It is such a pleasure to have the company of wild birds in your own garden, to enjoy their beauty, colour and song. Feeding birds is a simple way to increase the number of birds in your garden and provides entertainment for the whole family. It also provides a regular food source over the cold winter months when food can be scarce. Here's a guide to attracting birds to your backyard.

In addition to setting up bird feeding stations of seed and water in your garden, you can also help entice beautiful birds into your backyard by planting trees and shrubs that flower, seed and form berries.

In New Zealand we are lucky to enjoy the beauty and song of a range of wild birds. Discover the plants and food sources that will encourage our favourite native birds to your backyard.

By June there’s not a lot left to eat in the garden – for us or, for that matter, for the birds. I hate to think of all those lovely bellbirds, waxeyes and tuis going hungry, so throughout winter I hang bird feeders around the garden to keep them going.