Encouraging Wild Birds

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.