No birds visit my new garden - 🙁 how can I attract them?

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In my old garden I had all sorts of birds visit my feeder each day.

I have moved house and sadly all I have seen in two weeks is a pair of wood pigeons and a solitary sparrow!

Is there anything I can do to make them visit?!

Are there lots of cats nearby?

It takes birds a while to realise there are feeders in a garden! Do you put water out for them? Are there bushes or trees, where they can perch before going on the feeders?

Lots of safe spaces for them to hide - in particular large dense bushes. A water feature may also help so they have somewhere to drink (shallow).

It does take time for them to come once you start putting food out. It took a few weeks for us to get more than the odd pigeon, but now we get a lot of little birds, much to DD's delight!

As so many have already said - 1)food (I buy sunflower hearts from www.thecornmill.com/sunflower/sunflower-hearts-28kg-26

The price had gone up from about £30 for 30kg to about £46 for 28kg a few months ago to an even higher price now.

2)Water - the bird bath is very popular - several times a day I see blackbirds mainly and a thrush splashing about in it and plenty of small birds just wanting a drink.

3. Secure places in shrubs and small trees for bits to flee to our land before deciding to go to the bird feeders. I have an Elizabeth (big yellow flowering magnolia - I will attach a pic) they like, an Acer and all sorts of bushes.

I have lots of birds in my garden. I have to clean the bird bath and replace the water in it every couple of days and several times a year I clean the bird feeders. I also put rectangular blocks of fat or containing either seeds out mealworms. I throw bits of fruit out - grapes that have gone soft, strawberries from our patch that have been eaten by slugs etc - the blackbirds spot them up soon as I throw them out.

I understand your disappointment OP - I have two bird baths and half a dozen feeders in my garden plus lots of bushes and a big tree - i got loads of sparrows last summer and earlier this year with four blue tits early morning. I got blackbirds when the babies fledged. But unfortunately I also got 10 - yes 10!!!- starlings and they scare all the other birds off 😞 yes they are beautifully coloured but so horrible and bullying and noisy. And they eat all the fat balls and suet cakes before the finches have a chance 🤬. Also have some very fat pigeons who are hilarious to watch but so very lazy and greedy. Apparently we have goldfinches nearby (my son recognised their song) but have never seen them.

I don't mean to point out the obvious but a bird feeder.

I have spent a fortune on the hanging ones because the small birds are very fussy.

But I now have loads of birds, although not as many as the neighbours but it takes some time to establish.

We have loads of birds but we have trees.

We have a large flowering currant bush and have put one of the metal bird feeder poles with various feeders hanging from it through the branches of the bush. The smaller birds really love it. There's lots of natural cover and it's always really busy.

Mealworms or mealworm suet pellets are the only things birds are interested round here. I had no birds when I put bird seed and nuts in my feeders. Word soon got round once the mealworms went in!

It took about three years for mine to realise.
sunflower hearts are the way forward. I’m trying to wean mine off now as I see it’s going to be an issue with Ukraine

don’t forget to wash everything frequently because of bird flu

Not going to be a very popular opinion here, but there are a lot of negatives to bird feeding. It boosts the populations of common generalist species at the expense of rarer species which are actually declining, plus it encourages pests like rats and squirrels.

It's much better to simply improve the habitat - more trees, shrubs, climbers and flowers, plus ponds and deadwood - less tidiness in general. That benefits not just birds but a whole range of other species too in a way that seed feeders don't.

I'm with @BeetleManiac here, to make the garden wildlife-friendly in general and letting things happen naturally rather than getting bird feeders. That way you'll create the habitat for insects which the birds will then eat or feed to their young.

I can’t get rid of the CFs! Cheeky little blighters gobble down whatever I put out immediately and actually trashed a fat ball holder the other day!

I have 3 x feeders in different corners- 1 on a bird table- and then just distribute bread crumbs and various veg chopped up into tiny bits like green beans etc.

I don't have any bird feeders. There is a bird bath left by the previous owner that dries up even in pouring rain plus I sometimes leave a bowl of water out in hot weather for our dog but I've seen birds there.

But we have loads of birds hopping in our trees and bushes and on the lawn. we have bushes, berries and lots of shrubs.

Put your feeders and food up high. They can attract rats which can jump 1M.

We moved to a new build, not a bird in sight. We planted 6 trees, lots of shrubs and a ton of wildflowers and now we have loads of birds, and even a nest with babies in one tree this year. They mostly seem to pick worms from the lawn and veg patch.

I only feed birds in winter, when there's nothing for them to eat (we're not in UK, winter = a foot of snow for 4 months)

We had to stop feeding the birds due to the amount of money we were spending on bird food. I adore birds and love seeing them in the garden so was really sad at the prospect of not attracting them to visit. We have a number of trees in the garden but I wanted something else. We went to Wilko and I found a HUGE plastic saucer for a plant pot. We filled it with water in the garden and the birds LOVE coming down for a drink and a bath. Last Summer I got up early one morning to find a Greenfinch having a paddle in there right outside our kitchen window. I was so excited but haven't seen it since.

You don't have to feed birds to attract them, and it needn't cost much (or anything) to get them to come a bit closer to you.

I think they key thing is plants, shrubs, hedges and trees as they feel safe perching where there is some cover. It'll also provide nesting sites for them. Some birds like scratching around on the ground for food - robins, thrush, blackbirds - others feed on insects. Making your garden biodiverse should help

Access to water helps with birds. I have a large plant pot saucer with some stones in pushed to one side so that if it is too deep for the smaller birds they have something to stand on to drink from. I fill it when it gets low. I have birds drinking from it but also bathing in it.

Water first and wildlife will come. Either mini ponds in a bucket, bird bath, small basin

My husband and son tried to make bird fat balls with bird seed and lard, it didn’t work but the ‘granola’ type bird food made the birds go mental, we had loads and they were fighting for the food. It was just lard mixed with bird food.

We’re in a similar situation, moved from a house with lots of birds to one with just pigeons. We have the trees, shrubs and water but are surrounded by cats.
We do get bats though!

Oh so many replies!

this is going to seem like the biggest drip feed 😳

but… the previous owners ripped up the garden and put down AstroTurf, so the back garden is fake grass and then patio. I’ve only just made the link! That is on our priority list… once we’ve sorted out the dodgy electrics and bathroom that is!

God that annoying, poor birds.

Anyway, consistent feeding with a variety of food, access to water, encourage bugs ie piles of branches and twigs, plants that have berries.