Further information about feeding birds Why feed birds ? By providing food and water you can increase the number and variety of birds in your garden enjoy seeing wild birds at close quarters help birds survive periods of severe winter help ensure birds are in good breeding condition in the spring What food to provide Kitchen scraps Crumbled up brown and white bread is suitable, but moisten it if very dry. Mouldy bread is unlikely to harm birds. Pastry is popular. Cooked rice, brown and white, without salt added. Dry porridge oats or coarse oatmeal. Fat, including suet, is particular welcomed by tits, great spotted woodpeckers, thrushes and wrens. Bacon rind, chopped up finely, can benefit robins as well as tits, but avoid very salty bacon. Grated cheese is a favourite of robins. Potatoes - baked (cold and opened up), roast and even mashed, are all suitable. Wildfowl also enjoy them if you live near water. Dried fruits, such as raisins and sultanas, are particularly enjoyed by blackbirds, song thrushes and robins.Apples, including bruised and part rotten ones, cut up, are very popular with all thrushes, including blackbirds and starlings also love them. Bird cake - make by pouring melted fat (suet or lard) onto a mixture of ingredients such as seeds, nuts, dried fruit, oatmeal, cheese and cake. Use about one-third fat to two-thirds mixture. Stir well in a bowl and turn out onto a bird table when solidified. Bird seed mixture Proprietary mixtures are available for wild birds in pet stores and some markets. The better mixtures contain plenty of flaked maize. broken peanuts (see warning below) and sunflower seeds. Peanuts These are rich in fat and are very popular with tits, greenfinches, house sparrows and, if you are fortunate, nuthatches, great spotted woodpeckers and siskins. Only buy peanuts with the Birdfood Standard motif, peanuts provided for human consumption are not suitable. You can buy peanut kernels for wild birds as well. Never give salted peanuts to wild birds unless they have been thoroughly washed and dried in an oven. Coconut Fresh coconut in the shell is very popular with tits and you can put the bird cake mentioned earlier in the dry shell afterwards ! Desiccated coconut is unsuitable as bird food. Mealworms These are relished by robins normally and may attract insect eating-birds such as pied wagtails. Supplies can be obtained from most pet stores Water Birds need a consistent supply of water to survive as well !  so make sure water dishes are kept topped up, especially in freezing conditions. Never put salt or antifreeze in the water to prevent it from freezing ! Precautions when feeding birds To reduce the risk of disease, such as salmonella poisoning, which mainly affects greenfinches and house sparrows, move the feeding site once or twice during winter and scrub down the birdtable or tray often. Collared doves are susceptible to Trichomoniasis (canker). If they start dying, do not put any food out, except in tit feeders, for at least a month. Avoid leaving large quantities of food on or near the ground after dark as this could attract rats.