How to enjoy winter birdwatching and recognise when garden birds need extra care

Birdwatching from indoors is a great way to stay connected to the natural world now that days are shorter and temperatures have plummeted. Not only does a few minutes observing garden birds in winter help raise spirits and boost wellbeing – I’m thinking of how much I love watching the starlings bathe in our pond – it also means you’ll become familiar with garden bird behaviour and you’ll be more likely to notice any problems that arise. If you spot physical or behavioural signs of stress or illness in birds, you can then take timely and safe action to help them where appropriate.

It’s important to observe birds without disturbing them, and this is easy to do from inside. Find somewhere comfortable to sit and avoid quick movements. Binoculars aren’t essential, but a good pair (a great idea for a Christmas present) means you can see garden birds clearly without needing to be too close. Creating a wildlife-friendly garden with a diverse ecosystem that includes healthy invertebrate populations and lots of plants that offer natural food and shelter to birds, means you’re already more likely to have a good number of birds visiting your garden.

You don’t need to know the names of all the birds you see, but I enjoy learning about different species and their habits. If this applies to you too, a bird book like the Collins Bird Guide, is really helpful. Once you’re able to identify a few common species, you can keep a notebook and pen by the window and write a journal on the behaviour of different species, or even a list of which species have visited your garden. One of the best apps to help identify birds is the Merlin app. It’s fairly accurate at identifying bird song and calls, and you can use it through an open window. In this way, you can find out what birds are about, even if you can’t see them.

Birds are most active in the early morning when, like us, they need to feed so they have enough energy for the day ahead. I like to watch the house sparrows in our garden at this time of day as they collect sticks, feathers and other natural materials to refresh the lining of their nests in the bird boxes where they roost overnight. Birds are also more active later in the afternoon, but there are likely to be some garden birds around all day, so take a little time out whenever you have the chance and see what’s about.

In winter, most birds spend the day foraging for food like insects, seeds or berries, which provides the energy they need to keep warm when temperatures drop. The more abundant their natural food sources, the better, because they only have a few hours of daylight to find enough to survive. Some species, such as long-tailed tits, forage in groups and even roost together at night, huddling together to share body heat. Other birds go even further to avoid the cold – they migrate to equatorial regions such as areas in Africa south of the Sahara, only returning in spring when temperatures begin to warm up again.

While you’re watching the birds in your garden, you can take the opportunity to check that they look fit and healthy. If you notice birds that are having difficulty feeding, resting in an unusual posture or that seem lethargic, it might be a sign of stress or illness. A bird with fluffed feathers might also be in difficulty, but birds do fluff up their feathers to protect against the cold, so it’s best to look for other signs of distress too.

If you feed the birds with supplementary food in your garden and you think a bird might have a disease (for example, a bird sitting on a feeder but struggling to feed), the RSPB advises stopping feeding for at least two weeks and emptying any bird baths. This prevents birds feeding and drinking together and potentially passing on diseases. Don’t restart feeding until there’s no further evidence of diseased birds. Even if you don’t see evidence of illness at feeding stations, you should clean feeders and water containers regularly (taking appropriate health and safety measures, such as wearing gloves and washing hands thoroughly with soap and water afterwards), move them around the garden, clear up spilt food and don’t overfill, so they are emptied every few days.

If you see an injured, ill or dead bird, don’t touch it or pick it up. You can contact a local wildlife rescue centre to ask for advice and there are organisations that can help particular species, such as Raptor Rescue and the Swan Sanctuary. But often there’s not much that can be done for wild birds and trying to help can actually cause the bird more distress. Dead wild birds should be reported to Defra using this online form and you can also report sick or dead garden birds to the Garden Wildlife Health (GWH) project. These websites help monitor diseases such as avian bird flu.

Watching the birds in your garden regularly will help you to identify unusual behaviour, but sick birds will often show few signs and so it can be difficult to identify problems. Even if you notice a bird struggling, there’s often not much that can be done. So it’s best to focus on the things you can influence in your garden like maintaining good hygiene around feeders and bird baths, avoiding disturbing areas where birds feed, shelter or roost, avoiding using pesticides and ensuring that if you do have garden feeders, you provide appropriate, safe bird food. These measures should provide a healthy environment for garden birds and enable you to have many enjoyable hours of birdwatching throughout the winter.