How to help birds survive in winter and why cleaning bird feeders can prevent disease

Robins, blackbirds, blue tits, sparrows, starlings, goldfinch and chaffinches are all small songbirds that have adapted well to urban environments and rural gardens too, so much so that we tend to pay them little attention. 

Each of these common birds has charisma, with their colourful feathers, their characterful antics, their particular song, or their special life strategy. Each is well worth getting to know.

Blackbirds are generally taken to be the best at singing, sometimes spilling out their jazzy tunes at all hours of day and night. Their special song is much celebrated in poetry and prose, as they churn out long and complex verses designed to travel far among the tangle of branches in a woodland. 

As with most songbirds, males are more melodious than females, energetically staking claim to territory. Female blackbirds are content to make a gentle ‘chuck-chuck’ sound.

Robins are the most confident of little songbirds, happily adapted to the habitats of our gardens where they poke about for worms and other invertebrates among the fallen leaves and rich dark soils. Generally, the top few centimetres of woodland or garden soil is richest, nourished by all the fallen leaves each autumn, thus yielding the juiciest of worms. We assume the robins who follow us about the garden to be friendly little fellows, staying near us for companionship or curiosity. But the truth is that robins are just being opportunistic. They have learned that humans are good for poking in the soil, digging, sweeping, moving things around — all activities that expose fresh invertebrate fodder that robins like to feast upon.

Blue tits are the cutest, there is something about their delicate little features and fluffy yellow undersides that makes them especially endearing. According to the results of the annual Irish Garden Bird Survey, blue tits are found in 96% of Irish gardens in winter, making them almost as common as robins and blackbirds.

The Irish Garden Bird Survey, which runs each year, invites people to spend a short amount of time each week watching their garden birds and recording what they see. There is still time to participate as the survey is launched this week. People’s observations as part of the survey are collated by BirdWatch Ireland and the resulting data plays an important role in tracking the fortunes of some of Ireland’s most familiar and loved wild birds.

Watching garden birds with intent can sometimes lead to unexpected revelations. Chaffinches, for example, are stunning little birds, their breast and belly a rich peachy pink, contrasting with white stripes on their dark brown wings and a long dark tail. 

I was surprised to hear recently that these gorgeous creatures outnumber humans on the island of Ireland! If you look closely at the chaffinches in your garden, you might spot some similar-looking bramblings in among them. Bramblings breed in northern Scandinavia and are quite rare in Ireland, but last year’s Garden Bird Survey revealed that these winter visitors appear to be increasing here, availing of the seeds left out by householders during the coldest winter weather.

Feeding birds in wintertime helps many to survive when wild food is scarce. During nesting season in spring and summer, most songbirds eat invertebrates. Then in the autumn and winter, their needs adapt to what’s available and fruits and seeds become more of a mainstay. Small birds need to eat as much as a quarter of their body weight each day. From December, food can be hard to find, and survival can be a struggle. 

This is why so many songbirds appear in gardens especially in winter, seeking sustenance from the fruits on garden trees and shrubs and seeds from bird feeders.

This year, BirdWatch Ireland is advising householders to clean bird feeders thoroughly at least once a week. This is to control the trichomonas parasite, a problem that has been affecting finches who love to eat from garden feeders. Greenfinches, for example, which were present in over 90% of gardens in the early 2000s are now being recorded in fewer than half of gardens last winter, their numbers impacted by the parasite.

The population of many common birds here is healthy and stable, but some species are not coping well with recent land use changes or the ways of modern humans. Only 40 years ago, lapwings were a feature of farms all over the country, and were considered the national bird of Ireland. Now their numbers have diminished drastically, dropped by half their former range in only 40 years. 

Similarly, Curlew, a common breeding bird in every county only 40 years ago, is now reduced to a mere 140 breeding pairs, which means that 90% of the Irish breeding population has been lost since the 1970s. Even starlings, still widespread and common across Ireland, performers of one of the most spectacular of avian displays —starling murmurations — have experienced population decline of 50% in recent decades. 

Their insect prey has become less common in the cowpats and soils of farmland fields. The common birds we take for granted today may not be so common in the future.

Keeping an eye on what birds visit the garden can help us attune to the coming and going of various species. Sometimes there are unusual birds turn up, such charismatic and colourful Great spotted woodpeckers. These birds went extinct here in the 18th century but have returned and are now regular visitors to garden peanut feeders. Their recovery is a heartening story of one species bucking the trend and bouncing back.

Getting to know our characterful common birds can be a real joy, especially in the heart of winter. Participating in the Garden Bird Survey gives structure to your observations and will surely enhance what you see.

This article was first published on November 30, 2022