New to bird feeding? Here's how to make your garden a safe 
 haven for birds and help save lives...

 Birds and gardens are a natural pairing, as anyone with an 
 appreciation of either will tell you. Whether you have a 
 small urban plot or an extensive rural acreage, it's likely 
 that birds form a part of the backdrop to your home in a way 
 that no other creatures do.

 From the woodpigeons and robins of inner cities to the 
 spotted flycatchers and mistle thrushes of leafy villages, 
 birds seem to complement our surroundings wherever we are.

 But it's much more than a mere aesthetic relationship - birds 
 need gardens, and gardens need birds. However artificial our 
 planted and groomed backyards may sometimes seem to birds, 
 they represent a vital combination of woodland edge, meadow 
 and scrub. In some cases, particularly in the countryside, 
 gardens form an integral part of such habitats, while in more 
 built-up areas they are often substitutes for the real thing - 
 but no less important because of it.

 You may have read about the steep declines affecting species 
 which were once regarded as abundant. Song thrushes have 
 vanished from many areas, for example, while numbers of house 
 sparrows and starlings have fallen so dramatically that both 
 species have been placed on the Red List of Birds of 
 Conservation Concern.