(Illustration by Beth Harthan)
Why Birds Are Important to the Gardener
Birds are of particular importance to the vegan organic gardener and allotment holder because they consume many of the insects that damage plants. They are, therefore, very useful to have around if you want to avoid using pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Thrushes, for example, eat slugs and snails and can thus prevent much damage to your crops. Wrens eat many types of insects and their larvae. Blue tits and great tits adore caterpillars and green woodpeckers will soon polish off a colony of ants. In fact many species of birds feed mainly on insects while they are breeding and then switch to a diet consisting mainly of seeds or berries in the autumn and winter. The parent birds are kept amazingly busy gathering insects for their young throughout the breeding season. Great tits, for example, can make up to 800 trips a day in order to supply their young with food, their diet consisting mainly of caterpillars. Now that's an awful lot of garden pests!
Of course birds aren't always entirely good news for gardeners and if you are not careful they can do a fair amount of damage to your crops. Pigeons, for example, are quite partial to brassicas such as brussels sprouts and fruit-eating birds can quickly devastate fruit trees and bushes. However, it is usually possible to protect crops from such damage fairly easily. So on balance, having more birds around is a tremendous asset to the vegan organic gardener and as well as being useful predators, birds are usually very entertaining to watch. Also, by making your garden more bird-friendly you will be helping to ensure that birds survive and maintain their numbers. Birds' natural habitats - hedgerows, meadows and woodlands - are disappearing at an alarming rate and gardens are becoming an increasingly important substitute habitat for many kinds of birds.
Ways of Attracting Birds into the Garden
There are many simple things that we can do to entice birds into the garden and encourage them to live and breed there. Basically, birds need water for bathing and drinking, a constant supply of food, shelter from the elements and nest sites. Water can be supplied by making a small pond with marshy edges or if that isn't possible by obtaining a birdbath or drinking dish and regularly changing the water. Nest boxes can be installed for breeding purposes and climbing plants (e.g. ivy, honeysuckle and clematis) and shrubs, especially prickly shrubs, will provide additional natural nest sites as well as berries for the birds to eat. A well-stocked bird table will provide food, but of course providing natural sources of food is even better, particularly on an allotment where maintaining a bird table would be much more difficult. With careful planning, it should be possible to provide a natural supply of food for birds for most of the year. Plants and shrubs, which provide fruit, berries and seeds are especially useful to birds and don't be in too much of a hurry to pull up your weeds as many of these will also provide food for birds.
Planting for Birds
There are many trees, shrubs and plants that are especially attractive to birds, but of course the plants that you choose to grow will depend on the size of your garden/allotment, soil type, aspect and your own personal preferences. However, when selecting which plants to grow for birds do try and choose plants that don't all produce food at the same time! (See Table 1 for more information.)
Trees
If you have a large garden you may wish to include some trees. Trees provide shelter, nest sites and perches for birds, but there are many trees that will also provide them with food. Oak supplies acorns and woodpigeons, nuthatches, jays and woodpeckers will eat these. Rowan's berries are popular with thrushes, fieldfares, redwings, bramblings, blackbirds and waxwings and the fruits of bird cherry (Prunus padus) and wild cherry (Prunus avium) are much loved by birds. Alder provides food for siskins, serins, redpolls, goldfinches and tits, both the cones and the catkins being eaten. Bullfinches eat the seeds of ash and beech mast is popular with bramblings, nuthatches, great tits, woodpeckers and chaffinches. Serins, goldfinches and bramblings like the seeds of silver birch and various insectivorous birds also feed on the many insects that live on this tree. Conifers such as scots pine, larch, spruce, and yew also supply food for birds and have the advantage that they do not lose their leaves in winter, thus providing all-year cover. Scots pine seeds are eaten by finches, woodpeckers and the Scottish crossbill. Blackcaps and various types of thrushes eat yew's berries and the seeds of larch and spruce are popular with finches, spruce seeds also being eaten by woodpeckers and European crossbills. Fruit trees such as apple, crab apple and plum are especially popular with birds. So why not plant some fruit trees or fruit bushes just for wildlife?
