Spring Is the Busiest Season in a Bird-Friendly Garden

By the time the clocks go forward, your garden has already been quietly busy for weeks. Blackbirds are turning over leaf litter, blue tits are investigating every gap in a fence post, and the first chiffchaffs may already be singing from a neighbour's tree. Spring is when resident birds pair up, hold territory and start the serious business of raising young — and a few well-timed jobs now will pay you back with a garden full of activity right through to autumn.

The trick is to work with the season rather than against it. Some tasks are best done early, before birds commit to a site. Others are best left alone entirely until summer is over. Here is what to get on with, and what to hold back on.

Give Your Feeders a Proper Spring Clean

Feeding stations that saw heavy use through winter will be carrying a build-up of droppings, old seed husks and damp crumbs. Warm weather turns those into a breeding ground for mould and bacteria, and diseases such as trichomonosis spread quickly where birds congregate on dirty surfaces. A thorough clean now, and regularly through the breeding season, is one of the kindest things you can do.

• Take feeders apart and wash them in hot, soapy water, using a bottle brush for tube feeders and a small brush for the ports.
• Rinse thoroughly — birds should not be picking up traces of detergent — then leave everything to dry completely in the sun before refilling.
• A weak disinfectant solution made for pet housing works well on stubborn grime; always rinse and dry afterwards.
• Keep two sets of feeders so you can swap a clean one in while the other dries. Aim to clean once a fortnight in cool weather and weekly once it warms up.
• Sweep up spilled seed and husks from beneath the feeders, and move the feeder to a fresh spot if the ground below has become foul.

Offer a mix of foods: sunflower hearts and nyjer for finches, suet for insect-eaters, mealworms for robins and dunnocks. Avoid whole peanuts in spring, as they can be a choking risk for nestlings — stick to peanut granules or leave peanuts out until autumn.

Hang Nesting Boxes Where Birds Will Use Them

If you have not already put boxes up, do it now — many birds are still prospecting for sites in March and early April, and a box that goes up this week may well be occupied. Position matters more than you might think.

• Face the box between north and east, avoiding strong sun and prevailing wind and rain.
• Mount it 2–5 metres up on a wall, tree or post, with a clear flight path in and no branches directly in front of the hole.
• Choose the hole size for the bird you hope to attract: 25mm suits blue, coal and marsh tits; 32mm for house sparrows, tree sparrows and nuthatches; 45mm for starlings.
• Tilt the box slightly forward and fit a metal plate around the hole if squirrels or woodpeckers have caused trouble before.
• Avoid boxes with perches, which help predators, and never site one close to a feeder where birds queue and squabble.

Open-fronted boxes, tucked into a climbing plant or a sheltered wall, are the ones robins, wrens and spotted flycatchers prefer.

Step Away from the Hedge Trimmer

This is the single most important restraint of the season. By mid-March, blackbirds, dunnocks, robins and many others are already nesting in hedges, and a hedge that looks tidy from the outside may be hiding a nest in active use. Cutting it now can destroy eggs or young, and disturb the adults so badly that they abandon the site.

Leave hedges, ivy, climbers and dense shrubs untouched from March through to the end of August. If a hedge genuinely must be trimmed for safety or access, check it carefully first, work from one end slowly, and stop immediately if you find a nest. Native hedges of hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and holly are among the best nesting habitat you can offer, so the reward for leaving them be is considerable.

Sow Hardy Annuals Now for Seeds and Insects

Spring sowing is quiet, patient work that pays off spectacularly in late summer. Hardy annuals sown directly into a sunny border in late March and April will flower from June onwards, feeding bees and hoverflies, and then producing the seed heads that goldfinches, greenfinches and siskins adore.

• Cornflower, calendula, nigella, borage, poached egg plant and annual poppies are all easy from seed and generous with nectar.
• Night-scented stock and evening primrose bring in moths after dark, which in turn feed bats.
• Sunflowers are worth the space — the flowers feed pollinators and the seed heads keep finches busy into October.
• Sow in drifts rather than single lines; clumps of the same flower are far easier for insects to find.
• Leave the seed heads standing through winter rather than cutting everything back in autumn.

Water, Shelter and Small Comforts

Birds need clean water year-round, and it matters just as much in spring as in a hard frost. Put out a shallow dish with a gently sloping side, or add a few stones to a deeper bowl so small birds can bathe safely. Refresh it daily and scrub it out every few days, particularly in warm spells when disease risk rises.

Finally, resist the urge to tidy every corner. A small pile of logs, a patch of long grass left unmown until July, and a few dandelions and daisies left to seed will all supply insects for growing chicks. Do the practical jobs well, leave the wilder edges alone, and your garden will do the rest.