Search - Articles

Birds not only use water to drink, but they also bathe in it, helping them fluff up their feathers to insulate themselves against the cold. Experts have also found that clean birds are more streamlined, so can escape from predators quickly. Our bird

and wildlife to your gardenMake a nesting area for birds on a pond, video projectInstall a window bird feederMake a bat boxMake fat cakes for birdsMake a green roof for a bird tableBrowse plants that are attractive to wildlifeBrowse plants with berries

food? Peanuts are obviously highly nutritious, as are the various seeds we put out for them, but what about bread and pasta? They're hardly what wild birds in my Hampshire garden would normally find to eat. Are we subjecting our beautiful birds

, by July and August there are millions more hungry mouths to feed. For tits, finches and sparrows, garden feeding stations provide a real lifeline. And even for birds like robins, wrens, thrushes and blackbirds, availability of insects, fruits and berries

When it's cold outside, and none of the family offer to join me in the garden for a spot of tidying up, it's nice having the company of some feathered friends instead. During winter the birds are bolder and friendlier than ever, with robins

the weather here in London.The garden is still looking remarkably green, even after we cut down the now wilting and blackened dahlias. In fact we already have a perfect bird-feeder growing out there - the apple tree. And the bird that best takes advantage

-tailed tits in my garden next year.It's no surprise that Britain's smallest bird should suffer in the cold. It's all to do with body mass and surface area ratios. I wonder whether I can get away with a bit of maths on this blog. Imagine a cubic bird — strange

Within days, two scientific reports on Britain’s wildlife have made national news headlines because of their dire prognoses. The State of the UK’s Birds 2012, produced by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, British Trust for Ornithology

, they are field birds. The RSPB website is on hand with the answer — they readily come into the suburbs to visit gardens when the weather is snowy. The white is gone from my garden now, and so too, apparently, are the fieldfares, gone back to the fields. But as I

skips for more wood and was experimenting with designs for robins, wrens and starlings. In the wild, birds nest in a variety of situations such as holes in trees and hedgerows, which tend not to be that abundant in gardens. A snug box with an appropriate