Hedging Plants
Hedges act as windbreaks and like trees provide shelter, somewhere to roost and nest sites for birds. Of particular value in a hedge are shrubs bearing berries such as elder, spindle (Euonymus europaeus), bramble, blackthorn, hawthorn, holly and wild privet (Ligustrum vulgare), which supply food for birds as well as shelter. In addition quite a few of these shrubs are spiny and offer good protection from cats and other predators. Hawthorn is popular with many nesting birds for this reason and whitethroats often nest in tangles of bramble. Waxwings and redwings will eat hawthorn's berries, whereas those of blackthorn are popular with thrushes. Holly and elder berries are loved by many types of birds, but are especially popular with blackcaps and thrushes. Hazel can also be used to make a hedge and its nuts are a valuable source of food for many mammals as well as for birds such as woodpeckers, jays, pigeons and nuthatches. Why not plant some honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum)? It will soon clamber over the hedge and thrushes, warblers and blackcaps will eat its berries. Dog rose (Rosa canina) and guelder rose (Viburnum opulus) produce hips and also do well in a hedge.
Useful Shrubs
The following shrubs should attract birds into your garden/allotment:
* Berberis (Berberis stenophylla) - Berries are mainly eaten by thrushes and blackcaps.
* Cotoneaster (especially C. horizontalis, x watereri and C. frigida) - Waxwings, fieldfares, redwings and blackcaps will eat cotoneaster berries.
* Pyracantha - (P. coccinea, Pyracantha 'Mojave', Pyracantha 'Orange Glow'). Berries mainly eaten by blackcaps, waxwings and certain thrushes. Can be used to make a hedge.
* Viburnum - Waxwings like these berries. Can also be used to make a hedge.
* Ivy - Best grown up a fence, wall or tree. Woodpigeons, thrushes, warblers, blackcaps and robins eat ivy berries, which ripen in the winter.
* Mistletoe - Is an important garden plant, supplying berries at a time of year when food is normally in short supply.
* Buddleia - This shrub is tremendously popular as a nectar source for butterflies, but it will also provide seeds for bullfinches and other seed-eating birds.
Garden Plants
Many garden plants will supply seeds for seed-eating garden birds such as finches and linnets. These include evening primrose, michaelmas daisy, foxglove, aubretia, forget-me-not, sunflower, cosmos, snapdragon, wallflower, sweet william, lavender, sweet rocket, honesty, goldenrod, bird's-foot-trefoil and globe thistle. And I recently left some purple sprouting broccoli to go to seed and found that the seeds attracted quite a few greenfinches!
Weeds!
As previously mentioned many plants that are generally classified as weeds are of tremendous food value for birds. Burdock, chickweed, cow parsley, clover, dandelion, groundsel, black medick, greater stitchwort, hogweed, fat hen, knapweed, shepherd's purse, plantains (e.g. ribwort and hoary plantain), stinging nettles, teasel and many types of thistles such as spear thistle and woolly thistle will all provide seeds for birds to eat. Thistle seeds are especially popular with goldfinches, linnets, siskins and serin whereas goldfinches will eat the seeds of dandelions, groundsel, knapweed and fuller's teasel. Dock, stinging nettle and meadow cranesbill seeds are popular with bullfinches.
Supplementary Feeding
Although it is far better to provide food for birds by growing plants in your garden that they can eat, this natural food supply can, if necessary, be supplemented by regularly offering various household scraps and nuts and seeds. If offering supplementary foods provide a wide variety of foods at different levels - on the ground, in feeders and on a bird table. Scraps of bread (provided it isn't stale), cooked rice and lentils, dried fruit such as raisins and sultanas, apples, oranges and grapes, coconut halves, mashed potatoes, peanuts, vegetable suet, millet and black sunflower seeds are all suitable foods to offer to birds. It is also possible to purchase ready-made up high-energy bird food mixes by mail order from companies such as CJ Wildbird Foods.
Seed Mixtures
A quick way of planting up an area of your land for birds is to purchase a ready-made-up, mixed packet of seeds of varieties of plants that are especially attractive to birds. The John Chambers' Wildflower Seeds catalogue sells a 'Wild Bird Garden Wildflower Mixture' (Ref no. 21102) and a 'Wildlife Mixture for Birds' (Ref no. 21272 and 21274), both of which contain seeds of seed-producing plants that are attractive to birds and they also offer a 'Meadow in a Can' (21426) which can be used to create a meadow especially for songbirds. Similarly, The Organic Gardening Catalogue offers a 'Wild Bird Mix'. (See Resources for more information.)
Further Reading
- Attracting Birds to Your Garden by Stephen Moss and David Cottridge. (1998, New Holland). Price £16.99.
- Garden For Birds by Nigel Matthews (The School Garden Company). The latter book is available from the John Chambers' Wild Flower Seeds Catalogue for £5.60, including postage. For more information and a catalogue Tel: 01933 652562. John Chambers, 15 Westleigh Road, Barton Seagrave, Kettering, Northants NN15 5AJ.
