How to Attract Robins to Your Garden This Autumn and Winter

Robins are one of the few garden birds that keep singing right through the colder months, and they are famously bold around people. With a few small changes you can make your garden a spot they visit every day.

1. Offer the food robins actually eat

Robins mainly eat insects and worms, so they are not big fans of standard seed mixes. Good options are mealworms (live or dried and soaked), suet pellets, chopped fruit such as apples and pears, and a little grated mild cheese in very cold weather. Put out small amounts regularly rather than a large pile.

2. Feed low and flat, not from hanging feeders

Robins prefer to feed from the ground or a flat surface and rarely cling to hanging feeders. A bird table or a shallow dish such as our leaf-shaped bird dish or flower bird feeder works well. Place it near a hedge or shrub so they have cover to dart back to, but not so close that cats can hide beside it.

3. Keep fresh water available

Water is easy to forget in winter, but birds need it for drinking and bathing even when it is cold. A shallow bird bath, like our duo robin bird bath on a tall spike, gives them a safe spot off the ground. On frosty mornings, top it up with lukewarm (never boiling) water to melt the ice, and give it a quick clean every week or two.

4. Leave some of the garden a little wild

A tidy lawn has fewer insects. Leaving a pile of leaves in a corner, some fallen logs or an unmown strip gives robins beetles, worms and spiders to forage for. When you are digging borders, you may even find a robin following you around looking for disturbed worms.

5. Think about shelter for spring

Robins like to nest in dense climbers, hedges and open-fronted nest boxes tucked into vegetation around 1.5 to 2 metres up. Putting a box up in autumn gives birds time to get used to it before the breeding season.

Bring robins into the garden all year round

Even on the days the real ones are hiding, a robin ornament adds a cheerful splash of red to borders and pots. Our rustic metal robin ornament, robin on a stick and rusty robin garden stake are made from weather-resistant metal and look great among winter planting.

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