Top 10 UK Native Berry Shrubs to Plant for Winter Birds
Beakfeeder is reader-supported. If you buy through our Amazon links we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. The ten most useful UK native berry shrubs…
Garden Advice
Do Birds Use Nest Boxes in Winter? Roosting Pockets and Keeping Small Birds Warm
Beakfeeder is reader-supported. If you buy through our Amazon links we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Yes. Many small birds use nest boxes to…
How High Should a Bird Feeder Be? Heights and Distances for a UK Garden
Beakfeeder is reader-supported. If you buy through our Amazon links we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Hang hanging feeders about 1.5–2 metres off the…
A Sparrowhawk Killed a Bird at My Feeder: What to Do
Don’t stop feeding. Sparrowhawk predation is natural, and long-term research has not found it to be a cause of songbird population declines. The useful response is to move the feeder…
Wasps Around Your Bird Feeder in Late Summer
Wasps aren’t after your seed. In August and September their colonies break down and workers switch to hunting sugar — so they’re drawn to fallen fruit, sugary residues and water,…
Bird Droppings and Mess Under the Feeder: How to Deal With It
Most feeder mess is seed husks, not droppings — and switching to sunflower hearts removes almost all of it, because the husk is already gone. For droppings, move the feeder…
What’s Eating the Bird Food at Night?
If food disappears overnight rather than during the day, the usual suspects are brown rats, wood mice, hedgehogs (eating spillage on the ground), badgers or foxes. Squirrels are daytime-only, so…
Do Wind Chimes, Ornaments and Shiny Objects Scare Birds Away?
Movement and noise deter birds at first, then stop working. Birds habituate to anything predictable within days. Wind chimes near a feeder will reduce visits while they’re novel; a static…
How to Attract Birds to a Shaded, North-Facing Garden
Stop treating shade as a problem. A damp, shaded garden is effectively a woodland edge, which is the natural habitat of robins, blackbirds, wrens, dunnocks and song thrushes — the…
Protecting Bird Feeders in Storms and High Wind
Most storm problems come down to height and leverage. Lower the feeder, take some off the top of a feeding station, move it to the sheltered side of the house…