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With the winter chill still upon us, February can often feel quiet in the garden, but it can be a good month for birdwatching. With natural food running low, the weather still cold, and with the birds starting to think about spring, there’s a good chance of seeing more visitors on feeders close to the house.

Robins are known for being the gardener’s friend and often seem to follow you around the garden. If you want to reward this close connection to us humans, try offering mealworms alongside fat balls. They prefer feeding low down, but to avoid predation, they will feed wherever food is available.

Alongside the Robin, in the commonly seen birds list, have to be Blue, Coal and Great tits. All are energetic and are always on the move, and rarely miss a feeder. Just time how long it takes from one to notice a new food source! With all that activity, they need high-calorie foods as well as peanuts (in a mesh feeder), sunflower hearts, and suet. Long-tailed tits also love suet fat balls, so you may be lucky and have a group of these very popular birds visiting your garden when natural food is getting scarce.

Although now sadly red-listed, you may still be lucky enough to have House sparrows visiting. It’s increasingly rare to see these noisy, chatty, and very sociable birds, but when you do, they often like to feed in groups. Mixed seed and sunflower hearts are often popular with House sparrows.

There can be few gardens in the UK that don’t have Blackbirds visiting them, and despite the country still being in winter, you can already hear them singing at dusk. You will often see them hopping around beneath feeders; these birds prefer to eat on the ground and will eat a whole range of different foods, but are particularly fond of mealworms.

Like the Blackbirds, there can be very few gardens that don’t see Woodpigeons at just about any time of year. As for food, Woodpigeons will eat a range of seeds and grains, in large quantities if they can!

Finches, too, can often be seen in gardens during February, even if they are not regular visitors at other times of the year. Chaffinches can usually be spotted feeding on fallen seed beneath feeders. They particularly like sunflower hearts and mixed seed. Goldfinches have to be one of the most colourful garden birds you will see, and they are especially fond of specialist feeders that offer nyjer (niger) seed or fine sunflower hearts. Although not as regular a visitor, you may be lucky to see Greenfinches who may well visit to enjoy any sunflower hearts and peanuts on offer.

Despite there being fewer thrushes, you could still be lucky enough to see a Song thrush, or even one of the winter visiting Redwings or Fieldfares enjoying any remaining berries, but they will readily make use of any suet, fruit, or mealworms on offer. Enjoy them while you can, as the Redwings and Fieldfares will soon be gone.

Although they are often heard before they are seen, Wrens can often be seen scurrying around the garden at this time of year. These tiny birds are far easier to see when there is less leaf cover as they hunt for insects, and if you are lucky, they may find any mealworms you have put out.

If you are feeding the birds in late winter, choose high-energy foods like fat and sunflower hearts and always provide fresh water for both drinking and bathing. And lastly, don’t forget to clean feeders regularly to keep birds healthy. With all of the damp weather at this time of year, food spoils quickly.