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RSPB WILDLIFE EXPLORERS

Look outside the window.

Are your bird tables and feeders full of birds and bird food? Good! Now what do you think the birds would eat if we didn't feed them? Next time you watch the birds in your garden, don't just look at the ones queuing up for the birdfeeders. You'll see that different birds find natural foods in quite different ways

	As well as feeding on lawns, Blackbirds love fallen leaves. They toss leaves away to find small edible creatures underneath. They will even do the same with snow! But how do they know to dig under that particular bit of snow or to look under a certain leaf? They listen, with very sensitive ears
	Blue tits, however, examine everything very closely just in case they can eat it. They spend only half their time on a branch the right way up. Often, they hang upside down, peering under leaves and into cracks in bark. It can take a blue tit half an hour to search through a whole tree, examining each branch and leaf as it goes.
	Thousands of Starlings come here every winter, some from as far away as Russia . They come to escape the cold winters, and especially frozen ground. To feed, a starling sticks its beak in to the ground, and then opens it to make a hole. A starling's eyes swivel to point forward so it can see if there's a tasty insect grub in the hole. But when the ground freezes a starling can't push its beak in. And even if it could, it would find that most of the grubs have dug themselves in that bit deeper to avoid the frost. At this point, the starling switches to berries, seeds and grain. It's harder to digest these so the starling's gut grows longer in the winter to get the most out of its food.
	You can watch a Dunnock hopping forward, pecking all day under bushes without apparently picking up anything. You'd think it would struggle to survive. Dunnocks mostly eat insects, but will eat nettle, grass and weed seeds in the winter. A dunnock has to spend nearly all its time in winter feeding, just to survive the long, cold nights. And if you don't think there are enough seeds to keep a dunnock alive, just think where the weeds in your garden come from all from seeds that dunnocks and other birds missed!
	House sparrows mainly eat plants, whatever the time of year.sparrows have chunky, seed-eater's beaks, and they will tackle all manner of seeds and grain. They either separate the seed from its husk with their beak or they pull the seed apart to get to the good bit the starch that the seed would have used when it was time to grow. We use this same starch to make flour for bread. This is why many birds are happy to eat scraps of bread from your birdtable.

Make a recycled bird feeder

Make a bird feeder from the bottles you would throw away.

Stuff you need

Plastic bottles Milk carton String Wire Birdseed Scissors

Plastic drinks bottles or milk cartons (make sure they're clean), wire or string, bird seed, scissors.

Instructions

Cut a hole in the side large enough to allow a free flow of seeds, but in such a way that it won’t all fall out on the ground in the slightest puff of wind, and won’t get wet if it rains

Step 1

Make a few small holes in the bottom of your feeder to allow any rainwater to drain away. (remember some seed is very small)

Step 2

Hang it with wire, or even strong string from a tree or your washing line.

Step 3 Stubborn worm