Birds will feed on many types of food so encourage a variety of species into your garden by providing a variety of food.
Parent birds need protein-rich food to feed their chicks so live food is very important for birds particularly during the spring and summer. Encourage caterpillars and insects into your garden naturally with plants. You can also buy mealworms, both live and dried, from specialist suppliers.
Don't leave out whole peanuts, or other dry hard foods during the breeding season as young chicks can choke on them. Crushed peanuts are better and will attract robins and dunnocks. Always buy peanuts for birds from a reputable supplier so they don't contain aflatoxins, which are poisonous to birds.
Put sunflower seeds in a plastic feeder or on a tray. They'll attract a range of species and are safe for year round feeding. Buy sunflower hearts without the seed casing for less mess.
Seed mixes will attract a variety of species, but to target smaller birds, use single seed or mixes that don't contain cereals such as oatmeal and wheat. Niger seeds are very small seeds and fall out of most feeders so mix them with other seeds in a plastic feeder or put them on a tray. Finches are particularly fond of niger.
Cut a fresh coconut in half, drain it and hang it up for tits. Avoid desiccated coconut as this can swell up in bird's stomachs.
To survive the cold, small birds such as blue tits must eat a quarter of their body weight in food each day so high protein foods and fat are needed. Put out unsalted, finely chopped bacon rinds, solidified dripping or grated hard cheese. In the winter hang a fat feeder for some extra nutrition.
Birds will eat pet food and tinned dog or cat food is ideal as it is cheap and nutritious and is especially popular with starlings. Avoid dog biscuits though as they are too hard and may cause them to choke.
Porridge oats or coarse oatmeal is popular with many species such as chaffinches and bramblings. You can also put out cooked potatoes.
Although you may remember seeing blue tits pecking open the foil tops of milk bottles, never give birds milk. It can cause serious digestive problems. The blue tits were in fact after the fat-rich cream.
Plant bird friendly trees and shrubs for a continuous food supply. Holly and ivy are good winter food producers for woodpigeons, thrushes and blackcaps. Spindle berries play a vital role in keeping robins alive over winter.
You can buy a variety of straight bird seeds and live bird food online.
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