The UK’s birds are in trouble, and they need our help. By following these easy steps to provide for birds year-round from RSPB expert Adrian Thomas, you and your garden can make a difference
The 2023 State of Nature report found that a sobering 43% of all UK bird species are at risk of being lost over the coming decades – the highest figure of any animal group. Gardens can be a valuable refuge for many birds, and in turn, being able to watch them brings us joy and boosts our own wellbeing.
To give our feathered friends a helping hand, follow these five simple steps for each season, with top tips from RSPB wildlife gardening expert Adrian Thomas.
Supplementing food is one way to help, but our gardens can provide more for birds if it’s been designed, planted and maintained to provide a healthy menu and happy home all year round
How to help birds in winter
1. Plant berry-rich shrubs such as hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), elder (Sambucus nigra), Berberis or Viburnum opulus. Now is a great time to plant these bare root. Crab apples or rowans may even attract waxwings – try pink-fruited S. vilmorinii or yellow-fruited S. ‘Joseph Rock’. Bullfinches are particularly keen on Viburnum opulus berries.
Consider planting these in a mixed berry-rich hedge to increase the benefits and create a structural element in your bird-friendly garden. A mixed native hedge is one of the best features you can add to your garden to benefit a wide range of wildlife, providing food, habitat and shelter.
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Winter is the perfect time to put up nestboxes, such as this sparrow terrace
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Berrying plants may attract unusual visitors to your garden over winter, such as migratory flocks of waxwings, pictured here on rowan
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Berry-rich trees, shrubs and hedges also provide a larder for a wide range of birds throughout winter. Pictured is a blue tit on hawthorn
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Winter is the perfect time to put up nestboxes, such as this sparrow terrace
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Berrying plants may attract unusual visitors to your garden over winter, such as migratory flocks of waxwings, pictured here on rowan
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Berry-rich trees, shrubs and hedges also provide a larder for a wide range of birds throughout winter. Pictured is a blue tit on hawthorn
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2. Provide supplementary feed to provide birds with the calories they need to get through long, cold nights when natural food sources are scarcer. Clean feeders regularly – at least every two weeks is ideal. Good feeder hygiene is important all year round but especially so in wet weather, when disease is more likely to linger, and when the number of visitors to feeders every day is high, which increases risk of spread.
3. Keep water available by defrosting birdbaths during cold weather.
4. Install nest boxes. In particular, try to provide for declining species such as starlings, house sparrows and swifts, with a swift box, starling box or sparrow terrace under your eaves.
5. Take part in the RSBP Big Garden Birdwatch. Gathering information about the populations and distributions of UK birds is crucial in helping inform their conservation. The Big Garden Birdwatch takes place every year on a weekend in late January; in 2024 it falls on 26-28 January.
Choose trees and shrubs that are berry-rich, planted in a mixed hedge, and these will be the main building blocks for your bird-rich garden
Birds to spot in winter
Redwing
Waxwing
Nuthatch
How to help birds in spring
1. Resist the urge to tidy! Leave seedheads standing for as long as possible to provide seeds and insects for birds. This will help them get through the hungry gap that coincides with the energy demands of singing, defending territories, building nests and laying eggs. Likewise, try not to be too tidy and leave some nesting material lying around – fallen leaves, twigs and moss are all important construction materials.
2. Plant for birds. Try a bed of annual wildflowers – sunflowers, quinoa and cereals all provide seed for birds. Browse our plants for birds page for inspiration on what to plant to bring the most benefits for birds.
3. Make a garden pond with a shallow beach to provide a bathing and drinking spot. See our guide to creating a wildlife pond.
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A pond, no matter how small, is one of the very best features you can create for wildlife in your garden. Include a shallow beach to provide a bathing and drinking spot for birds
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An annual wildflower mix will provide for birds as well as pollinators, and can be done on as large or small a scale as you have space for. Pictured is a goldfinch in the Wildlife Garden at RHS Wisley
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Allow some scattered leaves and twigs to remain, as well as moss in your lawn, to provide nesting materials
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A pond, no matter how small, is one of the very best features you can create for wildlife in your garden. Include a shallow beach to provide a bathing and drinking spot for birds
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An annual wildflower mix will provide for birds as well as pollinators, and can be done on as large or small a scale as you have space for. Pictured is a goldfinch in the Wildlife Garden at RHS Wisley
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Allow some scattered leaves and twigs to remain, as well as moss in your lawn, to provide nesting materials
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4. Leave some areas of grass long. This benefits all wildlife, including birds. For example, dandelion seedheads provide food for goldfinches. Short grass areas allow blackbirds, thrushes and starlings to search for worms and other invertebrates, so aim for some short grass areas and some long grass areas in your garden.