- Gardening for Wildlife by Pauline Lloyd. Information booklet, available from the Vegan Organic Network. Address details given at end of article.
Resources
- High-energy bird food is available from CJ Wildbird Foods, The Rea, Upton Magma, Shrewsbury, SY4 4UR. Tel: 0800 731 2820 for a catalogue, or e-mail enquiries@birdfood.co.uk. Web Url: http://www.birdfood.co.uk. All CJ Wildbird Foods products have been fully endorsed by the RSPB and are free of pesticides, but please note that some of the fat products contain beef suet and are not vegan.
- Wild Bird Mix - seeds of plants attractive to birds. The Organic Gardening Catalogue, Riverdene Business Park, Molesey Road, Hersham, Surrey, KT12 4RG. Tel: 01932 253666 for a catalogue.
- Seed Mixtures, containing a wide variety of plants attractive to birds, are available from: John Chambers, 15 Westleigh Road, Barton Seagrave, Kettering, Northants NN15 5AJ. (Tel: 01933 652562.)
Table 1. Fruit and Seed Ripening Times
When choosing which plants to grow for birds in your garden, try to select plants that produce ripe fruit and seeds at different times of the year, so that they don't all produce food at the same time. The following table should help to do this:
Name Latin Name Fruit Ripe Alder Alnus glutinosa Catkins-Winter, Cones - Autumn Ash Fraxinus excelsior October Aubretia Aubretia spp. July-August Beech Fagus sylvatica October Blackthorn Prunus spinosa October Bramble (Blackberry) Rubus fruticosus August-September Butterfly Bush Buddleia spp. Autumn Chickweed Stellaria media Most of Year Cotoneaster Cotoneaster x watereri Autumn Crab Apple Malus spp. Summer-Autumn Dandelion Taraxacum officinale From June Dog Rose Rosa canina September Elder Sambucus nigra September-October Evening Primrose Oenothera biennis Autumn Forget-me-not Myosotis spp. July Foxglove Digitalis purpurea Autumn Groundsel Senecio vulgare Most of Year Guelder Rose Viburnum opulus Autumn Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna October-November Hazel Corylus avellana October Holly Ilex aquifolium October-December Honesty Lunaria annua Autumn Ivy Hedera helix November-December Larch Larix spp. Spring Lavender Lavandula angustifolia September-October Michaelmas Daisy Aster novi-belgii November Mistletoe Viscum album December Oak Quercus robur and Q. petraea September-October Pyracantha P. angustifolia, P. lalandei Winter Rowan Sorbus aucuparia September-October Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris Spring Shepherd's Purse Capsella bursa-pastoris Summer-Autumn Silver Birch Betula pendula September Snapdragon Antirrhinum spp. Autumn Spindle Euonymus europaeus Autumn Spruce Picea spp. Spring Sunflower Helianthus decapetalus Autumn Teasel Dipsacus sylvestris September-October Virburnum Viburnum spp. Autumn-Summer. A valuable source of berries in the winter. Wild Cherry Prunus avium June Wild Privet Ligustrum vulgare Autumn Yew Taxus baccata Autumn
This article was originally written for the Vegan Organic Network and has been reprinted from their information booklet entitled Gardening for Wildlife. This information booklet provides information on many of the plants that will encourage birds, butterflies, bees and hover flies to come into your garden. If you would like to order a copy of this booklet, then please contact the Vegan Organic Network. Gardening for Wildlife is available as part of a set of information sheets, covering many different aspects of vegan organic growing. Send £2.50 per set (in sterling please if outside the UK) to VON at the address given below. Cheques should be made payable to The Vegan Organic Trust. The Gardening for Wildlife information sheet can also be purchased by itself for £1.00.
The information sheets currently available in this set are:
No 1 Vegan organic composts and fertilizers
No 2 Growing beans for drying
No 3 Growing on clay soils
No 4 Vegan organics - the basics
No 5 Garden fungi - FAQ
No 6 Gardening for wildlifeVON Membership
VON members enjoy a wide variety of contacts and can obtain advice on cultivation techniques. The magazine Growing Green International is sent to members two or three times per year and members also receive copies of the information sheets free of charge. VON and the Vegan Organic Trust are run co-operatively by volunteers. If you would like more information and details on how to join, or copies of the information sheets, then please contact David Graham at: Anandavan, 58 High Lane, Chorlton, Manchester M21 9DZ. Tel/Fax 0161 860 4869. E-mail: veganorganic@supanet.com. VON also has a new website.