conifers and wildlife

[paulchandler6]

My neighbour has about 6 metres of Leylandii that borders part of the garden and its kept down to a height of 2 metres. It provides quite a bit of shelter for various birds and insects. House Sparrow, Blackbird and Dunnock seem to favour it more than others and a wren can regularly be seen taking spiders from it. Also have found quite a few moths in the day sheltering and Butterflies and Dragons tend to settle on it to soak up the morning sun.
It only takes up a small part of the garden so I have no problem with it.

Paul

[AfternoonLemon]

Sorry to drag up such an old thread, but there is some useful info in here. I had heard a lot of people saying conifers don't help much in terms of attracting birds - they don't produce any food for them and so on.

However, there is a garden just up the road from me with two huge conifers up the back, and the racket coming from inside them at times is unbelievable! It's like a bird party going on in there. OK, they may not provide as much food as other trees, but they seem to be perfect for birds to hide in and feel safe - probably after they've fed

I only ever really get birds passing through my garden, but I've decided to plant a couple of conifers (probably going to invest in large ones as I've no patience).

A few questions - which variety would be best, when is best to plant, and I'm planning to plant them fairly close to the house (3/4 metres away) - is this a bad idea, and how could I stop them growing higher than 4/5 metres tall?

[APC]

I often encounter pigeons on nest or squabs when working on connies. When found, we always return a few months later rather than bother them.

Find evidence of other birds nests in them a lot.

Nowt much underneath apart from darkness and slowly rotting connie.

[AfternoonLemon]

Originally Posted by APC

I often encounter pigeons on nest or squabs when working on connies. When found, we always return a few months later rather than bother them.

Find evidence of other birds nests in them a lot.

Nowt much underneath apart from darkness and slowly rotting connie.

I'm not too sure I'd want to encourage nesting as there are many Magpies in the area, and conifers are easy to get into.

I am aware that you can't grow much underneath them too, but I would be planning to grow a border of brambles or something around them to discourage cats.

[Madmills]

Conifer varieties are very useful to wild birds.

The smaller birds will use these constantly for resting and sheltering and to remove them suddenly from an established area is irresponsible.
Far better to keep them regularly maintained where they can then be useful as a privacy screen for us and useful to the birdlife too.

Too many people remove these varieties to the detriment of the birds.