How to feed robins in your winter garden

Whether you're a gardening beginner or expert, Irish Examiner columnist Peter Dowdall has the answer to your questions

Sun, 12 Dec, 2021 - 12:00

Peter Dowdall

Santa's little messengers are all around the gardens at the moment, keeping an eye on us to see if we are all behaving ourselves and whilst I presume the naughty amongst us will no longer get a bag of coal and instead will be given a bag of eco-friendly heat logs, I still want to make the “good list”, whatever the chances.

If you have been naughty over the last 11 months, then it’s probably best now to resort to a bit of good, old-fashioned bribery and do your best to get the robins onside by being particularly nice to them.

Leave some robin food out on bird tables, high enough not to draw rodents and also not to be too low to put the feeding birds at risk from feline predators. They don’t really eat from bird feeders, preferring to eat directly off the ground or from trays and tables.

Sunflower hearts, which have the outer seed covering removed, crushed peanuts, mealworms and fruit are what they are particularly partial too. Leave some water out for them too and don’t forget to leave a stone in the drinker so that if it freezes, it’s very easy to crack the ice.

They will happily nest in your garden and they like to build their home somewhere nicely hidden and obscured, cosy in amongst ivy or in a tree cavity. You can easily fit nest boxes in ivy-covered walls, trees or sloping banks to help them.

Ivy in the garden doesn’t just provide a comfortable nesting location for robins, it plays a hugely important role in maintaining wildlife and promoting biodiversity. Ivy flowers during late summer and into early winter.

Irish Examiner gardening columnist Peter Dowdall. Picture: John Allen

The flowers are really very attractive when you stop to admire them. Blooming at this time of the year, these nectar and pollen-filled flowers are loved by bees as most of the wildflowers and our garden plants have stopped flowering.

As ever, the simpler the plant the better and the straightforward Hedera helix — also called English ivy or common ivy with its glossy green leaves — is the best of all so don’t think of ivy in the garden as a problem to be eradicated, it’s something to be welcomed. If it is too vigorous or growing in areas where you don’t want it, then certainly manage it by pruning and digging it up to remove it from where it has encroached but we must be careful when we prune and when we remove.

If we prune it back just before flowering at the end of the summer, then not only are we removing an important food source for bees and other pollinating insects on which we as a species rely, but we are also stopping the plant from producing berries which are loved by the birds and in particular, you guessed it, robins.

They will also feed on the berries of the ivy and also of other plants growing in your garden. If you’re partial to a bit of gardening during the winter months then do expect your local robin to keep you company as you go, for they will be keeping a beady eye on the soil, should you expose a worm or a grub or some other such delicacy. Once more, this helps to maintain the natural balance in the garden, we help the robins and they help us.

I wrote recently about the value of fallen leaves as soil conditioner and that we need not “manicure” the garden during the winter months. Rather, we should let fallen leaves remain on top of soil so that they can break down and become valuable humus.

Another reason not to clear up all the leaves is because robins will be looking for them along with other garden scraps as building materials for their nests.

Though they don’t normally lay eggs until mid-April, they often start building their nests as early as January. Leaves, moss, and small twigs are what they need to create cosy cocoons so be sure to leave plenty of construction material available to them

Surely, a nice new home and some fresh food on tap will be enough to get you off the “naughty list”.