Mary Allen
With food and water, you can help wild birds get through the winter unscathed. A conservationist explains why you should start doing it in late autumn.
If you want to do something good for wild birds, you should start feeding them as early as November, advises Bernd Petri, a biologist at the “Nabu” nature conservation association in Wetzlar. Because this is how the birds discovered the sources of food in good time before winter.
Sparrows, titmouse, finch, and, more and more often, the goldfinch like to populate the birdhouses and feed columns in the gardens. According to the expert, they fly from the barren fields, where little is left for them anyway due to modern agriculture, to the gardens. They would have learned that there is generous feeding there.
Feeding Birds: This Is What You Should Pay Attention to
And ideally, there is also water there for the birds, given in a birdbath or a flower pot stand. “If you put a stone in it, the water doesn’t freeze so quickly,” says the expert.
He also advises sweeping the classic birdhouses regularly so that mold does not develop and pathogens cannot settle in the long term. However, you should leave nest boxes alone in winter, as they are often used as shelter by birds and other animals.
And which food is the right one? You can usually feed food mixes from the trade without worrying, but they should not contain ambrosia seeds. The plant can cause severe allergies in humans. You should also take off the nets on the tit balls so that the birds don’t get tangled up with their claws.