Why are my bird feeders not used?

I have put up 3 feeders with good seed,peanuts,niger seeds and placed them 6ft up a garage wall to prevent cats. Although I get a selection of ground feeders ie blackbird starling magpie and wood pigeon.
I dont get any tits,finches, or sparrows although my sister who lives round the corner has loads.
I am making sure I keep emptying the base of the feeder so its not wet and mouldy, but although 1 tit flew in and looked in each one, he then beggered off and hasnt been again .
I have been told to put them in trees bit wont that make them more wary of cats?

 

Hello CM, Birds like to have somewhere they can go and hide if disturbed whilst feeding. I put a bird feeder near my rabbit hutch where I could see it from the kitchen. Not a birdie for days so I moved it next to a beech tree and got birds within half an hour. If you have nowhere else to put the feeder why not plant a cotoneaster or something up your garage wall? As to cats mine sits under the bird feeder and the birds flick seeds at her :D

 

I agree with Celia birds like places where they can hide and feel protected have you tried putting up a couple of nest boxes as well as youe feeder I have some in my garden and I do get a lot of birds
Blackbird
Blue Tits
Pigeons
Collared Doves
Coal Tits
Wren
Dunnock
Robin
I had a sparrow hawk on my hanging basket a few weeks ago unbeleavable I am new with my camera but I will try and put pics of my bird homes on GC

 

Hi CM the problem could be because you have sited the bird table too close too the garage wall.We have cats and they often sit up on the roof to survey the garden. :rolleyes:

The table is better situated out in the open so that the birds can get an all round view of the garden,but there needs to be trees and bushes near by that they can fly into for safety if a cat is around.

Try not to position the table with bushes underneath it because cats love to hide in wait actually in the bushes.

Nathan,I bet the Sparrowhawk was a site to see on your hanging basket,and nice to see the list of birds that you get come into your garden

 

thank you all here I hope are my pics

 

I think I am putting pics in but I need to get them all together I think oh oh keep on trying jonesy

 

Nathan, when you post a pic, keep going back to PB copy and add into same post, i think you can paste a max of 8....
wow you really encourage the birds into your garden, brilliant..
i have an old hanging basket on my back fence where the ivy grew over and hid it.. every year theres a nest in there..And the cats can't get to it..Yay..

 

Hi there Nathan,

I had a sparrowhawk take a blackbird from my garden on Sunday morning, it did it right in front of myself and Mrs Pip as we watched the other birds feeding. It hangs around here alot and this is the first time I have seen it in action, magnificent.

 

Hello there C.M

I have a bird table and several feeders in my garden.The table is freestanding,obviously,and I have feeders in the trees. I find that the birds will feed from anywhere but I do think that they prefer to be in some sort of cover.

Having said that,I recently bought a bird feeding station and once the birds got used to seeing it they fed off it readily. I find one of the best foods to put out are sunflower hearts,all the birds love them,and I have heard that niger seeds are one of the best finch attracters and I will be putting some of them out as soon as I can find somewhere round here that stocks them.

Hang in there, the birds will soon start coming(it was 4 weeks before I saw a bird using my birdtable when I first put it out at my old house)and once word gets round that a new `restaurant` has opened you won`t be able to keep up with them and you will soon begin to recognise the regulars and their habits.

 

Many thanks for all your replies. I am going to move the feeders to the trees tomorrow. I have been told not to put the nesting boxes near the feeders but how far is near . Nathan I saw you have a coconut very close. Have you had any birds use the box whilst its near the feeder.
I have put a blackbird and a tit box up and got nothing yet but here's hoping. Please send any photos of birds nesting and feeding even if it so I can be jealous.