Bird feeder wars (lighthearted)

[Moonlightfrog]

Next door neighbour got a lovely new bird feeding station for their garden for Christmas, my dd got a bird feeder camera (which she loves) but a lot of our birds are choosing the neighbours feeding station over our feeders. Our feeding station is quite old and is basic.

After spotting our resident wood pigeons sitting under next doors feeder (traitors) I have now ordered myself a fancy new feeding station which I can also attach DD’s camera feeder too.

I now feel like I am in a bird feeder war with the neighbours 🤣……….I will win the pigeons back.

Did anyone else get any bird related items or feeders for Christmas? Are you getting any exciting birds?

Lol, love this 😂 I love feeding the birds in our garden, but my husband discourages it as our neighbours have seen rats 😩

It must be bad if even the pigeons have deserted you! lol

You need sunflower hearts, not the seeds, get the actual hearts. We get loads of finches, blue tits and others who just love these.

Thank you. We bought some sunflower hearts a few days ago, I mixed them with the regular bird seed but maybe I am better having a feeder of just sunflower hearts? The blue tits and great tits have been going crazy on DD’s camera feeder. Luckily we have trees and bushes in our garden and next door don’t so we seem to get more tits in our garden. The long tailed tits seem to love the fatballs. We did have a woodpecker a few weeks ago but no sign of it since, I put some peanuts up for him.

Mealworms seem to be biggest draw here.

😆love it lol meal worms?

The best food I have ever bought is from Ivel Valley Wild Bird Food - - they grow their own crops for the birdseed. The birds go absolutely crazy for their suet pellets.

if I put any type of bird food out out the birds just aren’t interested

Get yourself some of their suet pellets. that will coax them all back 😀

We recently moved to a house with a massive tree and a lot of birds in the garden, so I bought a feeder just before Christmas, it currently has fat balls with peanuts in it. I get so excited to see all the little birds feeding at it, sometimes we have 10 or so at a time. Mainly blue tits and long tailed tits and the odd robin. And one massive pigeon who likes to sit on top of it as if he owns it. I'm going to get a separate one with sunflower hearts in to see if it attracts any different birds.

We have a very cheeky magpie who sits on the shed roof and looks in the dining room window.. especially if we are late feeding!!! Suet nuggets and meal worms are getting eaten really quickly just now. Think the birds are stocking up!!
We have 3 regular magpies, two collared doves ❤️ , occasional blackbirds/robin's and a little wren ❤️ we use a mix of sunflower seeds, suet nuggets, meal worms, and general bird seed

I definitely agree with pure sunflower hearts. Also very good quality fat balls. The ones that are a yellow colour and not too hard or too crumbly. I feed the Peckish Extra Goodness balls and have to ration them to one a day in the tree-hung wire feeder that all and sundry can access ( including crows, magpies, pigeons, blackbirds and jackdaws) because they finish whatever goes out in that feeder daily.

I also have a different fat ball feeder with a large lid hanging from a metal pole and this is not accessible to everyone . The tits and robin can get through a fat ball every two days in that one. I buy them from the garden centre in a box and there’s usually a good deal ( extra balls free etc).

Also do you have a clean filled bird bath separate to the feeding station ? Clean feathers keep birds warm.

We only use sunflower hearts and they attract all types of tits, sparrows and finches and this year, a pair of woodpeckers and nuthatches. It’s bliss!

I didn't buy anything specific for Christmas but do have roamwild hanging feeders and use the top of a stump as a 'table feeder'
I use a night vision camera when feeding hedgehogs, so I feed the birds calci worms rather than meal worms. Birds will eat both, but the calci worms are better for hedgehogs and being higher in calcium, I assume better for birds to help with egg formation. I also have sunflower hearts, a seed mix and fat balls with things inside. Mine also like a 1/2 an apple to peck at and fresh berries.

Depending on your DD's age, the blackbird survey in the summer might be of interest. https://www.bto.org/get-involved/volunteer/projects/blackbirds-gardens/taking-part

The bird watch https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/big-garden-birdwatch?mac=bwmith0230&utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=bgbw-2026&utm_content=ppc&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23350271473&gbraid=0AAAAADLmW3gLfWi-w1JSWDO13B7snGCHa&gclid=CjwKCAiAjc7KBhBvEiwAE2BDOXb5DQ_WiJoD6u1KD3i9xP6Cduvj6kJjXmHvqEosApMeK7GhJhGQZhoC_8QQAvD_BwE

and also the butterfly watch
https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/

We have found home bargain fat balls (the more expensive of the 2 that they have) are the favourite, especially with the long tailed tits. We would love more finches, I have even tried growing teasel for them but they just sit on the telephone wires and don’t come into the garden. We had a grey wagtail visit last spring (by our pond), hopefully we will see them again in the spring.

The pigeons are really comical and we have had the same pair in the garden for a few years, which is why I am annoyed that they are sat by next doors feeder instead of mine.

The blackbird survey sounds interesting, we do some bird surveys and butterflies. Dd is and adult and autistic, birds have become her special interest and the camera bird feeder has been a huge hit, we have only really had tits on it so far, she wants a bird box but I am worried as there’s a stray cat that comes to the garden. We had blackbirds nest in the garden last year.

I have a family of mice living under my feeders (under some rotting wood), luckily my feeders are quite far from the house. I do stop feeding during the summer as we do get the occasional rat.

We have a feeder in the hedge between our front garden and next door's - a seed feeder, a fat ball feeder, and a flat tray that will take odds and ends like mealworms but will also fit a whole suet block. Our regulars are sparrows, blue tits, jackdaws, wood pigeons, long tailed tits, and great tits - we get robins and blackbirds around the pond poking about in the rockery but they don't show interest in the feeder. When they have babies to feed in the spring we get starlings and magpies as well. We get goldfinches in the back garden where there are more seed and berry bearing shrubs but they don't show any interest in the feeders.

We've also put a second suet block holder in the hedge - the fat git of a pigeon spends so much time sitting on the suet block scoffing the birdseed that the poor blue tits don't stand a chance getting to the suet. The new feeder's in the middle of a blackthorn, fatty-pigeon can't get near it 😆

Get organised and sow loads of sunflowers in the spring. Leave the dead flowers up until end of autumn then either tie the stalks onto shrubs or keep them propped up on bamboo canes. The little birds will come back.

Play the long game......

This morning we have a green finch on DD’s new feeder, she’s super excited as we haven’t seen one in our garden before (although we have picked them upon Merlin). The fat balls are covered in long tailed tits this morning, the hard frost seems to have brought more birds in.

We grow sunflowers every year (in the garden and on the allotment) but the only things eating them seem to be the mice 😬. My garden is pretty much purely for wildlife now I have an allotment, next door have made comments about how I should cut back the bushes but the bushes and brambles are what the birds love hiding and nesting in, I shall keep it wild.