July is one of the most exciting months of the year for bird-watching – so now’s the perfect time to head outside with your binoculars and your Merlin app, or simply to just sit outside in the garden or your local park to see what you can spot.
But what exactly will be flying about? What are you most likely to be able to record in your bird book? Here are some of our favourite feathered friends to keep a particular weather eye open for this month and what wild bird food to give them to encourage them at home.
And don’t forget – we’d love to hear what birds you’ve been seeing and where you’ve been seeing them, so make sure you drop us a line to let us know!
House sparrows
You’ll probably hear house sparrows before you spot them as they love a good chirp! They’re about the size of a chaffinch, with the males sporting a chestnut brown back and black markings, pale grey undercarriage and a black bib. Females, meanwhile, have a brown back with black markings and a pale chest without a bib.
If you want to encourage these happy little birds at home, put up a feeder and keep it well stocked with fat balls and sunflower hearts. They’ll soon come a-flocking!
Turtle doves
Although turtle doves are on the Red List of Conservation Concern, you may still be lucky enough to spot one between now and winter, when they head off back to West Africa to enjoy warmer climates.
Typically, they build their nests in scrub and hedgerows, with a particular fondness for hawthorn or climbers like honeysuckle, so keep your eyes well peeled when out on your countryside strolls.
If you want to help support their declining populations (and hopefully encourage them to nest somewhere near your house), put out lots of seed food like white and red millet, canary seed, sunflower hearts, oil seed rape and so on. They’re sure to thank you for it!
Song thrushes
Garden songbirds are always a delight and the song thrush is certainly no exception. The clue is in the name, after all!
The bird itself is small and brown, and loves nothing more than repeating song phrases, found everywhere from woods and urban centres to grassland and farmland… so your chances of seeing one are relatively high.
As for food, the song thrush is omnivorous, so they’ll eat everything! Put out soft fruit and berries, as well as mealworms and calciworms.
If you’re especially lucky, you might even see them performing their special trick of breaking open snail shells against stones and rocks with a flick of the head… a true delicacy if you’re a song thrush.
Blackcaps
Blackcaps are very distinctive – and you’ll know it if you see it because its head will be black… hence the name! It’s often called the northern nightingale because it has such a beautifully lyrical song.
They’re a big fan of munching on insects, but they’ll also happily chow down on worms, snails, pollen, nectar, sunflower hearts and so on. They’re by no means fussy eaters!
