Responsible feeding of our local birds, Garden Route
Garden Route Birds have tackled all the common foods that people feed to birds, offering you the correct information on the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Our feathered friends, like us, have preferences as to what and where they will eat, and if they don’t like a certain food they won’t eat it.
Suet
Suet is fantastic for birds and there are many commercial suets available. Our favourite is Elaine’s Nutritious BirdGrub, or you can simply make your own. Here is a recipe that birds simply LOVE!
Terry’s Winter Bird Cakes
2 cups of oats
2 cups mealie meal (maize meal)
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup mutton or beef fat
1/3 (one third) of a cup of sugar.
1 cup wild bird seed and some extra to decorate.
Buy the fat off-cuts from your butcher, as it is really cheap. Place the fat chunks in a pot and cook until it is all rendered. Strain and let it set. Boil again, strain, and let it set.
When you are ready, place all the dry ingredients into an oven-proof bowl. The fat goes on really hot, so your dish must be heat-suitable. Boil up the fat again and then add it to the dry ingredients. Stir it all up really well.
You can make balls, but it can be horridly messy. It’s easier to take some swiss roll type tins, line them with baking paper, and press the mixture in and flatten. Cut into blocks before they cool.
If you make balls and the mixture becomes too hard before you finish, then microwave it to soften and continue. Roll your balls in the extra wild bird seed, or press some onto your slabs while the mixture is still soft.
If you don’t have a little basket to hang your treats up in trees, then I know you will use your creativity to make a plan, If you make holes through the blocks whilst still soft, you could thread the with a string,
Cheep! Cheep!!…… You will be so richly rewarded for your efforts!
This is truly a recipe filled with love.
Bread
Please don’t feed bread to your garden birds or water birds like ducks, geese and seagulls. Although it’s tempting to break up human food for them to gobble up, it offers very little nutrition. Rather offer them birdseed or crushed maize.
Sugar
Many people assume that because sugar is bad for humans, it must be bad for birds. Wrong! Sugar is not bad for birds, it is a regular component of their natural diet. Offering a simple 1:5 sugar water solution in your nectar feeder is a great way to attract nectar-feeding birds to your garden and help to supplement their natural feeding!
Peanut Butter
Peanut butter is perfectly fine for the birds provided it doesn’t contain xylitol or artificial sweeteners! It is very often used in suet recipes. Other ways to offer it to the birds is to cover a pinecone or empty toilet roll in peanut butter and then cover it in wild bird seed! The birds will absolutely love it. Happy Feeding!
Marmite
Marmite, Bovril, and other vegetable and meat extract spreads are not for the birds. It is a common misconception that these processed spreads can be added to suet and nectar to add additional vitamins. But they are neither natural or necessary and could potentially affect digestion and have long term side effects. In nectar bottles, they cause the nectar to ferment quickly which will cause gastric issues. Stick to a simple 1:5 sugar and water solution that closely mimics natural nectar.
Cheese
Certain cheese is a perfectly fine treat for the birds. Most people know that Drongos love cheese, but loads of other birds will also enjoy it including Robins, Boubous, Starlings, Shrikes, flycatchers, and even the Brown-hooded Kingfisher!
Honey
While you may think that honey is all good and natural, it actually offers minimal nutrition for birds and ferments quickly in nectar feeders. Rather use a simple 1:5 sugar and water solution which closely mimics the nectar they find in flowers!
Avocado
While most fruit is perfectly fine for birds, we know that avo is toxic to certain birds like parrots! While we don’t know if it has the same effect on our wild birds, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Keep your lovely avos for your own guacamole!
Mealworms
A natural and nutritious snack that your garden birds will love! During the breeding season, you’ll notice the parents fill their beaks with worms to take back to the nest to feed their young. The worms are easy to breed and even the more squeamish of us can learn to deal with them! The birds certainly prefer the live wriggly worms, but the dried worms can also be used by adding them to suet for extra protein. It’s best to offer the live worms in smallish quantities in a small dish they can’t easily escape from.
Beetroot
It is a common misconception that beetroot is a natural way to colour nectar to attract birds. However, natural nectar certainly doesn’t contain beetroot and we don’t know what the long term side effects could be, or how it could possibly affect their digestion. Natural nectar from flowers is clear so please only use a simple 1:5 sugar and water solution that closely mimics natural nectar.
Xylitol
In December 2017, it was documented that twenty-nine wild Cape sugarbirds died after ingesting a homemade xylitol nectar solution from a bird feeder. Please do not use artificial sweeteners or xylitol in your nectar feeders as these are deadly to birds (and to your pets and other animals too). Sucrose, as sugar is part of the bird’s natural diet, and a simple 1:5 sugar and water solution closely mimics natural nectar. Please help us share this information so we can help prevent another such tragedy.
Thank you to Dionne Miles for this beautiful photo of a Cape Sugarbird
Red Nectar
Natural nectar is clear and red colouring is neither natural nor necessary. We also do not know the long term effects it could have on our birds. A simple sugar syrup of 1 part sugar to 5 parts water closely mimics the natural nectar found in flowers! Please do not add any of the following: Food colouring, fruit juice, honey, Oros, Marmite, Bovril, Molasses, or artificial sweeteners.
Help us share this around the world and put an end to red nectar!
Keep feeders clean
With the lovely warmer weather today, you may have noticed that your birds were feeding less… and that any nectar they didn’t finish may have gone a bit milky. Sugar water can ferment quickly in the heat, especially if your feeder is in the sun or has not been cleaned properly. Make sure you thoroughly clean your nectar bottles and spouts each time you refill them and discard any nectar as soon as it starts to discolour. If you won’t drink from it, then your birds shouldn’t either.
Natural Nectar
When offering nectar to our birds, as with all feeding, it’s really important that we keep it as natural as possible. A simple sugar syrup of 1 part sugar to 5 parts water is perfect! Unfortunately, there are a lot of old wives’ tales around this, and people mean well and don’t know any better.
For more information or advice visit the Garden Route Birds Facebook Page.