Why the Seasons Change What You Put Out

Birds in Britain live on a shifting calendar. A blue tit rearing eight chicks in May has utterly different needs from the same bird clinging to a fat ball in a January frost. Feed the same thing all year and you will still attract visitors, but you will not nourish them as well as you could. Think of your feeders as a seasonal larder: richer and fattier in the cold, softer and calcium-rich in the spring, and always, always clean.

What follows is a month-by-month rhythm that suits gardens from Cornwall to Caithness, along with the hygiene habits that keep your visitors healthy rather than merely fed.

Spring: Feeding Birds Through the Breeding Season

From March onwards, adults are burning energy on territory, nest-building and egg production. Protein and calcium are the priorities.

• Mealworms — dried or live — are superb for adults gathering food for chicks. Soak dried mealworms in warm water first; dry ones can dehydrate nestlings.
• Calcium matters. Offer crushed, baked eggshell, or a proprietary softbill food. Hens need it for eggshells, and growing chicks need it for bones.
• Sunflower hearts remain the safest all-round seed: high in fat, no husk to discard, and easy for a parent bird to carry.
• Avoid whole peanuts during the breeding season. Adults may feed them to chicks, which can choke. If you do put peanuts out, use a rigid mesh feeder so only small fragments are taken.
• Leave moss, dry grass, twigs and pet hair in a corner of the garden as nesting material.

Keep feeders topped up but modestly — food spoils quickly once the weather warms.

Summer: Soft Food and Fresh Water

By June and July, the garden is full of inexperienced fledglings sitting on the lawn looking baffled. This is the season when supplementary food genuinely saves lives, particularly during dry spells when earthworms retreat deep into the soil.

• Put out small amounts of moist food daily — soaked mealworms, suet in warm-weather formulations that do not turn rancid, and chopped raisins or sultanas (never dried fruit that has been sulphured).
• Water is as important as food. A shallow dish with a gently sloping side, refreshed daily, serves drinking and bathing. Add a few stones for grip.
• Provide grit in a small tray to help seed-eaters digest their food.
• Clean feeders weekly in warm weather. Bacteria and mould multiply fast, and warm, damp feeders are where disease takes hold.

If you see a bird looking fluffed up, dull or unusually tame, take your feeders down for a fortnight, clean them thoroughly, and let the garden rest.

Autumn: Fuel for Arrivals and Residents

September and October bring redwings, fieldfares and the occasional waxwing, alongside resident birds caching food for winter. Fat content should start climbing again.

• Suet balls and suet blocks return to the menu, ideally in a cage to deter starlings and squirrels.
• Scatter windfall apples and halved fruit on the ground for blackbirds, song thrushes and redwings.
• Nyjer seed in a fine-port feeder is a magnet for goldfinches, which gather in noisy autumn flocks.
• Plant or leave berry-bearing shrubs — rowan, hawthorn, holly and ivy — as natural larder for months ahead.

Winter: The Hungriest Weeks of the Year

A small bird can lose a significant share of its body weight on a single freezing night. Short days mean less time to feed, so every calorie counts.

• Offer high-fat, high-energy food: suet, sunflower hearts, peanut granules, and quality seed mixes without cheap fillers such as wheat and split peas that most garden birds ignore.
• Feed twice daily if you can — first thing in the morning and again in the early afternoon, before dusk roosting.
• Keep water ice-free. A floating ball or a daily jug of warm water poured over the dish works wonders. Birds need to drink and bathe even in hard frost.
• Never put out bread, milk or salty scraps. They offer little nutrition and can cause serious problems.
• Ground feeders such as dunnocks, robins and thrushes appreciate a tray of food placed under cover, out of the wind.

Hygiene: The Habit That Matters All Year

Feeding birds concentrates them, and where birds gather, disease can spread. Finch populations have been hit hard in recent years by a parasitic condition that thrives at crowded, dirty feeding stations. Good housekeeping is the single most valuable thing you can do.

• Clean feeders every two to four weeks at minimum, and weekly in spring, summer or whenever many birds are visiting.
• Dismantle them and wash in hot soapy water, then use a diluted pet-safe disinfectant, rinse thoroughly and allow to dry completely before refilling.
• Rotate feeders and move them slightly so droppings and discarded husks do not build up in one spot.
• Clear spilled seed from the ground regularly — it attracts rats and can grow mould.
• Discard damp or mouldy food immediately, and never refill a feeder on top of old food.
• If you keep hens or have had disease in the garden, clean boots and equipment before visiting other gardens with feeders.

Adjusting what you offer, and how cleanly you offer it, turns a garden feeder from a casual snack into a genuine lifeline. The birds will notice — and so will you.