Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

How to encourage birds to come into my garden?

17 replies

Fastasleep · 21/07/2006 17:00

DH doesn't do pets - but DS and me like animals, we started fedding a neighbour's cat (it came mewing! Perfect excuse) but DH threw water at it when he found out so now that there are no cats in our garden lol my last hope is birds...

I bought a little 'shelf' thing, and I put bread out and chopped sultanas...I have one of those seed feeders hanging off it too, but I've yet to see any birds at all.. maybe it's the hot weather, or maybe there's something else I can do! (I've had it about a week now, and no bird sightings!)

We seem to have a large family of magpies living in the trees around my garden, along with some black birds and little brown things (sparrows etc) ... I don't mind which birds feed, just as long as DS and me have something to look at - is there any better way of attracting them?

OP posts:
trinityrhino · 21/07/2006 17:02

I reckon it might take longer than a week for the birds to notice

or is there too many cats that live near by cause that can out them off

trinityrhino · 21/07/2006 17:03

8p8ut them off obviously

trinityrhino · 21/07/2006 17:03

oh bugger you know what i mean

Original poster
Fastasleep · 21/07/2006 17:04

There are some cats, but the birds fly about happily at the bottom of my garden... I guess they're just being obtuse!

OP posts:
MerlinsBeard · 21/07/2006 17:06

may sound odd, but don't spend so much time in your garden. My garden is an overgrown(ish) jungle and we are hardly in there because we can't afford to make it nice () but lots of birds and no cats either

foxinsocks · 21/07/2006 17:08

get a proper feeder that you hang up (a squirrel proof one) - you can get them in garden centres - and buy some feed (ours seem to like the ones with sunflower seeds and other seeds in).

The best time to see the birds is really in winter/beginning of spring when there's not much other food around. Once they figure out there's a food source that's easy to get, you should get loads and then they remember where it is and come all year round. It's worth putting it out now anyway to see if they find it!

Have you got any nesting boxes? That's another good way of bringing them in.

1973magpie · 21/07/2006 17:14

Some source of water - birdbath / shallow dish etc would probably encourage them in more than food at this time of year, worth a try anyway. HTH

Original poster
Fastasleep · 21/07/2006 18:30

I was just in the garden and thought 'Ooh water!!' at exactly the same time as that post lol...

I'm not waiting till winter I promised DS

OP posts:
WigWamBam · 21/07/2006 18:39

You can encourage them in by the plants you have in your garden. Plants with berries will bring birds in over the winter - things like holly, cotoneaster, flowering ivy and pyracantha. They like roses because they can eat both the insects and the rosehips. Honeysuckle is good too because of the berries and the bugs it attracts. They also like thistles and teasels (the only time I have ever seen goldcrests was on teasels), and sunflowers are brilliant for them too.

Otherwise they like fat - my mother used to throw out the rind from gammon, and the starlings go wild for it. I throw handfuls of seed onto the ground too, which gets the ground feeders like robins, thrushes and blackbirds in.

Original poster
Fastasleep · 21/07/2006 18:41

Ta my old mate ...

will defo try fat, scattered seeds etc... we have a honeysuckle and an elder tree, Dh doesn't do rose bushes (he triumphantly dug them up!) childhood memory of thorns perhaps...

OP posts:
WigWamBam · 21/07/2006 19:04

I have to say I don't do roses either ... I love the smell of them but they only last for such a short while then look messy for the rest of the year!

They should go for the elder; will probably like the flowers as well as the berries.

Original poster
Fastasleep · 21/07/2006 19:07

They do.. we have a blackbird nest in it most of the time... but no birds will enter the forbidden top half of my garden lol

OP posts:
WigWamBam · 21/07/2006 19:13

It can take them a while to suss out that there's food around - once they work it out you'll be inundated!

If you can get hold of one of the anti-squirrel food holders that foxinsocks mentions so much the better, because if the squirrels get even a sniff of seeds or nuts they will have the lot.

You could also try threading monkeynuts onto cotton to hang in the trees, which the tits will go mad for (although so will the squirrels ).

Original poster
Fastasleep · 28/07/2006 08:44

I now have three very happy 'families' of birds in my garden three times a day I scatter chopped sultanas for the blackbirds and we've got blue-tits and great-tits feeding from my multitude of feeders

just working on keeping the cats out!

Thanks WWB and everyone

OP posts:
trinityrhino · 28/07/2006 08:46

aww thats lovely, congrats

Original poster
Fastasleep · 28/07/2006 08:47

Lol ta,

must work out where to put nesting boxes....

OP posts:
YellowFeathers · 28/07/2006 08:50

We have a yard but I have 3 feeders out. 1 with seed in and 2 with fat balls in. We have a lovely bird that comes everyday with his mates
I also stick out stale bread and a little bowl of water on top of a post we have.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread