Why It's Important To Buy Quality Wild Bird Food

At Kennedy Wild Bird Food, we pride ourselves on sourcing quality and nutritious food for birds. But why is quality bird food important? In this blog, we will guide you through the importance of feeding birds quality and nutritional food and what this is.

Why Is Quality Bird Food Important?

As with humans, birds need quality food, enriched with the right nutrients to maintain energy levels. The right bird food is also vital for young birds to grow and to ensure a healthy population of bird breeds.

Tailoring the bird’s food to the breed is important. Different birds have different favourites and require an assortment of nutrients.

Further Reading: Do Wild Birds Have A Favourite Bird Food?

What Should I Feed Birds?             

There are a variety of bird feeds, some more popular than others and some more suitable for specific breeds.

The bird feed we recommend for you to buy is based on several different factors; budget, local bird population and the season. At different times of the year, like during breeding and nesting season, not only will different wild birds visit your garden, but they will require specific quantities of food and value of nutrition, more often than not, to increase their energy and feed their young.

There is no simple answer to ‘what should I feed birds’, as the breed of bird and the season are huge determining factors to your bird food supply.

Head over to our blog: Feeding Birds During Nesting Season for more knowledge on what to feed your birds and when.

Despite the determining factors, bird feed can roughly be segregated into four categories:

Insects

Insects are a great unprocessed food source, packed with protein, providing energy to birds. Mealworms and Calicworms are live bird feed options that will appeal to omnivorous birds, usually breeds such as Blackbirds and Robins. Rehydrating dried insects in warm water, supply birds with a quality feeding experience, replacing what they would get in the wild.

Protein

Foods particularly packed with protein, such as sunflower hearts and suet, when served in appropriate quantities, provide quality nutritional value to birds. These food types are specifically useful for birds in winter when they aim to increase body fat and during breeding season when they require high levels of energy.

Seeds And Grains

Usually the foundation of bird feed. Using a mixture of seeds and grains is a useful way of ensuring a variety of birds that visit your garden, get a quality feed. Meeting all bird feeding requirements, seeds and grains offer important nutrients to birds all year round.

Berries

If making bird food mixes at home, it is ideal to incorporate berries into your mix. The reciprocal relationship between birds and berries means that; birds gain quality nutritional value and vitamins from the food, but birds then excrete berry seeds into the wild for shrubs to grow. Berries are high in protein and a good food source for birds during late summer/autumn.

What Is Meant By ‘Quality’?

Kennedy Wild Bird Food provide quality seed mixes and bird food to cater to all flying garden visitors – but what do we mean by ‘quality’?

Many of our competitors and bird feed brands on the market, hide poor quality bird food in their mixes. ‘Fillers’ may include; crushed dog biscuits and dried peas. Many of these ingredients aren’t eaten by birds, have limited nutritional value, and will likely go to waste and germinate in your garden.

A good quality bird feed mix contains a variety of different food types offering nutritional value and little choking hazard.

What Should I Not Feed Birds?

Sure, it is best to feed your garden visitors with good quality bird feed. But there are strict no-goes when it comes to bird feeding. When making your bird food at home, or whether your looking for food for a specific bird breed, be sure to research the best quality bird food.

To protect wild birds when they visit your garden by following our guide: What Not To Feed Wild Birds

Get In Touch

Need some advice on quality bird food? Kennedy Wild Bird Food are dedicated to providing the best quality in our bird food, for all wild bird species that may be visiting your garden. Head over to our website to shop for the best quality bird food. Alternatively, if you’d like to discuss our bird food options, our expert advisors would love to help. Give us a call on 01778342665.