How to: Revamp your garden into a bird haven

FEBRUARY is Bird Feeding Month and the Northglen News caught up with local birder, Jon Cilliers, to gain some insight into their world.
If you are interested in turning your garden into a haven for these feathered creatures, then keep on reading.

According to Cilliers, the most environmentally-friendly way to feed and attract birds is by turning your garden into a ‘healthy eco-system’.

“A healthy garden filled with indigenous plants will create a healthy eco-system, which will attract butterflies and other insects, and inevitably birds,” he explained.

The Durban North resident cautioned residents against feeding birds too much, however he said supplementing a small part of their diet is acceptable.

“Putting out some apples, figs, grapes or a bit of grain can be acceptable, but only ever enough to supplement their diet, and not enough for them to be sustained by it,” he said.

In Durban there is a feral population of rose ringed parakeets. The origin of these birds is unknown, as they are not indigenous to South Africa, he said. They might have been established via ship assisted migration or simply from someone’s escaped pets.

“These birds pose a threat to native hole nesting birds. As an example, you wouldn’t want these birds to be fed – beautiful as they are. By supplementing those birds’ diets one could perpetuate the competition between the species.

In many of these instances, it is the alien bird that is more robust, competitive and impervious to adversity, and it is the indigenous population that suffers,” he said.

“Building your garden from the bottom up will help to facilitate bio-diversity, which in turn will attract a variety of birds. This is not the world of manicured lawns, spherically trimmed hedges and raked leaves. To encourage bio-diversity, and make your garden a refuge for birds requires leaf litter, some dense cover, grass that gets long enough to seed and trees that fruit,” he said.

By adding trees such as figs (ficus spp), acacias (vachellia and Senegalia spp) and buffalo thorn (ziziphus mucronata) to your garden it will begin to develop its own eco-system, and encourage bio-diversity.

Cilliers warns that nature does not function in a vacuum and if you wish to attract birds you must accept that your garden will also attract other species such as insects, fruit bats, frogs, snakes and monkeys.

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