Cathy Smith McGregor wrote on Mama Lisa’s World Facebook Group:
My Aunt posted this on her wall. Can you help her? (She is Welsh.)
“When I was in school in the U.K. we sang a little song about feeding the birds in winter, but all I can remember is bits and pieces. It says something about putting crumbs around your door, then it goes on to say ‘feed them for the Father’s sake till the winter’s ore.’… If you know it, please let me know what it is called and maybe who wrote it. Thanks”
If anyone can help Cathy and her aunt, also if you can let us know if there are more lyrics to the song, please comment below.
Thanks!
Mama Lisa
This article was posted on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, Languages, Mama Lisa, Questions, Readers Questions, United Kingdom, Wales, Welsh, Welsh Children's Songs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
10 Responses to “Can Anyone Help with a Song about Feeding Birds in the Winter?”
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December 31st, 2011 at 11:14 am
I’m not an English. But when we were in Cardiff in 1998, I can recall my sister singing a Welsh song which I think is about bird. I am also looking for the song.
I think it goes like this:
Maegan idypin adi bato
Aergwyn idris babo re
(and the sentences repeat)
;p
(i don’t actually remember the words and pronunciation)
Hopefully i could get the full lyrics and translation. thanks.
April 6th, 2012 at 11:27 am
I know the song, and I remember the tune, but I can’t remember the full song and I can’t write music. The start of it uis something like ‘little birds in winter are hungry and are cold, feed them for your father, til the winter’s ore.’
i’ll google a bit and try to find some more info
April 16th, 2012 at 6:50 am
Diyana,
The song you’re thinking of is “Mae gen i dipyn o dy back twt” – Here are the full words:
Mae gen i dipyn o dy bach twt, o dy bach twt, o dy bach twt,
Mae gen i dipyn o dy bach twt, a’r gwynt i’r drws bob bore.
Hei-di-ho, di-hei-di-hei-di-ho, a’r gwynt i’r drws bob bore.
(I have a little neat house, and the wind blows at the door every morning).
I don’t know the name of the tune, but my mother (from Gloucestershire) sings a song called “Shepherd, o shepherd, will you come home?” to the same tune.
June 25th, 2012 at 2:59 am
I sang it in primary school 65 years ago I remeber the tune but only one verse
Little birds in winter time
Hungry are and poor
Feed them for your Father’s sake
‘Til the winter’s oer
June 27th, 2012 at 2:42 am
Bertie, thanks a lot! This really made my day :)
November 28th, 2012 at 6:45 pm
little birds in winter time, hungry are and poor… feed them for the fathers sake, till the winters o’er throw them crumbs that you can spare round about your door feed them for the fathers sake til the winters o’er ———————————————————————————— i remember the wee tune as well.. i always feed the birds because of this song x
November 28th, 2012 at 7:01 pm
That’s lovely Sharon. would you like to sing it for us? :)
January 4th, 2013 at 1:35 pm
Little birds in winter time
Hungry are and poor.
Feed them for your Father’s sake
‘Till the winter’s o’er.
Scatter crumbs that you can spare
Round about your door.
Feed them for your Father’s sake
‘Till the winter’s o’er.
I loved singing this little song in school about 64 years ago. I could sing it with Sharon!
January 4th, 2013 at 1:43 pm
That’s great! We have an answering machine you can call and sing songs into the machine. Please let me know if you’d like the number.
October 27th, 2020 at 3:29 am
Has anyone shared the melody? The poem is so lovely, I’d love to have the little ones learn it for our winter concert.