Anyone good at feeding garden birds?

[Fluffycloudland77]

I’ve got sunflower hearts, huge peanuts and suet pellets, and even dried meal worms out. The only thing they deign to eat is the sunflower hearts but their not exactly flocking to it. The goldfinches visit daily.

The blue tits been seen once on the sunflower hearts. The great tits been seen twice on the wall mounted suet/peanuts.

Are the birds in our area weird?.

Are your bird feeders in safe places? We had a bird feeder that had been used a lot, then the birds stopped using it. Luckily, due to confinement, we discovered that a cat had found itself the perfect hiding place under some vegetation and was jumping out at the birds as they came to the feeder.
We relocated it immediately and the birds are back.
I've heard that playing birdsong can help attract them

This is our set up.

I’m going to get a hanging coconut with suet later to add. No cats in our garden. We had a very territorial bengal, he’s dead now but the local cats are still too scared to investigate our garden.

I have a blackbird family, a pigeon eating what the finches drop and gold finches on the hanging feeder but the wall mounted ones I thought would be popular aren’t being used.

Black birds need the food on the floor, they will demolish the mealworms. I soak my mealworms in warm water and let it cool before putting it on the grass (gross I know but it’s easier for the babies to eat and the blackbirds will take big mouthfuls of them)

Also you could get a metal bird feed hanger, they will prefer that rather than having it against a wall

We have four feeders that get emptied daily.... costs me a fortune. All free hanging from trees but fairly clear of the branches, the birds sit in the branches checking them out then go in. Our wood pigeon pair Michael and Miranda and blackbirds pick up what goes on the floor.

I’m no expert but maybe it’s because of the wall, there is no visibility that side? How long have you been doing it?

@cocobean I do that too! It is such a success that I buy meal worms in 5kg batches.

I get robins, blackbirds, sparrows and starlings on the lawn for the mealworms and then Various tits and goldfinches on the feeders for seed mix and fat balls..
The pigeons hop around wistfully hoping for some leftovers.

It took no lie a MONTH for my hanging feeders to be used and now the starlings bicker over them and the sparrows love them too. No finches yet but I’m hopeful. Was delighted when I saw them use it I was ready to bin them “bloody ungrateful birds” now it’s my favourite thing to watch

Ours will feed out the front of the house but have no interest in the back, it might be cat related but our neighbours have the same issue with no cats.

The only thing I can suggest is the position of the feeders are very exposed. I'm not sure they would feel comfortable.
My set up is in a similar position but I have a big honeysuckle climbing up the wall that the use to perch on and hide in. Anything bushy that you could plant nearby to give them a bit of shelter.

My garden birds are picky. They’ll eat one type of fat ball, but hate another. Expensive berry suet is rejected for cheaper versions. I go through 2kg of mealworms a month because everyone loves them & now buy 15kg peanut bags. You’d think WW3 has started with the amount of kerfuffle after the squirrel knocked the squirrel-proof seed feeder down. They drive me loopy but I love everyone (even if I can barely hear myself type as George & Mildred the magpies sit stripping the cherries from the tree by my window).

Everyday we see blackbirds, blue, great & coal tits, George (with the missing tail feather) & Mildred, robins, wood pigeons, the odd nuthatch on the cherry tree, house sparrows, starlings & even a very shouty Tawny owl male. And I’m not rural, just a suburban garden. And we see Ring necked parakeets flying over, and the Red Kite calling for a mate every day.

All of my feeders are within bushes & tree cover, which helps. The more exposed feeder is a bit take it or leave it.

@QuitMoaning yes I have to factor it in to my food shopping budget they eat better than me some days!

I'm not surprised the birds don't use feeders up against the wall like that. They're practically inaccessible. A feeding station on a metal pole would be better.

Blackbirds etc don't need food to be on the floor as pp stated- this leaves them vulnerable to attack from cats. A flat bird table without a roof is perfect.

We can only see a little of your garden op but it looks very tidy; birds prefer a more natural environment that encourages lots of insects. I would remove the gravel and plant native plants instead, and maybe let the grass grow a bit longer too.

A bird bath would also attract birds to your garden. People often forget to supply water for the birds they're feeding.

If you plant a couple of bushes near your feeders you will find that it helps a lot. They like somewhere safe to sit when queuing up to feed - we have constant traffic between our feeders and the nearest bush. (You may even get nests once the bushes thicken out.)

And if you put a water bowl down for them - either a shallow one, or a deeper one with stones in for them to perch on , that will help too.

