Category Archives: Birds

Feeding Our Feathered Friends

Feeding Our Feathered Friends

Feeding the birds – bird-feeders can be an important source of food for our local bird species during the winter.

Feeding the birds

Many native and introduced bird species can be attracted to feeding stations in gardens around New Zealand. In order to provide the right food for them however, it is important to know what sort of food they naturally eat. Nectar, seeds, insects or a combination of foods.

The nectar-eaters

Tui, bellbirds and wax eyes all have a ‘sweet-tooth’ – figuratively speaking, that is! They love sipping the nectar from our native flowering plants. Over the winter we can supplement these natural sources by providing a nectar substitute such as sugar-water, or the syrup from canned fruit. These birds also love fresh fruit, and can be attracted easily to apples, oranges and even bananas! that have been hung or around the home and garden  using an apple / fruit / suet feeder (you can skewer these whole or in pieces on your feeder just make sure you cut some nicks in the skin of the fruit so they are able to get at the flesh) that can be purchased at Creative Woodcraft’s online store.

To make nectar water, mix half a cup of sugar with 500ml of hot water. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved and then put in the fridge to cool. If desired, add two drops of red food colouring, as this will help to attract the Tui (they love red!). Pour some of this mixture into a hanging feeder and place in a tree or on a post.

The seed-eaters

Greenfinches can be attracted to your garden by providing bird seed for them in a hanging feeder. You can buy special wild bird mixes from the supermarket (in the pet food aisle), although budgie seed is just as good – they’re not too fussy!

The insect-eaters

Insect-eating birds like fantails are a little more difficult to attract directly to bird-feeding stations. They can be drawn indirectly, however, to the small fruit flies that gather around pieces of apple or other fruit, hanging in apple / fruit / suet feeders, obtained from Creative Woodcraft’s online store.

The ‘omnivores’

Sparrows are principally seed-eaters, but over time they have developed a more

Omnivorous diet and will eat a wide variety of seeds, fruit, food scraps and insects. Similarly, while wax eyes are mostly nectar-feeders, they are also partial to certain fruit and food scraps, as are greenfinches. A great way to keep all these birds happy and healthy during the winter is to make a ‘bird pudding’. Bird puddings combine a lot of different ingredients that will provide valuable calories to help sustain our feathered friends over the colder months.

Visit our website to view our great range of bird feeders and other garden accessories. All our items are individually handcrafted with love and care right here in New Zealand.

Feeding & Bird Feeders - Creative Woodcraft NZ

 

Birds – Encouraging Birds Into Your Garden

Encouraging Wild Birds

Bird Feeder - Creative Woodcraft NZ

 

Want to encourage more wild birds into your garden? Not sure what bird feeder, bird table or bird house to use? Well this article should help answer these common questions.

Feeding the birds is vital for encouraging wildlife into our gardens. A common myth is that you should only feed wild bird at certain times, but actually it’s ok to feed our feathery garden friends all year round (especially in winter). Just as we need to put the thermals on ourselves during the winter, birds also need a thermal layer (of fat) to keep warm on those winter days. This is also the time when natural food is in short supply, especially nowadays when suburbs are growing, people seem to have tidier gardens and changes to farming methods.

There are many bird feeders to choose from at Creative Wood Craft. Choosing one that is suitable for your garden is very much down to personal choice and common sense.
A good bird table should last 10 years or so, look for bird tables that are made from good solid timber that has been constructed using exterior grade fixings and adhesives that will endure the variations in New Zealand weather. Some of the thinner plastic bird tables often go brittle and crack! Instead go for a bit of long lasting quality. Check that the table has good drainage holes otherwise the food will become soggy.

Make sure you place or hang your bird table in an open site away from easy access by predators, especially cats. If you are going to mount your bird table on a pole, use a straight smooth pole as they are much harder for cats to climb.

At Creative Wood Craft we offer a range of hanging bird feeders, the window mounted bird feeders prove very popular and attract a great deal of smaller birds, and it does mean you can watch them at very close quarters.

Some birds prefer feeding on the ground, so with some of my bird feeders I always put a few bits of food in a tray on the lawn. This will attract blackbirds, thrushes, magpies and sometimes the good old pigeon! (On many occasions I have seen one or two fat pigeons trying to balance on a hanging feeder) Always a comical sight!!

My general advice is to put a variety of feeding stations out with a variety of foods.

All our bird tables, bird houses and bird feeders at Creative Wood Craft are handmade in New Zealand with all these points in mind.