best food for garden birds?

Question

Are breadcrumbs OK?
I know nuts, seeds and fat are probably better but...

Answer 1

Mixed nuts and seeds are a birds` natural diet, although some semi-urban birds will eat breadcrumbs as opposed to going hungry. By all means give them a few breadcrumbs sometimes, but a healthy bird should have its` natural diet.

Answer 2

Breadcrumbs are not the most nutritious of foods for birds, but like in humans, it fills and empty space in coldweather and helps a little in getting them through the night.

Brown bread is better than whitebread but better still wholegrain brown bread has more nutrition. You could also try a couple of handfulls of porridge oats and broken biscuits with the high protein and fat levels helping to provide energy.

If you have apples or pears which have gone past their prime, then leave them out on the lawn for the birds as most species will eat them, even burrowing down through the flesh to reach the seeds as well.

A recipe I use for attracting allsorts of birds to the garden is as follows.

Take a couple of slices of brown bread, two or three digestive biscuits, a cup of porridge outs, and a handful of cornflakes. Put them in a food mixer and dry blend them together into fine crumbs. Put these in a dish to one side and do the same again with an apple, a couple of handfuls of sultanas, and some fruit or sponge cake, (never chocolate cake).

Pour the mixture into the dish and then pass a couple of slices of cheddar cheese and a few slices of cooked chicken breast through the mixer. Then mix the contents of the three mixes together with your fingers in one big bowl. This can then be scattered over the bird table or left in little piles, on tree branches, paving, anywhere where the birds can find it.

It provides energy and high fat and protein levels and helps get the birds through the winter.

Alternatively you could go out and buy seed, peanuts and fat feeder balls and blocks for them.

Answer 3

All wild birds like black oiled sunflower seeds, even the tiny ones. We live in Ohio where it get cold, and they need the extra food that they give, to keep the birds warm. If we buy the mixed seeds, a lot of it is wasted. They do make a mess with the sunflower seeds though, the drop the hulls on the ground.

Answer 4

Yeah, breadcrumbs should be fine.
Either that or go down to your local supermarket and check out the pet section.
They'll most likely have bird seed, and some times even wild bird seed!

Answer 5

I have a container in the kitchen, into it I pour all the fat from bacon and sausage then melt it and add breadcrumbs and bird food which I purchase.

When set this is then hung on the trees outside, birds love it.

Answer 6

Mix fat and seed into a grease proofed plastic cup. Let it dry, take it out and hang it up. Birds love that kinda stuff and it will probably give them much more nutrients then some breadcrumbs. I hope this helps. Thanks. =]

Answer 7

.There are plenty of Pet shops that sell wild bird food and at quite reasonable prices,I buy a 23 kg.bag of seed at a well known pet store(in U.K.)and this serves me through most of the winter.

Nuts and Fat balls are a welcome feed to them and a good source of protein

It is O.K. to feed the wild birds on waste scraps and a small amount of preferably Brown Bread,but remember to feed in the morning and only enough for the birds to finish because at this time of year you will get unwanted visitors,Rats and Mice,who will soon clear off any left overs.

Then they will turn to the birds as a food source.

Answer 8

WILD BIRD SEED MIX from your local pet shop. A piece of bacon chopped very small is a good source of fats needed during the winter.

Answer 9

yes thats fine! it's better than nothing but maybe you could give them something like peanut butter......the birds in our garden love it! And the robin loves mealworms!

Answer 10

I feed the birds some brown bread.