There are many different views on when you should feed wild birds, at the end of the day it is your preference. But it may be useful to consider some of the pros and cons as to why you should decide when to feed your wild garden birds.
We have always fed our birds all year round, indeed that was one of the reasons we set up the business, because we could not buy a suitable mix for our garden birds that we could rely on to be consistent at different times of the year, so we started to mix our own formulation from different straight seeds.
It is widely accepted that as the natural vegetation disappears in late Autumn the birds need a supplement to their diet and generally people that start feeding in October finish in April. But this does raise the question of what you want to achieve by feeding the birds. If you just want to help them through the winter as a practical means of supporting local wildlife - or if you enjoy birds in your garden and want to encourage them to visit your feeders and breed in your vicinity.
The sort of mixes we feed to the birds nowadays are all pretty good at providing a balanced diet and so the birds know where to come to get a good feed and they will bring their young to your feeders as well when they leave the nest. If you want to encourage this, then specific mixes for the different seasons work really well, just like us birds need a balanced but varied diet and at different seasons their needs change. British Bird Food have a seasonal range of mixes that takes away the difficulty of what and when to feed. they speak for themselves. Winter mix, Spring/Summer mix and Autumn mix.
If you just want to support the birds through harsh winter conditions or from Winter through to Spring, then you need a good high energy mix that the birds will find and soon realise where it is and then come back for more. High Energy No Mess mix is ideal for this.
If you want to attract specific birds then you need to try different mixes for a few weeks at a time to see if the birds will come. You can also feed straight seeds like Niger seed or Sunflower hearts these will both attract finches and the Sunflower hearts are very high in oil content and so will make an ideal food for the birds throughout the winter months. Niger seed is very fine seed (like Tea) and so you do need a special feeder with small apertures.
In summary, if you want to feed the birds for a short time when their natural food is scarce, then feed a high energy mix or straight Sunflower Hearts. If you want to encourage birds into your garden all year round then use a mix of seeds with varying ingredients that allow them to develope their natural attributes at the appropriate time of year.
