Many garden birds eat pests. For example, blue tits eat caterpillars and aphids; starlings prey on grubs; sparrows, great tits and wrens consume insects; while song thrushes eat snails and slugs. They are attracted to gardens on the edges of woodlands and where there is water. If you have a cat, put a bell around its neck so the birds can hear it coming.
The best way to attract birds into the garden is to supply water, feed them in winter and put up nestboxes. You can also encourage them by growing plants with berries and seedheads.
Plants that bear berries include berberis, cotoneaster, elderberry, honeysuckle, ivy, pyracantha, Skimmia japonica, callicarpa, pernettya and viburnum. Seed eaters, including greenfinches and goldfinches, will be attracted by seed-bearing plants such as ornamental grasses and sunflowers, while insect-eating birds, such as sparrows and great tits, will come to your garden if you grow nectar producing plants that attract pollinating insects. Plant alyssum, buddleja, honesty, lavender, nicotiana, sedum, sweet rocket and thyme.
Feed birds in winter with a commercial wild-bird food or put out scraps of breakfast cereals, flaked oats, dried fruit, bacon rind, cheese, stale cake or cooked potato. But do not put out salty food, dry bread, uncooked rice or desiccated coconut.
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Your garden can benefit from the presence of certain birds, like the blue tit, which will eat caterpillars and aphids.
