Why nesting boxes and feeders may be killing UK's songbirds

In a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show this week is a songbirds' paradise, designed to show visitors how to provide a sanctuary for some of the UK's most endangered birds.

- Donna Ferguson

But amid the rainwater pond and the flowering plants, there will be no nesting boxes, bird feeders or baths.

Bird lovers are inadvertently contributing to the decline of songbirds during the spring and summer by leaving bird feeders and baths uncleaned, becoming a "disease transfer minefield", Susan Morgan, head of the charity SongBird Survival, which created the garden, said.

Diseases can be transferred between birds using feeders, while suet balls have a tendency to melt in the heat, creating breeding grounds for bacteria and mould. "We recommend that, in most areas, you just stick to natural food sources in the summer," said Morgan. "In the summer, birds have lots of natural food."