Birds are amazing creatures to watch and can benefit your garden in many ways. Some birds act as pest control, eating insects such as aphids and mosquitoes. Birds like finches and sparrows will even consume weed seeds to help control weeds in your garden.

Attract these feathered friends to your garden with elements of a bird-friendly environment: food, shelter and water.

Here are some tips to maintain these elements all year long:

Food

• Variety Matters: The wider the selection of ingredients, the wider the varieties of birds you will find in your yard! Use blends of bird feed that include fruits or dried mealworms to offer a well-rounded meal. This gives them the nutrients to power through the winter. Suet cakes and logs are also great choices rich in protein.

• Keep Squirrels Away: Squirrels don’t typically go after blends with safflower seeds, but the downside is that it only attracts a limited variety of birds. If you have trouble with squirrels, use a blend with hot pepper like Cole’s Blazing Hot Blend or use your favorite bird feed and add a liquid chili seed sauce like Cole’s Flaming Squirrel Sauce. Birds are more attracted to hot pepper, but can’t taste the heat. Squirrels and other mammals will stay away.

Shelter

• Plants for Shelter: Shrubs, such as hollies, junipers and red twig dogwoods make great shelters and perches for birds and have winter interest in the garden. They’re also deer resistant. Add some ornamental grasses and hold off trimming them down until the late winter or early spring before the new growth occurs. This gives birds a place to hide and keep warm at ground level.

• Additional Housing: Give birds a home with a birdhouse. Some birds will build a nest, while others, such as bluebirds, chickadees and woodpeckers, will use birdhouses. Ask an associate at English Gardens for help in finding the perfect birdhouse.

Water

• Create an Oasis: Birds need water to bathe and drink. Use a bird bath or fountain to accommodate your feathered friends and keep them coming back for more. Add a stone or some other object that sticks out of the water for birds to perch. Birds won’t go to a water source if they can’t tell the depth of the water.

• Repel Bugs: Bugs like mosquitoes will breed in standing water. In the spring, summer and early fall, use a bird friendly Mosquito Dunk or Water Wiggler to keep bugs from breeding. The Water Wigglers create ripples in the water surface and the moving water will attract more birds.

• Water in Winter: Keeping a dish of water or thawed bird bath in the winter is very important to keep the birds hydrated. Try a bird bath with a built-in heater or add a bird bath heater to keep the water from freezing.

Visit your local English Gardens store for all of your birding needs and more tips to attract birds all year long!