One of the most important things to consider when designing a bird friendly garden is protecting their environments from predators or interlopers.
For instance, quite a few bird lovers love to put up bird feeders and feeding stations in their back yards and gardens to attract their bird friends. Sadly, however, squirrels tend to love those same kinds of food with even greater gusto.
Due to this situation, even if your garden has plenty of food, a lot of birds end up vying with squirrels for the foods in these feeding stations. And, since the homeowners's intention is to feed the birds, not the squirrels, they become frustrated as well.
As luck would have it, the free market has taken note of this piece of information, and as a consequence, a multi-million dollar business has developed around the design and production of squirrel proof feeders. For the homeowner, there are great. It allows them so save money because they don't have to constantly replenish the feeding stations. And the birds love not having to put up with the annoying antics of squirrels.
But, in the U.S., the real danger to birds and their families who set up lodging in your back yard, is cats. Particularly, in the cities where it is not uncommon to see cats roaming free garden to garden. Cats can be such cute animals, and they have lived with us for centuries. But, they are responsible for killing millions of birds every year and are one of the birds biggest predators.
Even though you won't be able to protect birds 100% of the time, there are ways to at least mitigate the amount of damage that they can cause.
The main thing that you can do is to take away their camouflage and hiding areas. Cats are stealthy predators. And, the main way they they love to hunt is to take shelter behind bushes or trees and slowly and stealthily sneak up on their prey until they are close enough to pounce and make the kill. When you take away their hiding areas, they can no longer sneak up on the birds.
So, position the location of your feeders away from bushes or trees and move them to spots where the birds can easily locate a cat or other predator that tries to sneak by.
Birds have bird predators as well as mammal ones. Unfortunately, there is not much that you can do about that. You just have to accept it as a way of life that sometimes bird predators will kill other birds. It is the way nature intended. And you can no more protect your bird friends from dangers than you can protect the children of your own family.
The good thing is that, by setting up a bird friendly garden, you are at least helping the birds to survive as their natural habitats are gradually destroyed. And, you may even be helping to save some species.
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