why songbirds need your help in winter

Winter can be a hard time for Robins and all songbirds.

Songbirds are suffering massive declines here in the UK. Giving them food, shelter and water in wintertime is one of the ways we can help prevent further declines.

Why is winter more difficult for songbirds?

Food supplies are limited, water sources are more scarce and freezing temperatures are difficult for many birds to weather.

There are 3 key challenges for songbirds in the colder months:

• Food. There is less natural food around.  Songbirds eat lots of different things including bugs, flower buds, pollen, grasses and fruit berries. In the winter, many flowers and plants die back, and numbers of insects are much lower. When the ground is frozen, birds also struggle to get to worms and other invertebrates that live in the ground.
• Water. Although it may feel to us like it is always raining, there are fewer places for birds to find water to drink and bathe. Small amounts of fresh water freeze, and it would take songbirds too much energy to melt the water so they can drink it.
• Shelter in the cold. As temperatures drop, cold winds pick up and we start to see regular hard frosts in our gardens, birds need shelter to keep warm, conserve energy and stay safe from predators. Shelter helps protect them from harsh winds and rain.

What happens to songbirds in a cold winter?

Previous spells of bad weather in the UK have had devastating effects on bird species. Following the ‘Big Freeze’ in 1962-63, large declines were seen in wrens, pied wagtails, mistle thrush and song thrush. More recently, the 'Beast from the East' in 2018 had a negative impact on some woodland songbird species.

Small birds such as wrens, goldcrests and long tailed tits can be particularly badly hit by extreme cold and frosty weather. This is because they don't have such high levels of fat reserves. They struggle to keep warm.

When there have been harsh winters, birds that weigh below 10.5g (just over two teaspoons of sugar) have had significant reductions in their numbers.

To survive the harsh weather, songbird species have been known to put on weight to prepare for the cold winters. Many species try to reach a peak weight during December and declining afterwards.

This is why helping songbirds during the winter months can make all the difference.

How do Robins find winter?

We are lucky to have lots of Robins in the UK.  They are good at adapting and surviving and adapting to different conditions. This makes them our perfect mascot to champion support for other songbirds that struggle more.

However, a winter life is not plain sailing for a Robin. When temperatures drop below -2°C, a lot of energy is needed just keep warm overnight. Research has found this can mean they lose around 8.9% of their weight in just one night. They then have to work really hard to find food to get their fat store up the next day.