Advantages: Having birds come up close and personal
Disadvantages: Can be costly and expect predators

...Feeding birds in the wild(which I am assuming this is what this category is about) can be both enlightening and educational. For those who engage in the hobby of feeding birds, the object is to attract the colorful and exotic rather than the drab and common. But believe it or not, the drab and common leads to the next level. Studying various bird behaviors can be fascinating. In order to attract birds a variety of seeds and foods are used. Plain bread can have it's use in feeding birds. I will touch on a few ways of attracting, observing and enjoying our fine feathered friends. Although I may live in the USA, the principles can be applied all over the world. The Unwelcomed Food Stealers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sparrows and starlings are common the world over. They have actually migrated to other parts of the world... Read review

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Advantages: useful, informative reference book
Disadvantages: none

...My husband has always had a strong interest in birds and we are very keen to attract them to the garden. We also like, when possible to visit various nature reserves in the UK and also sometimes abroad. The Collins Bird Guide has always been an essential to take with us on these trips, or indeed to have to hand when something a little bit different visits the garden. I think this is an incredibly useful book and I can't dispute its front cover claim that it is 'the most complete field guide to the birds of Britain and Europe. The book is organised in the way that most bird watchers would expect starting with divers and ending with buntings. This apparently is known as the taxonomic order! The book starts with a very useful introduction which pretty much explains how you can get the most out of using the book. It helps you... Read review

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Advantages: interestinfg site with lots to see
Disadvantages: none

...My family and I have recently returned home from a week's holiday in Cyprus staying in the Paphos region. If you have read my review on Paphos itself you will know that I was not incredibly impressed with the area but we did have one lovely day visiting the Pafos Bird and Animal Park. The park is actually situated about 15 km from Paphos in the Coral Bay area. In order to reach it you need to drive inland a little and slightly up the mountain. This means that when you are at the park you do get lovely views of the sea and the bays. It's actually quite beautiful. Visiting in February meant that the park was hardly busy at all which meant we could stroll around at our leisure and I didn't have to worry too much about my daughters wondering off and losing sight of them. Also it's not a huge site and it's easy to wander around... Read review

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Advantages: Birds brighten up your garden, and their songs are cheerful and happy.
Disadvantages: Seed residue can get messy

...It's easy to attract birds to your garden, if you just do a little homework. First, you need to know what kind of birds are native to your area. Second, you need to know what types of food and plants they enjoy eating, and using for nests. If you can identify those two things, attracting birds to your garden is a snap! Identify the Birds in Your Area There are many ways to identify the birds in your area, if you don't know what varities frequent your yard. Invest in a good book to identify the birds in your area. (Some titles I prefer are listed below.) Find out if there is a local chapter of the Audubon Society in your area, and attend the meetings. These people are your local experts, and are a wealth of knowledge. Once you identify your local birds, you can begin putting out their favorite foods to attract them. You can... Read review

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Advantages: Very entertaining imitator's
Disadvantages: Messy and noisy

...I once had a mynah bird called Keo, named after a Cypriot beer. Why he was named after a Cypriot beer is somewhat diffuse as I don't particularly like beer and have no connection with Cyprus other than a couple of holidays in Ayia Napa. I suppose I just liked the sound of it at the time. As you probably know, mynah birds are amazing imitators. If you think a parrot’s good, trust me, compared to a mynah, they have the talking age of a foetus. Well, maybe not quite that young but compared to the less spectacular looking mynah bird, their imitation skills really are quite basic. Ours could imitate both my ex husband and myself perfectly, even down getting the accents right. He had the sound of the telephone ringing down to a fine art, and as his cage was against the wall that connected with the bathroom, the sound of the toilet... Read review

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Advantages: look good smell good taste good
Disadvantages: contain sugar...not the best treat to feed

... Egg Biscuits "Nutritious and tasty treats for all cage and aviary birds" to quote the box. I buy these regularly for my parrot bird from the big pet-stuff-store down the road, at £1.55 a box they not that cheap but I only feed as a treat and they last a couple of weeks. The name 'Egg-biscuits' to me implies they are based on 'egg-food' but these are nowhere near as nutritious but they do look better. For those who haven't come across egg food it is a dried or moist high protein food mix that contains many strange things (for example insect parts and bits of fish) It's good for breeding birds and moulting birds though can be fed anytime to give your bird a boost. I feed this pretty regularly too as my Bird still persists in plucking himself now and then. Egg food really helps with his feather growth - when I first got my bird... Read review

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Advantages: Lots of useful information
Disadvantages: Quite large and bulky, expensive

...Where to watch birds in Scotland by Mike Madders and Julia Welstead is part of the Where to Watch Birds guides that covers 21 different titles. Each of these books have different authors but they all follow the same format which has proved so successful that they are now amongst the best selling bird books ever published. Where to watch birds in Scotland has been described as "The definitive guide to finding birds in Scotland" and first published in 1989 it is now in its fourth edition. The book spans 297 pages and is arranged by region. As the title of the book suggests it covers 142 different locations across ten different Scottish regions. Each of the regional sections includes a map showing the different sites that are covered in that section. It must be stated that this book is not an identification guide it is merely... Read review

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Advantages: It really is a get away from it all place.
Disadvantages: Not for bird haters or claustraphobics or clubbers.

...wonder whether he had thought of cancellation insurance should I have refused his offer. Mind you, he obviously knew I needed snapping up fast… Our trip to the Seychelles involved sampling four of the Seychelle islands. This review will concentrate on the remote Bird Island, the most northerly of the Seychelles archipelago, 60 miles north of Mahe (the largest island in the group). The Seychelles are located 1600km east of Africa and northeast of Madagascar. They are beautiful tropical islands renowned for unspoilt beaches, flora and fauna which have largely been preserved as a result of careful eco-tourism planning. ☼ Getting there ☼ Bird Island is not easily reached. You will need to fly to Mahe (we went with Air Seychelles from Gatwick) and then travel by light aircraft to Bird Island. This is quite an experience... Read review

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Advantages: very rewarding
Disadvantages: small effort and outlay required.

...Sorry, this isn't an op on pulling! If you have a bit of garden, then attracting wild birds to it can be a source of real pleasure - they are a delight to watch, and you are undoubtedly helping to keep them alive. However, what should you feed your feathered friends on and how much is it going to cost you? Do you need a bird table? No. Many birds - blackbirds, pigeons, robins, thrushes etc prefer to eat from the ground while tits like hanging nuts and don't much like bird tables. Just hang a bag of nuts from your washing line, and you will attract birds. Drop some bread out of your window and they will come. Bird tables can be quite expensive, but they do look attractive and do make feeding certain kinds of bird a lot easier. I would recommend getting one, but if the budget won't stretch or you haven't room, you can do without... Read review

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Advantages: Great day out
Disadvantages: None

...‘So where are we going today mummy?’ ‘You’ll see!’ So we wended our way down narrow country lanes, not particularly well signposted and with absolutely nowhere to go should an over enthusiastic local come zooming around the corner. ‘Are you sure were not lost Mummy?’ ‘Well no actually, not 100% sure, but we’ll keep going for a bit’ Then we saw it! The girls reaction when we turned into the car park was amazing, Ellen my 5 year old is a huge bird lover and when we went to Centerparcs last month she chose to donate the money that her choice of activity would have cost to the RSPB, as long as I took her to the hides they have there. So when she realised where we were, well! The national birds of prey centre is based in Newent in Gloucestershire, the nearest motorways are the M5 J11 or the M50, but as I mentioned... Read review

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