Nesting birds

[watervole]

Taken a brief break from gardening as the baby great tits were getting very noisy.  I don't think the parents like approaching the nest when we're working.  So, the babies get a food break and we get a tea break.  (The parents were there with a beak full within seconds of us going indoors)

How do you get birds to nest in your garden?

1.  Nest boxes. Particularly loved by blue tits and great tits.  They work especially well for blue tits if there is an oak tree within a hundred metres.  Also, having a shrub somewhere close to the nest box may be an advantage - the parents often like somewhere to perch where they can take a quick look around to be sure it's safe to approach the nest.

2.  Ivy.  Thick ivy growing against a fence or wall.  We definitely have a pair of robins, and possibly a pair of dunnocks as well, nesting in our ivy this year.

3.  Hedges.  Prickly is best.  We have a pair of blackbirds nesting in the hedge this year.

4.  Pond.  A reliable supply of water for drinking, a shallow area for bathing, and lots of plants to support things like dragonfly larvae that make such a tasty snack for young birds when they emerge.

5.  Plants of every kind and no insecticides.  Baby birds need soft food - they can't eat seeds, nuts, etc until they are several days old.  They need insects, and that means plants.  British native plants are probably best from an overall wildlife perspective, but all plants are beneficial to some extent.

6.  Undergrowth and leaf litter.  Our dunnocks and blackbirds just love rummaging through old leaves and bits of compost that I've spread around the raspberries and under the hedge.  Yet more insect food for them (and excellent mulch for the plants)

You don't need a big garden (ours is fairly small), you just need to have lots of living things in it.  Hedges beat fences hollow - and they don't blow down in storms either.  Life attracts more life.

Comments

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

My garden has everything except hedges, I do have bramble wilderness combined with a Seven sisters scrambling Rose bush behind the old coal house and a Cotoneaster that will be drascticaly cut back come winter. Ponds aren't necessary as long as there is water available. Being to lazy to dig a pond I have both deep and shallow dishes in various parts of the garden, the deep ones elevated so the hedgehogs can't fall in them and drown

[julesjones]

Remember the day we watched the sparrowhawk climb through the hedge in pursuit of sparrows? It got one in the end, but it was still an excellent demonstration of why birds prefer ardens with hedges.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

It's also a perfect demonstration of how life attracts more life.

[pennski.livejournal.com]

That's a lovely concept.

Our hedges certainly attract many birds. Sadly our cats have got quite good at catching them.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Bells on cats reduce their capture of birds by about 30%. Keeping them indoors at night also helps a little.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

I like your list and I agree with you because our garden provides lots of similar things for birds or other small creatures and there are plenty of them. Plus we have got a new, one year old fence made of hornbeams - it will be a paradise for them, it only needs one more year to grow properly.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

things like dragonfly larvae that make such a tasty snack for young birds when they emerge.

An excellent idea, since young birds are often hungry when they first emerge from a pond.