No matter where one lives in South Africa, there are birds that can be attracted to a garden, courtyard or even a balcony.
Providing the natural things birds need, near to where we can watch them is the very best way to ensure that we attract birds to the garden and enjoy these welcome feathered visitors. Birds need a safe and suitable place to rest, to nest and care for their babies and, most importantly in our gardens, to find different kinds of food.
Before we can provide food for the birds, we need to know what they eat.
The best thing we can do for birds in our garden is to provide plants and spaces that make it possible for birds to find their own natural food in the environment.
The four main groups of food that birds choose from (and some eat all three!) are nectar, fruit, seed and grain, and lastly, protein and fats in the form of insects, spiders, lizards, snakes and snails, and even other baby birds and small mammals such as mice and rats.
Sometimes one is lucky enough to see the very shy Burchell’s Coucal sneaking around in the garden, but most of the time you will only hear its beautiful call before it rains – which is where it gets its name from – the Rainbird. They eat insects, reptiles such as lizards, small frogs, baby birds and small mammals.
Not all garden spaces have all of these food types for birds. Sometimes, particularly in very small gardens and on balconies, feeding birds with healthy food that we provide is the only way to ensure that they will receive enough food to make it possible to stay in the area. Without this extra food provided, many bird species would just not survive in the urban jungle.
In many instances, the extra invitation of offering food can be even greater if we provide other things that birds need to be able to live in an area.
Water is the most important. If possible, provide more than one place for birds to drink from, and place some water on ground level for other creatures to make use of too. Birds need shrubs near the water so that they can check for danger without being seen by predators, and quickly move out of sight if they feel that they are in danger.
By placing rocks or stones in the bird bath or water feature, small birds are able to access the water without fear of falling in.
Include places in your garden for birds to nest, or safe places for them to rest, such as trees, and shrubs, as well as nesting material. It will go a long way to making birds feel that your garden is a good and safe place to live.
Keep nesting material to natural items, and don’t use material that is too long or that can get tangled on their legs. Grass, cotton fabric offcuts and short animal hair or other bird feathers are popular nesting material choices. One can shove these in between two pieces of mesh, or in an old onion bag that birds can pull the wanted items out of.
Nesting logs are very popular with Barbets and Woodhoopoes. They are very useful in gardens that do not have trees with dead branches for these birds to hollow out for nesting in.
Garden birds can very quickly become dependent on feeders for all of their food supply.
Imagine that you go on holiday just as birds in the area start breeding, and suddenly the constant supply of food is not there for a week or more. Birds that are not used to looking for food elsewhere will suffer, and their babies could suffer or die too. It is important to not feed birds too regularly if you are not able to provide food all year round.
Feed just enough to make sure that they will also look for food elsewhere to help them survive. If you have a big enough garden, make sure that you plant a variety of plants so that there will always be a supply of some food in your garden.
If you want to know about what to plant in a bird-friendly garden, you can look at our article.
Buying food for your garden birds can be great fun but can become costly too. As varied as bird diets are, there are many different kinds of food that we can provide for them to eat. Bird seed, suet and nectar-feeders will supply food for all kinds of birds in the garden. Here are some great ideas on the different types of food that are available at Random Harvest Nursery’s shop, as well as some handy tips for storing it.
Bird seed will probably be the food that attracts the greatest number of birds to the garden. It comes in different size bags of loose seed that can be scattered on the ground or poured into a dish-type feeder, or in the form of seed bells or shapes that can be hung in a tree or put on a bird feeder that the birds recognise as the place where the food is.
Many different types of seed-eating birds will enjoy this food offering. Weavers, Bishop birds, Canaries, Wydahs, Doves, Waxbills, and Mannikins are the most common visitors to gardens where bird seed is provided.
Store bird seed in an airtight container, in the fridge or freezer if you are going to keep it for long periods of time. This will prevent tiny grain-eating insects from infesting the seed before you have finished using it.
It will also keep it away from greedy birds that will want more food than is put out for them!
Scatter small amounts of seed in different parts of the garden so that birds such as Pin-tailed Wydahs can’t hog the seed and chase all the other birds away from the only source of seed in the garden.
There are many bird species that love fruit. There are also a vast number of indigenous fruit-bearing trees that can be planted to attract these birds, but not all gardens are big enough to have a variety of trees to provide fruit all year round. Providing fruit for birds during the winter months will help them through these lean times, but it is a good idea not to provide too much.
Getting mixed signals that there is plenty of food around could mean that parent birds start to breed before it is warm enough for their chicks to survive while Mom and Dad are out finding food. Feeding fruit does not have to be expensive. Birds will often eat fruit that is over-ripe for our consumption.
Barbets, Bulbuls, Turacos, Green pigeons and of course the little White-eyes are all very enthusiastic fruit eaters. Starlings, Mousebirds and Thrushes also dive in when fruit is on offer.
Fruit eating birds also eat insects, which are an important part of their diet, particularly when they are raising their young.
Another sweet offering that is suitable for any kind or size of garden is a nectar feeder.
Flowers use nectar as a reward for birds and insects that pollinate their flowers.
Don’t draw birds away from their important role as pollinators, but a nectar feeder can be hugely rewarding, especially when there are few flowers around for birds to pollinate.
Sunbirds are the main guests of honour at the nectar feeder, but other visitors are White-eyes, Starlings, Orioles and Bulbuls, as well as the odd Weaver bird and Sparrow too.
This type of food caters for a large variety of birds, as most bird species eat insects.
It is a highly nutritious mix of insects and fats that is very good for birds and keeping them in good health. A lot of effort goes into making them, so they are naturally a little more expensive. If you buy these suet balls in bulk, keep the unused ones in the fridge or freezer, where they will keep for ages.
Birds such as Shrikes (particularly the Bou-Bou Shrike), Robins and Robin-Chats, Starlings, Barbets, Drongos and Woodhoopoes will relish this treat in the garden.
These same birds will also find mealworms a delicious treat and worth visiting the food table for.
Mealworms are extremely high in protein, and birds such as the Grey Hornbill will benefit from eating them, particularly in winter months when nutritious food might be in short supply.
They can be bought pre-freeze-dried and packaged. For those with the space and energy, these tasty treats for birds and reptiles can be “farmed” at home.
We hope you enjoy feeding the birds in your garden and watching the visitors that come for the treats you put out for them. If you have time on your hands, you could try making some fun home-made bird treats, such as these ones.
Spread a pinecone with a thick layer of peanut butter on its “tongues” and then roll it or toss it in bird seed. Hang it for the birds to enjoy. Thread popcorn onto cotton or create corn stacks with one corn threaded onto another. Orange cut into slices makes a beautiful hanging decoration too. The Cape White-eyes in particular will thank you for this!
Sincerely
Linda
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