The best way to feed the birds in your garden 

Feeders can assist our feathered friends' survival during the winter months

Bird feeders will attract many birds to the garden and help to sustain them over the winter but the best thing we can do in the garden is provide safety and plants which they can feed upon. Picture: iStock

AS THE temperatures are dipping, it's time to reach for the bird feeders. Perhaps yours has been out all summer or maybe it just gets taken out for the winter months.

Why do we feed wild birds? As a question, this has many answers, firstly, from a human perspective, it may be to feel that we are doing something for the natural world, after our race has done so much damage to it or, maybe it is because we delight in admiring them, flocking to the garden and filling up on the feeders. I challenge anyone not to light up in a smile when seeing a busy bird feeder.