Press Releases - Mar/Apr 2006 - Item 2

No. 2006/03/09
March 2006

Breeding and Feeding

Winter may be almost over but garden birds still need our help. Having survived the winter they will now be thinking about breeding and this requires a lot of energy. So just because it’s getting warmer, don’t stop putting food out. The BTO is urging people to stock up on high energy seeds and to give their garden birds a helping hand and a fighting chance this breeding season.

With the cold winter months almost at an end, love is in the air for many of our garden bird species. The longer days and warmer temperatures will prompt birds to start this year’s nesting attempts. This is a costly business in terms of energy and birds will need all the help they can get to fuel their breeding, but garden owners can make all the difference between success and failure by carrying on providing food.

“Many of us think that it’s only the winter months when birds need food. Feeding at this time helps birds survive but we shouldn’t stop with the advent of spring,” says Martin Fowlie of the BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch Team. “Breeding requires a huge amount of energy and by carrying on feeding, people can have a very real effect on the success of garden nesting attempts.”

With Mothering Sunday fast approaching perhaps we can spare a thought for all those mothers to be in our gardens and provide a helping hand in the form of some suitable food (see Notes to Editors).

“Making eggs and feeding chicks will put a real strain on this year’s mothers. By putting out food we can make sure that our garden birds are able to get hold of enough energy to give them a good chance of getting through the breeding season,” Martin adds.

In order to help people select appropriate foods and to provide food in a suitable manner, the BTO’s Garden BirdWatch Team have produced a leaflet on feeding garden birds. To receive a free copy of this leaflet, please send your name and address details to GBW Feeding Leaflet, BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU, email or telephone 01842-750050.

Notes for Editors

1) The BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch is the only nationwide survey of garden birds to run weekly throughout the year, providing important information on how birds use gardens, and how this use changes over time. Currently, some 17,000 people take part in the project across the British Isles. The BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch is funded by participants’ contributions and supported by CJ WildBird Foods Ltd and is the largest year round survey of garden birds anywhere in the world. For more information see www.bto.org/gbw

2) CJ WildBird Foods is Europe’s leading supplier of bird food and bird feeding products. CJ WildBird Foods has been responsible for a number of significant developments within the bird food and feeding industry, including the introduction of black sunflower seeds to the UK as a major new bird food and the development of specialist seed mixes for use in tubular feeders. The company has also been supporting research into the changing fortunes of garden bird populations, most notably through the BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch.

3) It is important to make sure that you provide food that is appropriate and there are certain foods that should be avoided. For example, peanuts should only be provided behind a wire mesh or as granules to ensure that young birds are not presented with whole peanuts that may cause them to choke. Similarly, salty foods and desiccated coconut should also be avoided. With an increasing range of wild bird foods now available to garden birdwatchers, it is relatively easy to get hold of suitable foods, like sunflower hearts, nyjer seed, peanut cake and even live foods like mealworms. Calcium rich food such as oyster shell grit is included in some seed mixes and can help provide the necessary building blocks for egg production.

4) During the chick-rearing period birds must find food for their offspring and themselves. While in the nest the chicks are generally fed on a diet of insects and research has shown that the provision of suitable supplementary foods can help birds meet the demands of breeding, possibly by allowing the adults to eat the food we provide while saving other ‘natural’ foods, like caterpillars, for their hungry chicks.

5) Images of garden birds are freely available for use alongside this article from

6) The BTO has an ISDN line available for radio interviews.

For further information please contact:

Martin Fowlie on 01842 750050 or email:

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