How to attract birds to your garden: 3 must-have features

Create an oasis for birds in your own garden by offering them three key features: food, water and shelter. Lots of options are available, but whether you have a compact courtyard garden, a larger lawn or anything in between, you can attract birds in a safe, healthy way. We've got all bases covered with ideas for buying, making or installing natural alternatives to please your feathered friends.

1. Feed the birds

Putting out food is a surefire way to encourage birds to your garden, but it’s important to do it seasonally and safely to reduce the risk of spreading disease. That means only offering some foods at certain times of year, using appropriate feeders and keeping them clean. Choose from a wealth of different foods to suit the birds you hope to encourage and the type of feeder you have.

Birds may take a while to find your feeder, but they’re likely to keep returning once they do. Make sure it’s somewhere safe, where they can spot any immediate signs of danger.

Suitable for year-round feeding

• Suet balls and blocks give birds a helping hand, especially during the colder months when they need extra calories to keep going. These are a favourite with robins, blue tits and long-tailed tits.
• Mealworms, whether dried or live, are a hit with blackbirds, starlings and robins in particular. As insect eaters, these birds are superstar pest controllers.

Only feed from November to April

This is when birds need extra help and disease risk is lower.

• Sunflower hearts are rich in protein and easy for birds to eat. They’re a popular choice with siskins, house sparrows and robins.
• Niger seeds are so tiny you’ll need a specialist feeder, but it’s worth it to see the colourful siskins, greenfinches and goldfinches that will come to enjoy it.
• Peanuts are full of protein and fat, likely to attract a range of tits and finches.

Natural alternative

Create a bountiful buffet for common garden birds with a mix of carefully selected trees, shrubs and plants in your garden. Berry-rich species like rowan, hawthorn, guelder rose or holly are great natural food sources, as well as ivy and honeysuckle. Plants with an abundance of seeds, like teasels or sunflowers, are a great choice too, or grow wildflowers that attract the insects birds love to feed on. 

2. Provide fresh water

Water is vital for birds’ survival. As well as drinking it, bathing helps birds cool down as they don't have sweat glands to release heat like other animals. Providing a fresh, clean water source is a great way to entice them to your garden. 

A simple container that’s wide and shallow – no deeper than two inches – will serve well as a bird bath. You can also buy a hanging, standing or wall-mounted ornamental bird bath for your garden, like our cast iron bird baths from £12.99. 

Only use tap water to fill it and change the water every day, giving the container a good clean at least once a week.

Natural alternative

A pond is one of the best ways to provide water for wildlife. It doesn’t need to be huge or complex - a half barrel, large plant pot or even a washing up bowl will work. Whether it’s sunk into the ground or standing on a surface, add plants on one edge to create shade, then fill with rainwater. Choose an aquatic plant or two for inside the pond too, making sure they're not invasive species in the UK - native species are best if you can. Your watering hole is bound to be popular with more than just birds, so add a sturdy bit of wood or stones to help any other visitors get in and out safely.

3. Create a home

Another way to bring birds to your garden is with safe, secure places to nest. Choose bird boxes according to the species you’d like to attract and put them in quiet, sheltered spots, clear of possible predators.

Open-fronted nest boxes

Ideal for robins or wrens, open-fronted boxes should be placed low to the ground, hidden by shrubs and other plants.

Traditional nest boxes with a small entry hole

These are suitable for a variety of common garden birds and should be placed 2-4 metres up a tree or wall.

Sparrow terraces

Designed for sparrows who breed in colonies, these nest boxes or ‘sparrow terraces’ are essentially three nest boxes in one. They should be placed high up, under the eaves of the roof. Check out our ready-made sparrow terrace for £26.99.

Natural alternative

Plant trees to give birds a place to roost, as well as materials to build their nest, perching spots and food through much of the year. Evergreens like holly and dense shrubs like blackthorn are especially appealing.