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?.

longtom I'll try the tiny seeds for the finches, we get them in the spring mostly. Happily there are more sparrows than there used to be, I love to see them.

Maybe put out a birdbath too, daisy they need the water esp when it's dry. if you place it next to the feeder they'll hopefully get the idea!

We use sunflower hearts for finches. We got green finches in the country too but I haven’t seen any around here. They were very feisty.

They're pretty too Fluffy we don't get many here, the goldfinches and chaffinches are more numerous.

I'm glad there are no parakeets or grey squirrels here. I LOVE the red squirrels, we've seen one in the garden in all the years we've been here. But they are around in the forests.

Yes to sunflowers, I pick up old ones left at the side of the fields by the tractors and just put them on the ground by the bird table , every seed disappears! (I have grown a couple in a pot too )

Well, we went out for a couple of hours and about an inch of sunflowers has gone from the sunflower heart feeder.

Until we went out I sat here for hours without them going near. Dh swears blind he didn’t spill loads moving it into its new position.

In the spirit of general bird chat, spotted a woodpecker on the apple tree this morning!!!

You see Fluffy The birds are watching YOU!!!!

O ooh you must have a big apple tree Anne Is the weather bad where you are? I've only seen one on the bird table during a hard winter. They're large birds.

I love feeding the birds and wildlife in my garden, live adjacent to a little forest so have lots of visitors!
Robins, finches, jays, wrens, blue tits, coal tits, great tits, jackdaws, magpies, pigeons, blackbirds...and pesky squirrels!
I have a large standing feeder, and every day put out a mixture of fat balls/blocks, seeds, peanuts, monkey nuts and mealworms.
Makes me feel like Snow White I love it!!
Doesn't take long at all for them to trust you, happily they'll feed while I read in the garden.
After living in an urban built up area for so long, moving out of the city has really opened my eyes to the beautiful uk wildlife, I even joined the RSPB
(Maybe I'm getting old😂)

@ppeatfruit

longtom I'll try the tiny seeds for the finches, we get them in the spring mostly. Happily there are more sparrows than there used to be, I love to see them.

Maybe put out a birdbath too, daisy they need the water esp when it's dry. if you place it next to the feeder they'll hopefully get the idea!

Thanks ppeatfruit, I do have a small birdbath but was thinking of moving it /getting another. Is there a good place to site one? I have wondered if the fact my garden is narrowish with wall/fence either side is putting birds off as they don't feel safe.

The pigeons found a way to get to the sunflower wall mounted feeder so I’ve taken it away till dh can move it.

I’ve just had two sparrows watching me from my bench.

Wildlife atonement. I cut through a caterpillar and had to euthanise it. It haunts me. It was really well camouflaged.

@daisychicken I’m using a plant pot saucer as a water bath. I’ve seen the female blackbird using it.

We’ve got a small lake on our estate so they probably don’t need it so much but it’s there if they need it.

There’s a page on rspb website telling you how to build one.

Yes I use a square plant pot saucer for the hedgehog and we've seen birds using it too. The only thing is I have to remember to fill it every night when I put out his or her food. Though there is one next to the birdtable, they also use a small trough pond and the bigger new pond I put in our 'chicken garden'. The old residents used to keep chickens there ! Fluffy You're bound to get birds feeding when they get used to yours because of where you live.

During lockdown I have enjoyed watching a female great spotted woodpecker feeding a youngster from out peanut feeders. We have an urban garden but several trees and lots of cover plus short flying distance to mature trees along the river.

Oh how lovely!. Woodpeckers are so colourful. Dh saw a green one by the pond at the top of the estate.

I’m putting fat balls out the front later, neighbour has let hers run out because her dh complains about rats but it’s probably more neighbours with decking. If I put some out it brings them closer to my garden.

Great spotted woodpeckers abound here but they do predate on other birds. Nuthatches are very susceptible as the woodpecker removes the squabs from the nests.

Sorry to change subject a little, but I recently moved my bird feeding station to the top of the garden, i brought some lovely expensive sunflower hearts, imagine how happy I was when they were going down a treat!.....

....until my dogs alerted me to the local rat population going in for snacks!!!! How can I stop the rats and feed the birds instead?

I have one of those tall metal feeders with the arms coming off holding the feeders.

community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/wildlife-questions/5680/rat-proof-bird-feeder-help-please

Ref. Woodpeckers, they are a bit frightening though esp. the big ones. I don't much like magpies as well,because of their thing for taking the eggs and squabs of the smaller birds. Though that's life innit

As long as they're not in my house I don't much mind rats, they do keep the place tidy! I use a natural mint deterrent spray that I make myself, it does work.

Ah I don't have a garden, but I have enjoyed reading this thread and am looking forward to having a little patch of paradise one day

There really isn't such a thing as a rat proof bird feeder. Birds are messy eaters and bits of food will always end up on the ground.

I've had to, very reluctantly, give up feeding birds because of rats.There are even more of them in suburban areas at the moment because of food outlets being closed and you can't just ignore them. I feel quite bad for the goldfinches,woodpeckers,nuthatches etc etc though I do still keep a clean bird bath available. There's plenty of natural food available right now- the blue tits are doing a good job with the aphids! - but winter is going to test my resolve.

You can buy an umbrella type foil for squirrels. It’s attached to the pole. It’s certainly stopped squirrels here and should stop rats climbing up. Food on the ground - no chance!

I haven't had to deal with the rat issue thankfully but I would definitely carry on feeding the birds anyway. They're all part of nature's glorious tapestry innit.

I do however have a seagull problem. We live as far from the sea as is possible in England but they have started to visit our garden recently (due to fast food outlets and the tip being less busy/closed I suppose) and I don't really want them in the garden because they could take the eggs of smaller birds, plus they annoy the dog . I usually feed our local foxes with meat scraps, cat food etc and I don't want to stop doing this - I thought about feeding them after dark but the crows and magpies also eat the meat so I don't know what to do!

Foxes eat wild birds. Perhaps leave the foxes to the fast food trash? A bit too much going on in your garden. Seagulls are not interested in bird feeders. But will take food off the ground so I would stop doing that.

seeking I hate waste so I leave protein leftovers right at the bottom of the garden, we have a big walled garden without gates, we see a black lab. (who finishes the cats' food ) outside. In rural Fr. they hunt foxes, so we see very few. there are many, many more in London.

We know the hedgehogs eat the food we leave out for them by the house every night. Caught on security camera! MyOMy I think that as we humans have encroached on the wild life's territory the least we can do is feed them. I like seagulls but they don't come here!

I'm going to check the RSPB site again to see if I remember correctly but I think they advise against fat balls in summer months as they go rancid very quickly in warm weather.So I only put them out October/March but feed everything else DH jokes we spend more on dog and bird food than for DH and I -possibly! But get so much pleasure-and despite living on the edge of a large housing estate albeit with a very small wooded area behind have recently totalled up 21 different species of bird spotted.It has taken several years and repositioning if feeders,plus a lot of planting of shrubs that are now maturing however.And a couple have been seen only for a few days ie .Bullfinch, Fieldfare and Mistlethrushes. Saw my first Greenfinch recently. It's becoming an obsession!

Snuggle As I said upthread, I mix some sunflower oil in with the bird food, since doing it they have LOVED it, it goes so fast no danger of it going rancid.! Actually DM hangs a fat ball out on her balcony and they eat that fast too not in the summer.