Long Winter Not Just for Tits

Long Winter Not Only for Tits

Winter is lingering a bit longer and getting harsher. For those who enjoy not only skiing but also like to care for their surroundings, winter offers the opportunity to feed birds that overwinter here. This mainly concerns small birds, with the most numerous being the tit family. These small, industrious birds feed on insects.

The Great Tit (Parus) is the most numerous genus of tit songbirds. They hop around our windows and on trees in the garden. We can see them daily, and thanks to their social behavior, they immediately respond to new seed mix in the feeder. How do we recognize them? Tits have a relatively large head, an almost straight pointed beak, strong legs and claws. Their wings are short and rounded, with a medium-length tail. Throughout most of the year, tits flock together with other bird species, such as nuthatches, treecreepers, and other small songbirds. Their diet is predominantly insects, which they collect from trees. In the garden, they are valuable helpers in fighting insect pests. Tits are generally very useful birds. They feed on insects even in winter, which is why they may struggle to find sufficient food, and many birds die during winter. We can help them by building water sources and nest boxes, or through winter feeding. Suitable feed includes oil-rich seeds – for example, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, walnut kernels, pumpkin seeds, apples, etc. You can have a bird feeder outside your apartment window, on a tree in a park you like to visit, or at home in your garden.

Feeders should be placed so they are protected from harsh weather, rain, and snow. This prevents the wind from blowing away the prepared seeds. Keep the feeder for small birds clean to prevent mold and infection. If you have a shelter, you can hang fat balls directly there without a feeder. If you're not a fan of feeder architecture but prefer a practical and quick solution, a plastic feeder already filled with bird seed will suit you well.

What other bird species might we encounter at our feeder - blackbirds, house sparrows, tree sparrows, collared doves, great tits and blue tits, goldfinches, greenfinches, woodpeckers (spotted woodpeckers, black woodpeckers), nuthatches, among birds of prey - common buzzards, sparrowhawks, owls. On unfrozen waters: mallards, mute swans, common moorhens, coots, little grebes, several gull species (most commonly black-headed gulls), and in pond areas, white-tailed eagles.

Due to warmer winters, individuals of some migratory species increasingly attempt to overwinter - blackcaps, black redstarts, lesser whitethroats, and even white storks.

Biological garden protection - having and maintaining beneficial birds in your garden, orchard or forest is an important task for every gardener. Birds help protect the garden from pests. All our tits feed on spiders, insects and all their overwintering stages (eggs, pupae), and feed their young mainly with soft caterpillars. They thoroughly collect insects from tree branches and shrubs, rarely hunting in flight. They don't disdain leftovers from larger predators either. For deciduous trees, the most useful is the great tit and the somewhat smaller blue tit. Nine great tit chicks can consume up to 7,580 caterpillars and other insects during their nineteen days in the nest box. Tits destroy around 47% of overwintering codling moth larvae.

Another widespread representative of beneficial birds is the Common Blackbird (Latin: Turdus merula). The blackbird is quite a peculiar little bird. It can usurp an entire feeder for itself. Therefore, it's recommended to hang something like an apple separately next to the feeder. Its usefulness isn't that remarkable. It feeds mainly on earthworms, fruit, berries and doesn't disdain various found leftovers either. Besides hunting unpopular slugs, the cheeky blackbird can quickly devastate a vegetable bed. However, it makes up for this with its entertaining nature, running after you like a little dog.

Birds in the garden are a joy. Also get binoculars for the feeder and enjoy nature.

Author: Hana Michalíková