birds

natural places home tweet home Birds are amazing creatures, they can live almost anywhere in the world, from the cold Arctic to the Sahara Desert. Bird species have different body shapes and behaviours to help them live where they do.

Birds provide some amazing spectacles including murmerations of Starlings to their colourful displays on the garden feeder.

Birds are a common sight and welcome visitor to our gardens. They have the added benefit of eating pests, like slugs, snails, beetle grubs and caterpillars which eat our plants and crops. They are also a good indicator of the quality of our environment – the greater the variety and number of birds the healthier the environment.

the secret of flight Birds fly using their wings and feathers. Feathers are what set birds apart from all other vertebrates. They help birds to fly, control their temperature, attract a mate and hide from predators. There are many different sizes and shapes of wings.

Some birds, like the Albatross, spend a long time in the air and hardly come down to land at all. They have enormous wing spans to catch the slightest breeze coming up off the surface of the sea. Other birds can't fly at all, like the Ostrich.

Feathers overlap one another, a bit like roof tiles. This streamlines a bird for flight and helps to keep out wind and rain. Most birds replace old feathers once a year after breeding through moulting.

which food? The beak has two key functions ­ building nests and catching food. A bird’s diet, which is affected by the environment they live in, has caused adaptations in their beak shape and size. Garden birds possess beaks of all shapes and sizes; long and thin, short and stout, hooked, thin and short; even crossed.

At different times of the year local habitats can present unique feeding opportunities. Any given bird species may eat a variety of foods as they are available. A bird species may fall into one of the following categories ­ Seed Eater, Insect Eater, Generalist or Raptor. The diet of a bird may vary to include other types of food. Insect Eater

Seed Eater

Generalist

Raptor Sparrow DIDYOU Gealbhan KNOW Sparrows nest in roofs and roost in bushes

FOOD ­ Seeds, buds, fruits and insects CALL ­ simple cheeping and chattering noises SIZE ­ 14 ­ 16cm Blue Tit DIDYOU Mionntán KNOW Gorm Blue Tits nest in holes and nestboxes

FOOD ­ Insects, spiders, seeds CALL ­ see see LENGTH ­ 14 cm Robin DIDYOU Spídeog KNOW Male Robins fight fiercely over territory

FOOD ­ invertebrates CALL ­ melodious tic­tic­tic LENGTH ­ 12.5 ­ 14cm Goldfinch DIDYOU Lasair KNOW Choille Goldfinches gather in large Autumn flock

FOOD ­ seeds and berries CALL ­simple twit a twit LENGTH ­ 12­13.5cm Fieldfare DIDYOU Sacán KNOW flocks of Fieldfares feed in bushes or on the ground

FOOD ­ insects, worms, berries and fruit CALL ­ squeaky chak chak LENGTH ­ 22­27cm Chiffchaff DIDYOU Tiuf­Teaf KNOW Chiffchaffs hover to pick insects from a leaf

FOOD ­ Insects CALL ­ song is slow repeated chiff chaff LENGTH ­ 10­12cm Blackbird DIDYOU Lon Dubh KNOW Blackbirds hop across lawns to spot prey

FOOD ­ worms, insects, invertebrates, berries, seeds and fruit CALL ­ many different songs including chink chink chink Kestrel DIDYOU Pocaire KNOW? Gaoithe Kestrels hover above ground then drop onto prey

FOOD ­ small mammals, birds and large insects CALL ­ repeated kee­kee­ kee­kee LENGTH ­ 31­37cm helping out Sometimes our feathered friends need a helping hand, due to loss of habitat or lack of food.

It is important to help birds get through the winter, when it is very cold and food is scarce. Cold weather drives larger numbers of birds to look for food and shelter in our gardens.

It's fine to feed birds all year round ­ just adjust the amount you put out. However, be careful during the Spring and Summer months. Parent birds may take loose peanuts or dry hard food back to their nests ­ young birds can choke on these Different species of birds prefer different foods, in the different seasons and different parts of the country. So why not try some of these practical ideas to help:

1. Food ­ try different types of food, and adapt to what works best in your garden

2. Feeders ­ use good quality feeders and roofed bird tables which will keep food dry and stop it going off

3. Location ­ place feeders out in the open and high enough so they are out of reach of ground predators like cats. However, they need to be close enough to thick cover like bushes, so that small birds can hide