Accompany wild birds safely through autumn and winter with the right food

Feeding wild birds

What do wild birds eat?

Especially in winter, many native wild birds need our support, as the icy temperatures, snow and frost make it extremely difficult for them to find food.

Reliable winter feeding for birds

Important in advance: If you start feeding wild birds, you must continue to do so reliably until the end of the winter. The small feathered creatures rely on the food available at the feeders. If this food source is lost, they can quickly starve to death.

What are wild birds not allowed to eat?

Simply giving birds bread or seasoned leftovers can quickly become dangerous for the birds. Bread can swell up in the stomach and they also cannot tolerate spices and salt.

What food should you feed wild birds?

So what should you feed wild birds? Our native bird species have different requirements for their food. They can be roughly divided into granivores, soft feeders and omnivores.

Grain eaters have a strong beak and can use it to break open even hard shells. They love coarse grains such as sunflower seeds and nuts. The best-known representatives here are finches, sparrows, siskins and bullfinches.
The beaks of soft food eaters are not as powerful. This is why they prefer oat flakes, poppy seeds, ground nuts, sultanas and dried fruit. Robins, blackbirds and starlings are typical soft feeders.
As their name suggests,omnivores are flexible in their food intake. They can eat both hard grains and soft seeds. All species of tits, woodpeckers, nuthatches and jays are also known as mixed feeders.

Buy wild bird food

What are fat balls?

Tit or energy dumplings are a mixture of fat and grains pressed into a round shape. The fat used is mostly beef or pork tallow and is particularly high in particularly high in energywhich is useful in the cold season. One advantage is that the fat protects the grains from getting wet. These tit dumplings or rings are suitable for soft feeders and omnivores suitable.

An interesting alternative to tit dumplings are filled sunflower heads which, like the fat bird food dumpling, contain bird food.

Which is better - bird feeders or feed dispensers?

The advantage of the feeder over the bird house is that it is more hygienic . In an open feeder the birds hop over the food, soil it and, in the worst case, spread pathogens. As the birds only come into contact with the food they eat at the feeder, the risk of disease transmission is lower here. We recommend setting up several dispensers and filling them with different types of food so that all birds get their money's worth - regardless of whether they are granivores, soft feeders or omnivores.

Tip: If you don't want to do without your bird feeder , you should clean it every 4 weeks or so with hot water and gloves.

The right place for birdhouses & co

Here are a few more tips and ideas for the right place for your bird feeder:

Keep a sufficient distance from glass panes (around 2 metres)
Choosea place protected from the wind
Make it cat-proof: Attach the bird feeder to a smooth metal or plastic tube at least 1.5 metres above the ground. Cat defence belts are available for trees - a wire frame that prevents the hunters from climbing the tree trunk.
The feeding site should be clearly visible so that predators cannot sneak up unnoticed. Trees and bushes should be available in the immediate vicinity as a place of retreat