If you want to help the birds on your farm to thrive, and encourage them to breed to boost their numbers, here are a few tips of what you can do:
- Putting out feeders with seeds throughout the winter to help all birds through the ‘hungry gap’ during late winter and early spring when food is scarce, and the weather is often cold and wet. Supplementary feed can be provided via game hoppers, broadcasted, or offered in dedicated songbird feeders such as the Perdix Farmland Bird Feeder. Once the spring is well established, there are other natural options available so feeding can cease, but this might be as late as May or even June.
- Planting and looking after hedgerows will help farmland birds for safe places to hide from predators and find berries to eat.
- Creating and keeping wide field margins – conservation headlands – where little or no pesticides are used, allowing some broad-leaved weeds to flourish, and sowing strips of plants to provide bird seed also help birds.
- Another tip is to leave some areas of land cultivated but uncropped to provide suitable nesting for birds that prefer to forage and nest on the ground, such as red-listed lapwing, skylark and stone curlew.
- A pond or wetland area around the farm can help attract wading birds.
- All these measures help to provide food, nesting habitat and a safe haven from predators. They can also all be funded through agri-environment schemes.