If you’ve made your Christmas pudding in the traditional way, then use any leftover beef suet to make fat balls.

Move it from the front door and hang it from a tree in the back garden where birds will use the contents for nesting materials when the breeding season starts in February. You can even snag combings of pet hair onto the twigs. Wind some straw or dried grasses around it, and push in moss, undyed feathers and pieces of sheep’s wool picked from fences. If it is made with natural foliage, so much the better, but even one made from synthetic materials can be transformed into a DIY nesting kit for birds. There’s no need to ditch your Christmas wreath come Twelfth Night. Soak dried fruit in water first to make it softer. Dried fruits, such as raisins, sultanas and currants, are popular with blackbirds, song thrushes and robins. Pastry, whether it is cooked or uncooked, is a good energy source for birds as long as it is made with animal fats (butter or lard), as vegetable fats don’t provide enough for cold months. Insects and berries can be scarce at this time of year, so extras on the bird table will be welcomed, while nesting materials will come in handy from late January onwards.īirds will happily tuck into broken-up pieces of this festive favourite.

Many of us finish the Christmas period with a fridge full of leftovers and an overflowing box of decorations to go back in the loft, but you can transform much of this excess into a festive gift for garden birds.

The Short Life of Sparrows by Emm Cole