Decorate your garden for birds

Birds are a feast in your garden. They come there to eat, build nests and raise their little ones. After a few small interventions you can be sure of twittering. How do you help the birds in your garden?

What are birds looking for in my garden?

Garden birds look for your garden for food, safety and a place to breed. You can also welcome birds in a small garden. Take a look at our checklist and discover the working points in your garden.

1. Is there natural food (insects and fruit) in your garden?
2. Do you fill the feeding table with seasonal bird snacks?
3. Do you offer your garden guests clean drinking water?
4. Are there any shrubs, trees and hedges that can serve as shelter?
5. Is there any material in your garden that birds can use to build nests?
6. Do you offer a good nest box? And does it hang in a good place?

Five tips for attracting birds to your garden

It is quite easy to attract birds to your garden.
We give you five tips:

1. Leave dead wood and leaf litter. This will help birds to build their nests. Pieces of wool, cat and dog hair are also useful nesting material.

2. Plant shrubs, trees and hedges. Birds use them as shelter and build their nests in them. Some bushes carry berries, a delicacy for birds.

3. Provide drinking water. In case of frost, birds often lack water. A shallow bowl of water usually suffices as a watering place. Add some sugar so the water doesn't freeze. In summer you put a larger bowl, so that sparrows or blackbirds can bathe.

4. Hang nesting boxes: Nesting boxes are available in all colours and sizes. Choose or make a nesting box tailored to the birds in your garden. Hang them in a good place. After the winter you remove old nesting material and clean the hive with hot water and a brush.

5. Make gradual transitions from lawn to plants, shrubs and trees. By imitating nature as closely as possible, you create more chances of attracting birds to your garden.

Plants attract birds

Plants are a source of life. Some carry berries that birds like. Others attract insects, another important source of food for your feathered friends. In any case, plants are very important for the birds in your garden. So choose the right species.

1. Herbs: stinging nettle, large teasel, queen's herb, farmyard worm herb, yarrow, angelica.

2. Flowering, insect-friendly plants (flowering over a long period of time): common ivy, hops, wild vine, foxglove, wild marjoram, common parsnip, field sage, real goldenrod, wild delphinium, look-less-look

3. Hedges and hedges: blackberry, wild rowan, guelder rose, wild cardinal's hat, common holly, unisex hawthorn, common elder, red dogwood, black alder

4. Trees and shrubs: double hawthorn, blackthorn, sweet cherry, hazel, dog rose, red dogwood, pedunculate oak, sessile oak, dirt tree, common privet, white willow