Robins will love your garden if you place their food in 1 specific area

One of the most satisfying things for a lot of gardeners is when they manage to successfully combine flora and fauna. Attracting birds and other wildlife into their gardens is seen as a great benefit to having a space that others want to share. The Wildlife Trust has shared some guidance on how to get more feathered friends into your outdoor spaces.

UK Robins, or Erithacus rubecula, are a familiar bird species that is a regular visitor to green areas. These year-round garden birds are known for their distinctive red breasts and for being aggressively territorial. They are also known for the year-round song that fills the air.

While placing the right type of food is key to attracting robins, the trust noted it could help to get them to come to your garden if the meal was placed to a specific area.

Its website reads: "Some birds such as blackbirds, collared doves, thrushes, dunnocks and robins prefer to feed off the ground."

Speaking about the importance and joy of having birds visiting your garden, a spokesman from the Wildlife Trust said: "Attracting birds to your garden is easy, supplement naturally available food with bird food, and watch them flock in.

"Remember to keep feeders and tables clean, so the birds stay healthy and disease-free, and position your feeders in a relatively open area away from predators - the birds will feel safer and visit more.

"Make sure food is available at all times as birds have different needs throughout the year, such as feeding young."

The Wildlife Trust recommends having a selection of food available on hand to attact the small birds to your garden.

Three ways of providing food to attract birds:

Hanging seed feeders - these will attract species such as tits, goldfinches, house sparrows, greenfinches and siskins.

Niger/Nyjer seed feeders - designed to hold tiny niger seeds, these feeders attract goldfinches, siskins and redpolls.

Mesh peanut feeders - these devices allow birds to take only small chunks of peanut, rather than whole nuts that they might choke on if fed. These feeders will attract sparrows, starlings and tits.

Three main types of bird food:

Seed mixes - here the seeds are mixed into different blends, with the main advantage being that a greater mix of seed types attracts a greater variety of bird species.

Husk-free seed mixes - similar to the above, the seeds in these mixes have had their husks removed, so there is much less mess to clear up and birds that can't crack husks (such as blackbirds) can also eat the mix. Some husk-free mixes also contain other foods like dried mealworms and suet pellets.

Suet (also called fat) - this food comes as blocks, balls and pellets. Lots of birds like suet and it provides a vital source of energy for them, particularly in the winter months.