Encouraging birds to a paved urban garden

Hi Popeymon

Welcome to the Community. :-)

I think that if you provide a bit more 'cover' for the birds it will help to attract more to your garden. They don't like to be 'out in the open' when they are feeding, as it makes them more vulnerable to sparrowhawk attacks.

Hi Popeyemon. In a small garden thinking vertically is helpful, climbers provide great cover and other benefits and the trellis, wigwams, obelisks and other supports can be decorative perches before the plants are grown. Also think about water, a decent sized bird bath is decorative and a real bird magnet. If the budget is tight they are easy to improvise. Good luck, Ness

As suggested in the previous post by nessthehat, if you have a wall or fence that you could put a trellis on to grow climbers, that would provide cover and perches for small birds. Clematis montana grow quickly and need very little care apart from a prune after flowering. I have two on the back yard walls, and they are much loved by sparrows, dunnocks, robins and blackbirds.

Also if you have good fencing consider...

-  Hammering some nails in and hanging fat filled coconuts from them

- Getting one of those little bird tables which come with a bracket to attach to the fence. Position in near some cover & the birds might get a bit more confident.

- Using an old rabbit/guinea pig/hamster water bottle attached to the fence with a decent jar lid type perch underneath as a mini watering station for small birds.

- Most holders for square fatcakes will happilly lie flat against a fence if you hammer a nail in for them.

Meanwhile on your paved area...

- Plant up some pots and troughs and sprinkle the seed & fat nibblets in amongst the plants - dunnocks love that

-   For your planted pots get some of those little bowl shaped feeders on a stick. Get 3 - 4 and put different types of seed & fat nibblets or suet in each.

- Don't forget a bird bath, that could sit happily on your paved area & birds wil come to use that & hopefully notice your food.

- Plant a small fruiting tree/bush such as black or redcurrants in a large pot on your patio. Guarantee if you like eating it the birds will scoff the lot before you get there.

- Get a nice decorative stone for your patio, preferably with a reasonably level surface & invite the thrushes in to use it as an anvil for bashing snails. (we have one of these in a planted trough & hardly a day goes by when I don't see smashed shell around it.)

Whilst elsewhere...

- On the house wall you could put some hanging basket brackets & you could hang any variety of seed & nut feeders from them.

- You can also get various small feeders which actually attach to windows with suction pads. A few of those dotted around could bring the birds very close to you.

- Plant as many insect attractive plants anywhere you can (pots, hanging basket, border, etc.) & hope that the insect eaters follow the insects.

- Get or make some insect/mini-beast friendly habitats for similar reasons as above.

- A rotary washing line, if you have one, is good for hanging things on, if you don't mind the odd bit of poo on the laundry !

- Grow ivy anywhere you can...it's relatively cheap, it is evergreen, so it provides all year round cover, it is good for hiding & perching & quite a few bids love ivy berries.

- During the breeding/fledging season treat your birds to some live food (mealworms & waxworms at fairly resonable prices can be ordered on ebay). If the adults notice & use your garden to gather live food for their nestlings, they are likely to bring their fledglings in to your garden to feed too. Then hopefully when the babies grow up they will accociate your patch with food & satisfaction so will return more readily !

Not forgetting...

- Avoid getting rid of "pests" at all costs. Snails, slugs, ants, greenfly, spiders, caterpillars....they're all food for someone & although they might be a pain for you your feathered friends will enjoy them & you will enjoy your feathered friends, hopefully. In fact if you can bear it plant a few plants which caterpillars, slugs & snails are well known to attack...only one more short hop down the food chain & you've got your birds. 

- Don't be too tidy. Leaf litter bugs, longer grass living bugs, the seeds of weeds, mossy roofs & gutters...all good for birds. If you keep your garden & exterior of house too pristine you will eliminate some birds chances of finding the things they are used to looking for in the "scruffy" wild. Be scruffy & proud ! (Case in point: beautiful little wren rottling around in our very mossy gutter for insects for at least 10 minutes this morning...no moss = no insects = no wren !)

Blimey I've waffled on a bit...sorry. However all these things have worked for me in the past so I hope a few can be helpful to you. Good luck...keep us posted with progress !

Bella

Hi Popeymon, food and water will attract the birds but they also need places to perch  some cover and plants that provide natural food.  I have small paved north facing yard at the front of my house and there are always birds feeding there. 

Climbing Roses, evergreen Honeysuckle and Clematis are good for providing insects and cover. Trellis is good for perching on. Anything that will grow in the ground will grow in a tub or pot including trees.   'Viburnum Eve Price' is a very good evergreen shrub with perfumed flowers that bloom almost continuously, you can grow it in the ground , tub or pot. They are not very expensive and they grow very quickly.    Garden centres are more expensive than a local nursery and car boots are very good for bargain plants.

Here is a picture of my yard, it may help, I get all my best ideas from other peoples gardens.

 

 

 

Hi Cottagegardener, I am lost in admiration at your photo of your yard! It's absolutely lovely!

Try buying native species of flowers and herbs. Anything that produces alot of nectar as this will attract insects which then in turn attract  birds.

Mint is a good plant to grow as birds will actually snip pieces off of leaves to use as a anitbacterial agent in their nests plus it attracts insects to its small flowers.

Sunflowers seeds are good to plant now too. You can grow a row in a long container and when the flowers die off the birds will eat the seeds left over.

 My mum has a concreted area in her garden and either side she has packed it with pots with all sorts of plants and small shrubs and the birds love it as cover while they hop around pecking at tiny bugs and seeds.

Remember as mentioned to also find a place for a small bird bath. You'll be surprised how many more birds will turn u p for a drink or an early bath.

Good luck

Craig

Thanks to everybody for your replies. cottagegardener - wow! Sorry I haven't responded earlier.

I have been thinking vertically for sure. I just can't afford to buy fully grown shrubs or trees in pots - so I am having to be patient.

Bella - "For your planted pots get some of those little bowl shaped feeders on a stick." - other suggestions I have already done and I am going to do this as it will go amongst the existing pots and they might like the cover of the "small" shrubs.

I am also going to get a bird bath.

Thanks again,

popeymon

P.S. Since posting I had a bonanza of starlings, blackbirds eating worms in the grass, woodpigeons eating the seeds from the feeders all at once. Sparrows not eating from the feeders but did collect nesting material :)

 

 

 

Hi Popeymon,

I love the advice on here, thinking of pinching a few ideas myself! I definitely agree with the suggestions for planting honeysuckle - it's fairly quick-growing too and provides great cover for smaller birds (and smells lovely!)

Please post some photos of your yard and keep us updated with how you're doing!

I already have a honeysuckle but I think I need a much larger pot as it has not been growing much over the last two years. Now, it is growing in the wrong direction, even when I tie it to the trellis.

I also have two clematis. They have been unreliable but they are growing well, mostly! Hopefully this year they will not die back prematurely. Apparently they are notoriously unreliable.

I have also put a feeder on the rotary washing line.

Thanks again to everyone who posted to help.

Bye for now,

popeymon