What Bird feeders Advice Please

Last bag i bought was £31.99 for 25kg

Just looked at price from wher i get mine and 20kg is £26

 

I have 3 feeders, Pea Nuts, Mixed Seed & Sunflower Seeds. A week ago the birds were only feeding on the Mixed seed, then only on the Pea Nuts and now only Sunflower Seeds. Why, is it to do with the temperature?

 

Sunflower hearts are more nutritious and are usually the favourite. They are often favoured over nyjer seed by Goldfinches and Siskins when offered as I have found out. Some birds are not adapted to feeding on hanging feeders and prefer seed on tables or on the ground eg Robins and Dunnocks I have the same as you and they are all used. I don't think it has anything to do with temperature, sometimes like us they can just be fussy!

 

I don't put peanuts out anymore because they weren't getting eaten, they prefer the sunflower hearts and the mixed seeds on the bird table and ground.

 

Peanuts are what attracts pigeons if left in the open, I find if in feeders nothing touches them if sunflower hearts are around.

 

Yes the pigeons do go for the seed on the table and ground but not too much.

 

The Tits, particularly the Long Tailed Tits always visit the peanut feeder here, as do the Woodpeckers. I put a mixture of food in a tray attached to the feeding station and most birds feed from that including Robins and Blackbirds, with the exception of Goldfinches - they will only take food from the feeders.

Pigeons will only ground feed but Collared Doves will devour everything, wherever it is, with the exception of raisins - they're such greedy birds.

Birds visiting at the moment...

Blackbirds, Woodpeckers, Collared Doves, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, 1 lonely Greenfinch, Siskins, Great/Long Tailed/ Blue and Coal Tits, and the inevitable House Sparrows.

 

Like others I find sunflower hearts are the most popular for most birds. I've used many types of feeder over the years but have found these by far the easiest to clean.

Ring-Pull Seed Feeder

But feeder cleaning is a pain anyway (unless you have a spare ready to go) as you can't clean a feeder and feed the birds with it at the same time. And do you wait for it to be completely empty before cleaning it, or attempt to salvage the remaining food for later use?

Our Long-tailed Tits will take the occasional sunflower heart but much prefer the suet balls we put out in a caged tube similar to this.

Squirrel Proof Fat Snax Bird Feeder

For Chaffinches, Dunnocks, Robins etc. we put broken bits of sunflower hearts on the ground and on a bird table.

 

I use a table mix for the table and on the ground, on the patio.

 

I've seen robins take the odd sunflower seed out of the feeder but mostly they seem to prefer the ground, presumably looking for insects, they take some of the mealworms I put down each day but not as many as you would expect, blackbirds and starlings take most of them.

 

Our robins use the feeder, although some are much clumsier doing so than others. We’ve also seen a dunnock on it, just the odd occasion. We use a mixed seed and rely on the Goldfinches to feed the ground feeders with their rejections rather than putting any directly on the ground.

The long tailed tits only go for the fat coconut. A big hit with all the tits and the robins. Also visited by a couple of Starlings, but they aren’t telling their friends, as we never see more than two. It was also loved by the squirrels who would gobble it up in minutes but I now decant the suet mix, mix in chilli powder and repack it. Birds don’t care at all but it’s kept the squirrels off after their first visit. Before anyone says how mean we are, they do eat all our hazelnuts (3 mature trees worth) and all our walnuts every year

 

Robins and dunnocks use the feeders here too. I have purpose built cages for all the small birds.
It prevents the squirrels getting in. I stopped using peanuts a long time ago because of them. I'm certainly not going to encourage those.
I change the feeders frequently, as well as cleaning them - any type will do. We get a good variety of small birds, but due to our location, they don't always visit regularly because there's plenty of food and habitat nearby. We've had nuthatches back this winter which is great, as they aren't common up here.
I have a purpose built ground feeder too, so all the ground feeding birds get something as well. I got some samples of fine metal mesh from a company online, and just built a support for it from offcuts of timber battens.
I use sunflower hearts and a decent, no mess seed mix. I get them online usually, but the cheapo shops like Home Bargains often have sunflower hearts at a good price.

 

We have two feeders, suspended from the branches of a mature birch tree. Loads of squirrels round here, so we have a Perspex dome above each feeder which is very good at keeping the squirrels off. ( They come to the French window instead, and bang on the glass until we give them some peanuts)
One feeder has sunflower seeds, and the other ‘buggy bits’, suet nibbles with added insects. Both are very popular. The suet is much liked by blue tits, greater spotted woodpeckers and robins. Even the blackbirds have managed to help themselves. The jackdaws are keen too, although we are not so much, as they eat such a lot so quickly. The sunflower seeds seem to appeal to everyone, Siskins, tits, nuthatches, greenfinches. We do throw out table mix on the ground, for the dunnocks and blackbirds, but most gets eaten by squirrels and pigeons.
I’ve just been watching a green woodpecker foraging in the moss on our ‘lawn’, such wonderful colouring.

 

Nuthatches are lovely aren’t they, we have a pair who regularly visit. They will also tap the bird feeder very noisily when it’s empty to let us know. It’s quite comical as they don’t do it straight away, they usually allow us a half day or so before they start a regular tap, tap, tap short pause to see if we’re responding, then tap, tap, tap again and again

We use a spring- weighted feeder so the food hatches close if anything to heavy lands on the perches. Works really well, must by 7+ years old, but a bit of a b@@g@r to clean. The only bigger birds who are lightweight enough to get anything is our regular woodpecker pair (greater spotted)