Bird Feeder Fail

[Tyredofallthis1]

We put up a birdfeeder a few weeks ago. Got a nice feeder from eBay sort of wrought iron thingy. Got nice fatballs/peanuts/seeds from Tesco. Birds have completely ignored it.

We are heckled by magpies on a daily basis and this morning as I got back from the school run I nearly run over a robin outside our house and two coal tits were fighting in the honeysuckle about two feet from the feeder.

Any suggestions?

No suggestions, but I came home yesterday to find a huge rat eating off the bird feeder, so I moved the feeder then this morning it was raided by squirrels! Can you move the feeder?

Leave it up, the little birds take their time to suss it out, but once they are used to it they'll keep coming back and atent bothered by bigger birds.

Mine is very popular with all types of birds including the dreaded magpies (must have had 10 on my roof the over day, much more than usual like a scene from The Birds!) and when I add more I hear lots of cheeping, it might be my imagination but I like to think they're telling their friends the nice feeder is being topped up!

We have lots of bird feeder hanging from a tree, some are very popular, and some are totally ignored. Fat balls from the shop aren't popular at all.
The ones that birds are fighting over is the home made bird cake, from mixing fat from meat and seeds and nuts, into the empty coconut shell halves. It will be empty in a day.
We have big bird coming as well as small birds, feeders are for small birds and I put it on the small tree with lots of branches so big birds can't get to it easily. We put out separate seeds and nuts for bigger birds on the surface instead.

It takes ages for birds to trust a new feeder. Give it time, make sure food is fresh. Maybe get a ground feeder tray thing as well (blackbirds, thrushes seem to prefer them) and maybe put out some water (big plantpot saucer thing is cheap, and doubles as a birdbath). Never had much luck with seeds or peanuts but suet pellets were always popular.

As said above it can take ages for birds to find a new feeder, months sometimes. Keep the food fresh and they will get there. Also it's autumn, there's plenty of natural seeds and berries around and once these start to run out and it gets colder they are more likely to come to feeders.

Our birds only seem to like shelled sunflower hearts. I’ve tried loads of others - mealworms, mixed seeds, fat balls etc and they are ignored. They all love the sunflower hearts though. We get a variety of tits, fiches and sparrows and the occasional lone robin.

Thank you for the suggestions.

I'll see about getting some sunflower hearts. There are yellowfinches around, I think (don't know birds that well) and some sparrows further down.

It would be great to have them visit.

As others have said it takes them awhile to get used to new feeders so persevere. Just a word of caution to bird feeders out there, dont put out thefat balls in the green nets that theysometimes are sold in, little birds feet can get caught up in them and they can die or become easy prey for cats.
Another wildlife caution, dont leave your halloween pumpkins out for hedgehogs, it makes them poorly 😟🎃🦔

Your yellowfinches are probably goldfinches unless you are not in the uk. They are lovely birds with yellow feathers on their wings and red on their heads. Enjoy