How to feed small birds without attracting pigeons?

I started feeding a robin with mealworms a few weeks ago and he keeps coming back. There was also a male blackbird, black with yellow beak, and I didn't mind him sharing the food as he seemed to take turns with the robin and didn't make a mess with the flowerbeds.

Then recently I noticed that a pigeon seemed to be eating the mealworms. I thought they were granivores and wouldn't eat them, but something was devouring the mealworms fast and I was worried the robin wasn't getting anything. Also the pigeons make a huge mess with their droppings. A few days ago I noticed for the first time in a couple of years that my flower beds had their soil tossed everywhere and plants dug up, and this happened in some large pots as well, and then I noticed a female blackbird who I hadn't seen before. I had this problem a couple of years ago with blackbirds ransacking flowerbeds.

I moved some pots to try to deter the blackbirds, and put an upturned metal wall basket frame over the saucer of mealworms.

The past couple of days I haven't noticed my flower beds and plant pots being dug up, and I haven't actually seen either the blackbirds or the pigeon eating the mealworms, but have noticed the robin taking them a few times. They vanish very quickly and I am not sure which birds are eating them.

I don't mind feeding the blackbirds but don't want to encourage them if they are going to ransack my flowerbeds and flowerpots. The male didn't seem to do this over several weeks, but suddenly my flowerbeds and flowerpots were ransacked and soil tossed everywhere at the same time the female appeared. I definitely don't want the pigeon hoovering up all the robin's food.

I am still not sure if the upturned metal wall basket frame is actually keeping the blackbirds or pigeon out, and something is devouring the mealworms. The saucer seems to get moved to the edge of the frame, and I am not sure which birds are doing that.

Whenever I go to replenish the mealworms, the robin appears and he looks hungry, as if he isn't getting much of the food.

Does anyone know ways of feeding small birds like robins without attracting unwanted larger birds, especially pigeons? (I have so far only tried mealworms, as these are the robin's preferred food and they have the advantage of not being supposed to attract pigeons).

 

I find pigeons tend to go for peanuts or mostly any kind of seed, never seen them eat mealworms, they might try them but they dont like them, biggest mealworm eaters, I find, are starlings, they love them and so do blackbirds, as you say.
I know blackbirds do rummage around looking for insects but I don't find that a massive problem, they clear my gutters out for me sometimes
Robins, foxes and cats all like mealworms as well.

Most insect eating birds do prefer live food, but will go for mealworms at this time of year.

Bluetits like peanuts but they like to fly off with one and eat it in peace I find.

If you put sunflower hearts in a feeder and only use a small amout of peanuts you wont attract too many pigeons, I put some peanuts out for doves and tits.

 

@pete thanks for advice. I have only just started feeding birds, as in the past I didn't want the mess but the little robin is so friendly and it is cold, and I read that a lot of robins die in winter due to not finding enough food. I didn't expect it to attract the pigeon as I read that they are granivores, but it is definitely pecking away wherever I put the mealworms, though maybe the upturned metal wall basket frame has stopped the pigeon getting to the robin's food.

I have seen a fox just outside, once. I don't think cats can get into our garden easily and I have never seen a cat in our garden, they don't seem to bother.

My guess is that it is the blackbirds pulling the saucer of mealworms to the edge of the frame, but it could even be the robin, though the robin is small enough to easily get inside the frame. The blackbird wouldn't be able to. Blackbirds are probably more intelligent than pigeons? I have never seen crows around here, they would know what to do.

It would be nice if the blackbirds ate slugs, snails, aphids and caterpillars, but they don't seem to. They just make a huge mess tossing soil out of the flower beds and flower pots, and probably only eat earthworms. Slugs are probably well hidden under stones? I wouldn't begrudge the blackbirds a few mealworms if only they didn't make such a mess and if they let the robin eat some mealworms too. Maybe blackbird damage is seasonal? Strange that the male blackbird was visiting the mealworm saucer for weeks without ransacking the flower beds and pots, and then suddenly when the female appeared there was a huge mess of soil thrown everywhere. And the male blackbird did seem to be taking turns with the robin.

 

There are no slugs around in my garden its too cold, and to be honest, I dont care what anybody says, nothing eats slugs, snails yes, slugs no.

Can I say I think you are trying to be too selective, they are all just trying to get through the winter and robins will get in there if they want to.
You cant out think nature, the strong survive.

Just put some food out, and try doing it say early morning and then again mid afternoon, you tend to get different birds at different times of day.

 

How does a hungry robin look different to a non hungry robin?

 

The robin appears as soon as I go in the garden with the bag of mealworms, comes right up to me and looks at me as if to say about time too, I am hungry.

 

There's a word for that....applying human behaviour and values to animals and birds..begins with 'A' IME, robins turn up out of nowhere whenever a human even begins to look as though he (or she) will provide food, or dig etc. Isn't the solution fairly simple? Hang feeders high up for the small birds like tits and some finches, put other food under upturned hanging baskets on the ground for chaffinches, robins, wrens etc. Blackbirds find what they need in borders/hedgerows by turning over moss, leaves and mulch.

 

If you use a mealworm feeder the Pigeons cannot get them. They only eat off the ground. They hang around under our seed feeder and pick up the seeds the Robin and Sparrows drop.
Starlings will empty a mealworm feeder in no time. You really need the feeder in a squirrel-proof cage or the like to keep the Starlings (and Jackdaws) away.

 

Robins are very resilient cheeky little gits. The robin won't be going hungry, it's just learned that you save it the effort of looking elsewhere.

Blackbirds digging up newly filled plant pots is common. I don't know for sure, but I strongly suspect they're after the seed you put in there. They're not daft. They know what us humans do in the garden (they know everything that goes on in your garden... Everything). They know that humans have this strange tendency to hide food in compost in pots, or in freshly dug soil in the ground. To combat this, as an experiment, I've left a load of pots out with fresh compost in, but no seeds. I noticed that when I do actually sow seeds a few weeks later, they don't get ransacked as often. At first, the decoys got ransacked as normal but it settled down, not to zero, but less. Our local blackbirds probably now think I'm one of the more stupid humans, one who forgets to hide the food in the centre of the pot like normal humans do.

As for pigeons, I'm convinced they tell all their mates when they've found a good food source. We don't have many here, they all hang out in town looking for Gregg's sausage roll pastry on the floor. Maybe you could try eating a Gregg's sausage roll, but while eating it slowly, wander off a couple of hundred yards from your house, then drop the last bit of the sausage roll. Do that every day, inching closer each day to your nearest Gregg's, until they all migrate there. Problem solved.

 

Anthropomorphism.

As far as I know they are after any insects, larvae or eggs. The reason they go for freshly filled pots of compost is that it's easier to dig in. A layer of grit/gravel on the pot surface can deter them. Other birds do the same including robins that are not getting handouts of mealworms. I've had both robins and blackbirds follow me around while spreading mulch so they get first dibs on any edibles. Last summer the blackbirds threw the moss from the insectiverous plants all over the place looking for food.

 

Your local pigeons are well trained in; in Exeter and Plymouth they gather in gangs and will mob children with anything edible in hand.

 

Thank you It came to me around 4am this morning

 

The problem with attracting wildlife of any kind to your garden is they will always do, or have, certain habits that you don't particularly like, but you just have to put up with that side of their behaviour if you want them around.
They mostly like a bit of untidiness as they prefer to rummage around they haven't got anything else to do really.

 

My Collared Doves have found a way of perching on my feeders, I have seen a few Pigeons do the same.