Birds, Mammals and Wildlife Gardening – Homes and hiding places

Never forget that in addition to food and nesting places, birds need safe places to hide and survey your garden to make sure that it is safe to go to the food you’ve put out. One of the best habitats for British birds is a hedge, which not only offers safe nesting places that are often more secure than trees because the thinner branches and more interwoven growth makes it very difficult for cats to get to the nest, but also gives security from human interventions.

The most successful shrubs and trees in terms of bird habitat include:

Conifers especially Taxus (Yew) and Thuja Placata – birds will nest in these two species but also hide in them from cats and foxes – don’t trim these plants in the nesting season.

Crataegus – the hawthorn makes both a hedge or a small tree and is beloved of many small birds as a food source

Hedera or Ivy grown up a tree provides not only berries, but a hiding place for small birds like sparrows that tuck right under the leaves if they feel themselves at threat, but also the stems of the ivy give slightly larger birds a gripping point on the bark that gives them purchase to pick insects from the bark.

Ligustrum or Privet is, for some reason, a favourite nesting place for blackbirds.

Lonicera or Honeysuckle – is a plant that birds adore, they eat the berries and the plant itself is eaten by the larvae of many butterfly species – which are in turn, as caterpillars, eaten by birds.

Birds, mammals and wildlife gardening photograph blackbird by foxypar4, used under a creative commons attribution licence

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