Berries for Birds
Sep 28th, 2008 by Birdy Trish
There is a lot of wild bird food in among the countryside
Rose hip berries colourful and edible
The rosehip is a large berry and blackbirds and thrushes find it easy to eat. Smaller birds give it a miss!
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THE ELDERBERRY BUSH WITH ELDERBERRIES
Elderberries - a feast for Thrushes
Thrushes and starlings like the elderberry.
NESTING: The elderberry hedge also provides nest sites for chaffinches, blackbirds and thrushes.
We have a large elderberry bush in our back garden. Last year when all the foliage had gone we could see a birds nest perched in the branches.
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THE BRAMBLE
Brambles for Yorkshire birds
Wild hawthorn berry
The hawthorn hedge gives lovely hawthorn berries in early winter.
BERRIES AS FOOD. Blackbirds, redwings, fieldfares and wingwings are among the birds that feast on the dark red haw berries of the hawthorn. There have been 22 species that have been recorded (nationally) feeding on the haw berry
NESTING: The hawthorn hedge / shrub make is possible for thrushes, finches, buntings and warblers to nest inside it’s branches.
Hawthorn can be left and will grow into a ‘hawthorn tree’
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All these bushes grow within a few hundred yards of where I live. I live on a farm. Farmers can’t be all that bad when it comes to birds and wildlife can they?
These photographs were taken as I walked a few steps along the hedgerow. I think it took me five minutes to take all the photographs. What a feast and a tangle of different varieties make up this marvellous old hedge.
We started from scratch with a laurel hedge, an apple tree and a small shrub. All of them have grown and all of them are being used by birds. If I can do it you can do it. Even if you plant one small bird friendly shrub it will last for years.
If you don’t have a garden and yet want to feed birds then I have a wall mounted bird table that may interest you. And there are bird window feeders that can be filled with food. It would give you such a close up view if any birds came right up to your window.
We can all help our feathered friends.
