How To Support Birds In Your Garden

As the days shorten and temperatures cool, gardens shift from abundance to rest. For birds, autumn is a time of preparation — building energy reserves, migrating, or finding safe shelter for the winter ahead. With a little planning, your garden can become a haven for feathered visitors. The more plants and habitats you include in your outside space, the more you’re playing your part in ensuring our threatened and precious garden birds have a future.

Here are five simple ways to help birds in autumn.

Keep Feeders Topped Up

While autumn brings natural food sources like seeds, nuts, and berries, these supplies don’t last long, especially as more birds pass through during migration. Regularly filling feeders ensures that birds have a reliable source of nourishment. High-energy foods such as sunflower hearts, suet balls, and peanuts are particularly valuable, giving birds the calories they need to sustain themselves through colder nights.

Offering a variety of feeders — hanging feeders for tits, ground feeders for robins and blackbirds, and tables for larger species — means more birds can benefit from what you provide.

Provide Fresh, Unfrozen Water

Food may be abundant in early autumn, but water can be harder to find. Birds need it not only for drinking but also for bathing, which helps them keep their feathers in top condition for insulation and flight. A shallow birdbath or dish of fresh water placed in a visible, open spot can make a big difference.

Remember to clean it regularly to prevent disease from spreading, and as frosts begin, check daily to ensure it hasn’t frozen over. Something as simple as topping up a dish with water each morning can become a lifeline for birds at this time of year.

Plant and Preserve Autumn Berries

Autumn berries are nature’s way of feeding the birds, but modern gardening habits often strip gardens of this essential food source. Plants like rowan, hawthorn, cotoneaster, pyracantha, and holly provide berries that ripen just as natural insect supplies decline. If you already have berrying shrubs, resist the temptation to prune them too early — those vibrant clusters are an important autumn buffet.

If you’re planning ahead, consider adding one or two bird-friendly shrubs to your garden this season; they’ll not only provide food but also add rich autumnal color and structure to your planting scheme.

Offer Shelter and Nesting Spots

As the weather turns, birds need safe roosting places to escape the wind, rain, and eventual frosts. Autumn is the perfect time to put up nest boxes, giving birds time to find and get used to them before winter sets in. Don’t worry if breeding season is over — many birds use boxes and other shelters as overnight roosts in the colder months.

Leaving hedges untrimmed and allowing ivy or dense shrubs to grow creates natural hiding spots, while piles of leaves, twigs, or logs in a quiet corner of the garden can provide both shelter and insect food.

Keep the Garden Safe

A bird-friendly garden isn’t just about food and shelter — it’s also about safety. Clean feeders and birdbaths regularly to stop the spread of harmful diseases. If you have cats, keep them indoors during peak bird activity in the mornings and evenings, or fit their collars with bells to reduce hunting success.

Avoid using pesticides and slug pellets, which can poison birds directly or reduce the insects they rely on for food. Even small actions, like placing feeders away from windows or adding stickers to glass, can prevent collisions and keep visiting birds safe.