When will they discover the feeders?

[Woollypullover]

I've put up a bird feeding station, with six types of feed in various holders and water.

How long will it take the birds to find it?

Two days in and no feathery friends have arrived yet. I suppose it's the wrong time of year for feeders, when there's so much fruit about?

Never in my case. My birdseed started to grow grass. They went for the tesco half-coconuts filled with fat though.

I don’t think there’s a “wrong” time of the year. My feeders are heaving with juvenile blue tits at the moment, so if the birds like what they see, they will come. It may take them a few days to find it though.

The biggest obstacle is usually the location of the feeder. Birds like to have somewhere they can shelter nearby (a shrub or a tree). Very few birds will go to a feeder that’s out in the open.

Even a new feeder amoungst other ones takes a day or two Op. @Festina right, they like some cover, mine are under a massive shrub so the birds feel safe

I think there's a certain amount of luck tbh, if a flock of small birds find it I think others may then be more likely to notice it. Don't put out too much food at once until you see some activity.

Definitely true that if one bird finds it, more are likely to notice it. Things can snowball fast! On the other hand, some types of birds seem to simply need a bit more time before they trust a new feeder.

Blue tits tend to be early adopters so make sure you have some food that appeals to them - mine love sunflower hearts!

I don’t actually think you need a wide variety of food. I get many different birds with just sunflower hearts (blue, great, coal, long tailed tits, all the finches you can think of, nuthatch, woodpecker etc). I also have a peanut feeder for the birds that don’t like the stiff competition for the sunflower seeds!

There’s a lot of cover in my garden though, which is what they really want, as well as natural sources of food (e.g. the blue tits spend more time looking through my roses for greenfly than sitting on the feeder) When I moved into my current house, my garden was just lawn and birds would only come in the depths of winter when they were desperate.

The birds round my way have an abundance of restaurants to feed from.

What they don't have is good water sources which is why they always congregate in my guttering (and the pigeons are slowly wrecking it).

Worth thinking about.

I put some extra enticing treats out for them to tempt them, then they just got into the habit of coming down. Fat balls or those fat pellets with mixed berries are popular with the spadgers, tits, and occasional starlings and robins in our garden. A good sized water station is a good idea too, they love having a good bath.

My daughter, goth Disney princess that she is, has cultivated a friendship with a fat ass crow and a magpie by giving them cheese. They bring her things now as payment for the cheese. She's a corvid whisperer. So maybe try some small cheese pieces?

And then, of course, there's always the bloody pigeons. Once you get one pigeon you will never get rid of them.

I've never come across the word "spadgers" before! (And neither had my autocorrect, I wish I'd kept its attempt!😂)

I just feed sunflower hearts, fatballs in a caged feeder, and a small tray of sunflower hearts and mealworms for the ground feeders like blackbirds - never more than will be cleared by evening.

Sometimes it takes ages. I've not had any birds on my feeders for weeks over summer though but they definitely know they're there. Even the greedy pigeons rarely come down atm.

Thanks everyone. Still no visitors, despite it being under some branches (but still visible), with water, my mixed seed, sunflower seeds, peanuts and coconut fat things!

A hedgehog ate some seed which I spilt, which was nice though!

Perverse creatures, sometimes. Our are flocked to despite the cat sitting mournfully beneath it (no chance she could get to them). They chatter crossly at me instead when I go to remove her. Give it time, they’ll come.

I was told that if wood pigeons visit, then the smaller birds will see and get the confidence to follow.
Was certainly the case in my garden.

Took about a week for the sparrows to spot them. Three weeks later, they'd all moved into the Pyracantha and the population exploded. I think there have been at least 3 broods for every sparrow and the noise is incredible from dawn to sunset, they're all over the house, in the windowboxes, everywhere. Also get assorted Tits, but the Wood Pigeons have given up because I wasn't going to spend that much on fatballs and sunflower seeds, so picked non-perching feeders.

Suppose that means no other fuckers feed birds where I am.