5. If hedges need to be trimmed, do it as early as possible, since birds such as robins, blackbirds and song thrushes start nesting as early as March. The prunings can be neatly stacked between stakes driven into the ground to create a dead hedge, which provides habitat for a variety of wildlife and even nesting sites for wrens.
Variety in lawn length is the spice of life for birds. Starlings are wonderful lawn aerators
Birds to spot in spring
Song thrush
Chiffchaff
Collared dove
How to help birds in summer
1. Avoid using any pesticides. The insects that you may consider unwanted visitors are a crucial food source for the birds in your garden. For example, blue tits need a steady supply of caterpillars to feed their chicks through summer. In turn, birds will keep many insect populations under control.
2. Keep a birdbath topped up. Clean it daily if possible, ideally letting it air-dry before refilling to kill pathogens.
3. Minimise use of mains water as this has a knock-on effect on wetland habitats and the birds they support. Use water butts to collect rainwater instead.
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In summer, access to clean water is paramount. As well as bird baths, small water features may also provide drinking and bathing opportunities
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In summer, access to clean water is paramount. As well as bird baths, small water features may also provide drinking and bathing opportunities
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In summer, access to clean water is paramount. As well as bird baths, small water features may also provide drinking and bathing opportunities
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In summer, access to clean water is paramount. As well as bird baths, small water features may also provide drinking and bathing opportunities
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4. Delay hedge cutting until late August when nesting season is safely out of the way. With berrying hedges, try cutting one side this year and the other side next year to ensure there are always berries on offer to birds.
5. Dense hedges and clipped topiary provide safe hideaways for young birds as they go through the vulnerable phase of developing their adult plumage.
Any gardener who has ditched using pesticides is ensuring there’s a full menu on offer. Left to its own devices, nature finds its own balance
Birds to spot in summer
Swallow
Green woodpecker
Goldfinch
How to help birds in autumn
1. Relax with the deadheading and allow some late flowers of plants such as Echinacea, Rudbeckia and Cosmos to go to seed to provide for birds through winter. These will also provide hibernacula for insects, as well as looking beautiful in winter frosts.
2. Don’t remove all your fallen leaves – when raking leaves off lawns, leave some piles under bushes where birds will be able to flick though them during winter, looking for hibernating invertebrates.
3. Leave some windfall apples scattered on the lawn to cater for ground-feeding winter visitors such as redwings and fieldfares.
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Some windfall apples left lying around will provide birds with a welcome sweet treat
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Leave some fallen leaves for birds such as blackbirds to flick through and find insects over winter
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Leaving seedheads standing not only provides habitat for invertebrates and can look beautiful, but provides a rich source of seeds for birds such as goldfinches over winter
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Some windfall apples left lying around will provide birds with a welcome sweet treat
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Leave some fallen leaves for birds such as blackbirds to flick through and find insects over winter
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Leaving seedheads standing not only provides habitat for invertebrates and can look beautiful, but provides a rich source of seeds for birds such as goldfinches over winter
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4. Plant a tree. In a small garden, choose something slow-growing or that can be easily kept small by pruning. A tree provides a safe hideout for birds, nesting sites, and a high point to sing from, and the
Bark is the outermost layer of woody plants (trees, shrubs and woody climbers). It is several cells thick and provides protection against physical damage, disease and environmental stresses. Bark comes in a wide variety of colours and patterns, and these can help gardeners when identifying plants. The fissures and crevices of bark on older plants also creates valuable habitat for many garden creatures as well as lichens and small plants.
bark hosts invertebrates for birds such as nuthatches to find.
5. Clean nest boxes by removing old nests so that they are ready to provide a nighttime refuge for birds when the weather turns cold.
Adding a tree can be transformative for birds. They offer a useful ladder by which birds can safely drop, rung by rung, to explore the garden below
Birds to spot in autumn
Jay
Long-tailed tit
Chaffinch
The more plants and habitats you include in your outside space, the more you’re playing your part in ensuring our threatened and precious garden birds have a future
The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.
