) therefore recommends feed dispensers such as pillars or other silo systems in which the animals cannot run around and so dirty themselves and the feeding place with excrement. The feed silos are easy to use and only need thorough cleaning before and after the winter season. If you still want to use a bird feeder, you should clean it thoroughly with gloves and hot water on a regular basis – chemicals are taboo.
And where do you put the feed dispenser? The best thing to do is to choose a clearly laid out spot that the sneaking cats cannot reach. If possible, trees a few meters away should offer the birds protection from attacks by larger bird animals such as the sparrowhawk. Because large window panes often become a deadly trap for birds, they should be covered with stickers or patterns.
Which feed is suitable?
Domestic wild birds can be roughly divided into grain-eater, soft-food-eater and omnivore. Grain eaters such as finches, sparrows and tits have powerful bills and feed on all kinds of seeds, the shells of which they break open with their mouthparts. Sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, poppy seeds, linseed and rapeseed, buckwheat and oatmeal are suitable for them. Special feed mixtures for different bird needs can often be found in stores.
Soft-feeders include blackbirds, thrushes, starlings, wrens, robins, woodpeckers and all other bird species whose beak is rather pointed and delicate. They prefer dried berries, raisins, oat flakes, ground, unsalted nuts and fresh apples or pears as winter food. Grain eaters and soft food eaters have one thing in common: their preference for so-called fatty food, for example in the form of tit rings or dumplings.
The recommendations are expressly only valid for the winter months, because in the boy feeding time from April to July winter bird food can be a deadly danger for young birds. They can choke on nuts and kernels that are too large, and they cannot yet digest high-fat food. Small seeds or insect food are best then.
Be careful when choosing bird food
NABU recommends buying organically grown birdseed if possible. Although it is no better than anything else for the birds in your own garden, it does offer the birds in the growing area a better habitat. The NABU experts warn against cheap bird food: This is often stretched with large proportions of wheat grains, which are less popular with birds and often land on the ground – and that could attract rats.