HTH

We have just added loads more bird feeders. I have stopped putting out bird seed as it tended to sprout up all around the garden! I put out suet pellets, peanuts [in mesh so no whole ones], suet logs for woodpecker and now suet blocks too - as the baby squirrels love that! Also niger seed above the patio but the goldfinches seem to have lost interest in that.
They don't touch the suet balls for some reason.

I would say:
a)how long have they been up? I reckon it takes a good month for the birds to get their head round it when I move the feeders ;-)
b)without context, those all look quite exposed (no greenery nearby for them to perch in); and also very close to the wall (a bit further out is easier to access)

If you can, hanging feeders in/from trees, or bushes at least near cover helps smaller birds feel confident that they have an escape route: and will use it as a queuing system for the feeders :-)

Mine are partial to filled coconuts, and less keen on the more expensive suet blocks. I put sunflower hearts on the ground and the pigeons and some blackbirds will feed there. The hanging feeder is used mainly by sparrows and Jackdaws, and I have a feeding table with tiny windows that the blue tits will visit.

Definitely need to change from my current suet blocks, as the Jackdaws have been put right off.

Goldfinches !! Lucky you, i hear him around the garden but they never land. Yes i do put Niger seeds out too

The hanging one went up last July and the finches didn’t move in till May.

I thought putting the feeders on a wall was more sheltered than hanging on a bracket. The blackbirds are ignoring the mealworms.

The only thing I have for shelter is I have a white buddleja in a container I can move but it will kill a patch of lawn.

I guess I’m just not destined to have birds in the garden. The woman over the road puts a fastball hanger out on the corner of her garage and the sparrows flock to it.

Just to add - please don't put out peanuts/fat balls in netting as they can become entangled and killed. Steel mesh feeders are the only safe way to provide these foods.

We have a feeding station in the middle of the garden with bird bath underneath. Quite a busy path and road outside the garden fence. It took about a month for them to start coming to us. But not we get all-sorts. Even squirrels.

Yes as the PPs have said, they need to be able to 'check out' the birdtable from a safe tree or solid bush\plant. Mine is camaflouged by being next to a small hedge and under a tree. it is MADE out of a tree stump too. The thing with blackbirds is that they are often ground feeders. Sometimes I see the male standing 'on guard' on the top of the table, but not usually . I love to see our 2 resident woodpigeons fighting off the magpies.

I have recently started adding\mixing in sunflower oil to the dampened leftover spelt bread and seeds, apple cores etc. and they strip the table now. I watched a jay literally swallowing mouthfuls of it about a month ago. Not suet.
Though on mum's balcony they demolish a hanging fatball. It's amazing how quickly they learn where the food is. It's a shame because dm is 92 and often forgets to feed them.
I get mixed messages from the media about feeding through the summer. I never used to but now I do because they're feeding their babies and the do eat it.

I go through 2 x 12.5 kg boxes of berry suet pellets , bag of sun flower hearts and bag of bird seed per month. They all have their favourites and the robin is in charge!

You need to stop the squirrels using a bird feeding station. They will empty a feeder in a few hours. Most people try and stop this.

We now have a feeding station mounted on a pole. It has a sturdy seed dispenser, a cage holder for fat balls and another decorative feeder and a bath. Most importantly it has an umbrella type squirrel deflector. They are made out of Perspex and at the moment it is definitely stopping the squirrels getting to the food.

Our bird station is on the lawn but fairly close to a small tree. The birds use the trees for cover. However we had to move it from its original position which was next to a clipped box. The squirrels leapt from the box to the feeder. The instructions with the feeder said don’t put it under a tree. We had birds use it immediately. Blue tits like the fat balls and finches like the seeds.

Also small seeds are best. Not sunflower and not peanuts. Small birds simply cannot manage them. The blackbirds pick up the overspill but generally forage on the lawns and in the flower beds for grubs etc. They like picking over leaves and petals on the soil and bird feeders don’t do it for them. Ditto thrushes.

We got the feeding station and squirrel defender from Amazon but they are widely available and I buy large bags of small seed from them too. Much cheaper than supermarket prices. 12.5kg was £18.

Oh.... and the birds are definitely preferring the feeding station over my bird table. That attracted pigeons and not small birds.

Blackbirds can’t eat from feeders, has to be on a standing bird table (as suggested above if there are predators in area) or on the floor if it’s safe as they rummage in the ground. If you planted some borders lots of perennials etc you would have lots of action.