Who eats what in the garden?

Not all garden birds eat the same things. A basic distinction is made between granivores and soft feeders. There are also flexible species that are considered omnivores. This classification will help you to understand which types of bird food should be offered at your feeding site in order to attract as many bird species as possible.

• Grain eaters have strong, short beaks and love seeds of all kinds. Typical seed eaters are, for example, finches (chaffinches, greenfinches, etc.), sparrows (sparrows) or buntings. In the wild, they crack hard seeds and grains without any problems. At the feeding place, they particularly like to eat sunflower seeds, cereal grains, hemp seeds, poppy seeds and other oily seeds. Coarse grain food is ideal for these species – it reliably attracts sparrows or greenfinches, for example.
• Soft feeders, on the other hand, have pointed, thinner beaks and often look for their food on the ground. These include species such as blackbirds, thrushes, robins, wrens and dunnocks. In the wild, they mainly eat soft food: insects, worms, spiders and soft fruit and berries. They have little use for hard grains – so it is better to offer these species soft food. Suitable foods include oat flakes, raisins, finely chopped fruit (e.g. apples) or dried berries. Proteins are also important: when feeding wild birds for soft feeders, some animal food such as dried insects or mealworms should be mixed in. This will make blackbirds & co. feel at home at your feeding station.
• Omnivores are the “generalists” among birds, so to speak. Tits of all kinds (e.g. great tit, blue tit), woodpeckers such as the great spotted woodpecker or the nuthatch have a flexible diet. They eat insects and fruit as well as grains. In winter, these species even switch their diet to grains when insects become scarce. Tits, for example, love sunflower seeds and peanuts as well as the tit dumplings that give them their name. Nuthatches and woodpeckers also like to peck at grain food, but also appreciate fat food (e.g. fat blocks) and occasional animal snacks. For omnivores, you can therefore provide a varied diet: they will accept almost anything that grain or soft food eaters like.

Why is this distinction important? If you only offer one type of food, only certain types of birds will eat it. One-sided feeding (e.g. only grains) does not help soft food eaters. A mix of different types of food is therefore ideal in order to cater for as many species as possible. In the next section, we look at the types of bird food available and how you can make your garden birds’ diet colorful and healthy.