If no-one nearby is feeding the birds then they will not be used to feeding stations, and wary for quite a long time. But I'll bet they have spotted it by now but they'll be waiting for the first one to make a move, probably even pushing each other off to try to persuade them to make the first (and most dangerous) move. When a brave one has shown it is safe the others will move in.
I've just moved to a new house, very rural hamlet with extensive woodland on three sides, fields on the other, and the gardens have nice beech hedges all round giving plenty of cover. I put up my feeders one night (about 3 weeks ago), at crack of dawn the next day a robin was on it, followed a minute or two later by a tree sparrow and a blue tit. The two feeders were half empty by the evening. Neighbours do feed the birds so they were used to feeders. However I was amazed at the speed at which they took to it. Now my feeders (3 of them) are empty by 10.30 am ... One is filled with hemp seed which is not quite as popular as the sunflower seeds. Which was meant to be for the very hungry as a reserve ... however the tree sparrows and greenfinches seem to rather like hemp, as does the marsh tit. I think I'll acquire some very cheap mix so there is something available for the very hungry in the afternoon.
I'm boasting now ... I've got masses of tits, sparrows of both types, greenfinches, goldfinches etc visiting. And the nuthatch, coal and marsh tits are busy storing food caches. There is still plenty of wild food around in the adjoining countryside though. I wonder what it will be like when the weather gets cold and wild food gets short
. I'm struggling to count numbers for Garden Bird Watch, there is just so much activity.
My previous garden was urban with many cats in the neighbourhood. It took about 4 weeks for anything to touch my feeders when i first put them up, but no-one fed them nearby and there was very high predator risk. (The feeders were too high for cats to reach, and visibility around them good) The numbers built up gradually and I did tweak the position of feeders in relation to cover as a result of careful observation of what they seemed to prefer. My neighbour started putting out food too, same type of feeder and food, similar stand but never got the numbers that my feeders attracted ... due I'm pretty sure to more appropriate cover (trees) near my feeders.
I noticed straight away at my new house the very different behaviour of birds in the garden where there is very little cat threat. They spend so much time on the ground eating weed and flower seeds and insects, and greenfinches shredding green plants too. Something they never did at my old house. And no more do I have to sweep up the seeds that have dropped under the feeders. They clean up every last bit.
