articles/Nature/birdsinthegarden-page5

Photographing Birds in the Garden - part 5 of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

by Jon Ashton Published 01/04/2012

Food and Bait
Food attracts birds to the vicinity of the hide. This is a process that should be planned and prepared for over a period of time. You also owe it to the birds not to suddenly remove their food source once they have become accustomed to visiting your garden. A general, mixed bird food (including sunflower seeds) and suited to feeders, will attract finches, robins, tits and sparrows. Peanuts will be attractive to tits and nuthatches; suet and mealworms will attract dunnocks, blackbirds and robins. Certain birds will be happy to perch on a branch, others will be happier on a more substantial bough or a log. Others will much prefer to be at ground level - eg dunnocks, chaffinches, blackbirds and other thrushes.

Once you have put up feeders you will very quickly appreciate what species are coming and you will be able to position and vary food supplies accordingly. Don't expect instant success, it may take a day or two for the local birds to find the feeders - you may have competition, your neighbours may already be putting food out but don't worry the birds will arrive shortly, especially if you are providing something the neighbours are not providing.

Bird food is widely available from the RSPB and specialist seed suppliers and from local pet shops and supermarkets - as with most things it pays to look around, prices vary considerably. The main guideline is if it is very cheap compared to anything else it probably is not good, the seeds will not be favoured by small garden birds.

The food and the perch need to be sited with great care. Position food near to the perch, so that the birds will land on the perch, as opposed to landing on the food, or feeder, directly. The perch should be positioned so that there is a suitable, muted background.

This cannot be overstressed, if the background is distracting it remains so on every image - manipulation in Photoshop is possible but it is by far preferable to get the background correct on location. When you are close to actually taking photographs it is worthwhile sitting in the hide and checking, with the camera, that the perches are optimally positioned, that food is nearby and that the perches are not positioned in such a manner that next door's cat can readily ambush your subjects. Take time to observe - are the birds coming from where you imagined? - do you need to reposition? - is the light coming from the right direction - is the image large enough in the frame? etc.

Take a photograph of the perch and really examine the perch and backgr und. I make no apology here - I have repeatedly mentioned the background - it is essential to ensure it is neutral and muted!

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• Photographing Birds in the Garden page 9
  

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