Bird feeder and no birds

[sunshinedaises]

I put up a bird feeder a week and a half ago and am yet to see any birds at it. Will it take time for them to come? I used to see birds all the time in my garden but for the last few months I've barely seen any. Time of year perhaps?

It takes time - they need to get used to it and work out that it's safe. Also...they like it to be near somewhere 'safe' so they can perch and only have a short distance to fly to it. Rather than it being right in the middle and exposed as it were.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/feeding-birds-near-you

Also remember to clean it regularly and have water out too. I love watching the birds on ours.

They take ages to build up confidence to use it. I hung mine in the lower branches of a tree, which they prefer to an exposed post in the borders. When I refill it, it takes them a good 5 days to revisit it again though.

Putting out water is a game changer.

What are you feeding them? At this time of year fat balls and suet pellets are important.

Birds need a safe route to feeders, doe you have lots of trees and shrubs around?

Do you have a lot of neighbourhood cats that are scaring them off?

It took years for birds to come to our garden, last winter we had so many then come spring through to autumn when there’s food about we saw very few except the pigeons, crows and magpies. We’ve started having them come back in the last week or so. We feed the really wild bird food company tidy garden mix with suet pellets. All birds seem to like it.

Remember some birds are ground feeders, we have a caged ground feeder which they seem to enjoy and keeps them safe from the crow mafia we seem to have amassed.

Ungrateful little biggers can take ages to get used to a new bird feeder! 😂
We have lots of birds in our old hedge but had to replace one of the two feeders after the squirrel destroyed the old one, it took 3 weeks before we saw any birds using it, though they were using the other one next to it.