Hold off the hedge trimmers

From March through to August, your hedges, shrubs and climbers stop being decorative features and become busy nurseries. Blackbirds, robins, dunnocks, sparrows and wrens will all be checking dense growth for a safe spot to raise a brood, and the window for that runs long — some pairs will attempt two or even three clutches before autumn.

It is against the law to damage or destroy the nest of a wild bird while it is in use, so before you reach for the trimmers, take a slow walk around the garden and look properly. Nests are rarely obvious. A blackbird's mossy cup tucked into ivy, a robin's nest in a wall climber or a sparrow's untidy collection of grass deep inside a hedge can all be missed by a quick glance.

A few habits make spring cutting safer:

• Part branches gently with your hands rather than cutting first and inspecting afterwards.
• Work from one end of a hedge to the other, so anything you disturb has a clear escape route.
• If you find an active nest, stop and leave that section alone until the chicks have fledged.
• Save serious pruning for late autumn, and give ivy, bramble and dense evergreens a wide berth in the meantime.

Leave the moss, wool and cobwebs where they fall

Nesting birds are resourceful, but they are also working to a tight schedule. Anything you can leave within easy reach saves them energy that is better spent feeding chicks. Long-tailed tits will strip cobwebs from fence posts and shed corners, while blue tits and sparrows happily gather moss, dried grass and feathers.

You can help by offering small amounts of material in a hanging basket, an old suet feeder or simply scattered on a bare patch of lawn:

• Sheep's wool, teased into short strands so it does not tangle around legs.
• Moss and dried grass, especially moss raked out of a shaded lawn.
• Dog hair, but only from dogs that have not recently been treated with flea products.
• Short lengths of straw, small twigs and feathers.

What you should avoid is anything that holds water or traps feet. Long human hair, plastic strips, tinsel, string and tumble dryer lint all cause more harm than good, so keep them out of the garden.

Fresh water, clean water

Spring is a thirsty season. Adults need to drink, chicks need soft food, and bathing keeps feathers in the condition that flight and insulation depend on. A shallow dish is ideal — around two to four centimetres deep, with sloping sides or a few stones in the base so a small bird can climb out.

Position your bird bath in shade so the water lasts through a warm afternoon, and keep it well away from feeders to reduce contamination. In mild weather, scrub it every couple of days with a stiff brush and refill with fresh water. Cleanliness matters more than most of us realise: dirty baths and feeders help spread diseases such as trichomonosis, which has hit greenfinches and chaffinches hard. If you notice a fluffed-up, lethargic bird in the garden, empty and disinfect everything, then leave it dry for a fortnight.

Protein for hungry chicks

Growing chicks need protein, and plenty of it. A single brood of blue tits can get through thousands of caterpillars before fledging, so leaving aphids on your roses and skipping the sprays is one of the most generous things you can do.

When you top up the feeders, think about what a chick can actually swallow:

• Live mealworms are excellent, offered a few at a time in a smooth-sided dish.
• Dried mealworms should be soaked in warm water first, as dry ones can dehydrate a chick.
• Sunflower hearts, suet cakes and peanut granules suit a wide range of species.

Skip whole peanuts between March and August, as adults may feed them to chicks whole, and avoid bread, milk, salty scraps or anything mouldy. If you use fat balls, take them out of the mesh nets — small feet and beaks get caught in them.

Make your nest boxes welcoming

A box that has been up for years may be full of old nesting material, parasites and damp debris. Clear it out before the end of February if you can. If you have missed that window and birds are already building, leave it well alone until the season ends.

Check the fixing, too, and reposition any box that faces the worst of the sun and prevailing rain. A north to east-facing wall is usually best, two to five metres up, tilted very slightly forward so rain runs off the roof. A metal plate around the entrance hole will stop squirrels and woodpeckers enlarging it, and keeping boxes a few metres away from feeders and washing lines cuts down on disturbance.

A little untidiness goes a long way

Leave a corner of the garden to itself — a patch of long grass, a pile of dead wood, an ivy-covered fence. These scruffy spots are where insects breed and where fledglings hide in their first clumsy weeks.

And if you share your garden with a cat, keep it indoors around dawn and dusk, when birds are most active and most vulnerable, and fit a collar with a bell. Those two small changes protect more nests than almost anything else you can do this spring.