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 Here are our top 10 tips on safe bird feeding.
1. Only put out as much food as can be consumed in a day or two. Never allow food or detritus to accumulate. Reduce food at quiet times.
2. Keep feeders reasonably clean and move them around the garden periodically to avoid infectious droppings from building up in one place.
3. In the nesting season avoid presenting whole peanuts. Either chop them up or provide them in a mesh peanut feeder from which adult birds can only take small fragments.
4. Try to have reasonably clean water available at all times for bathing as well as drinking. Never add salt or any chemicals to the water.
5. Do NOT put out salty snacks, highly flavoured foods, uncooked rice, whole bacon rinds or unsoaked desiccated coconut which can be fatal to birds.
6. Keep food away from cover in which a cat could hide. Consider using electronic cat scarers - these should be moved regularly.
7. ... but if Sparrowhawks are present, place feeders next to shrubs to allow birds to escape. Clip the shrubs back hard at the base so cats cannot hide.
8. Provide a wide variety of different foods in different positions and types of feeder.
9. Cereal grain, such as wheat, attracts pigeons. Use better quality pure foods such as black sunflower seeds or peanuts.
10. Stick to natural foods, rather than chemically altered or processed foods such as margarine.
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