Best Food for Birds

[briar rose]

Hi everyone, can you give me some advice on what food to feed to attract different birds to my garden, and what prefers to be feed where, at the moment I've got a feeding station with peanuts, mixed bird seed, the seed from my Parakeet and fat balls, so far the Starlings prefer the fat balls where ever they are, the Sparrows like the Parakeet seed, and mostly eat of the ground, but I have seen them in the dish which also contains parakeet seed, and one on the seed feeder, I've had a Robin around, but only on the ground, a couple of Collard Doves, they have been on the ground and the dish on the feeding station which contains the Parakeet seed, and this morning I had a Chaffinch on the ground, I'm loving this and want to attract as many to my little garden as possible, so any advice would be gratefully recieved
Thank you

[Gaz-W]

I put pretty much the same as you out but also sunflower hearts, they seem to attract all sorts of birds. The only problem being the squirrel also loves them so they don't last that long.

[goosey]

Hello, I also put out the similar sort of food for our birds - you could try specific softbill food for the ground feeders, they also like small bits of cheese. Live meal worms are a great favourite all through the autumn and winter especially if the ground is very hard, but I usually need to buy more when there are young to be fed. Enjoy your birds .

[jdurbo]

We also put a niger seed feeder up,at the time we have never seen goldfinches and within two weeks..Goldfinches we also put sunflower hearts and seeds which seen to attract greenfinches in our garden.

jen xxx

[Tursiops2]

Try putting some fruit out, particularly if we get some proper winter weather - if you're lucky, this will attract Redwings and Fieldfares. Do you provide water?
T2

[stripee]

I used to have a couple of canaries and chucked out their left over seeds, and this attracted chaffinches and dunnocks. I buy mixed canary seed for the chaffinches now. Field mice, squirrels, slugs and snails like them too!

[briar rose]

Originally Posted by Tursiops2

Try putting some fruit out, particularly if we get some proper winter weather - if you're lucky, this will attract Redwings and Fieldfares. Do you provide water?
T2

Thank you everyone for some brilliant ideas, I may need to take out a second mortgage to buy all this but I'll give it all ago, I've seen Redwings over the fields in the past, the only trouble is they're building on them now, so maybe they'll come to my garden instead
The feeding station I bought has a water dish with it, but I haven't so far put any out on the ground, do you think I should or will the other one do, also with water, will out of the tap do, or should it be rain water, filtered water, cold boiled water or what

[briar rose]

Thank you everyone for some brilliant ideas, I may need to take out a second mortgage to buy all this but I'll give it all ago, I've seen Redwings over the fields in the past, the only trouble is they're building on them now , so maybe they'll come to my garden instead
The feeding station I bought has a water dish with it, but I haven't so far put any out on the ground, do you think I should or will the other one do, also with water, will out of the tap do, or should it be rain water, filtered water, cold boiled water or what

[goosey]

Originally Posted by briar rose

The feeding station I bought has a water dish with it, but I haven't so far put any out on the ground, do you think I should or will the other one do, also with water, will out of the tap do, or should it be rain water, filtered water, cold boiled water or what

Yes you should have water, birds need to drink and bathe to keep clean even in winter. I use tap water. I use to use a plastic plant pot saucer as a bird bath at first and put a couple of stones in to weigh it down and the smaller birds liked to stand on the stones to drink, but anything reasonably shallow will do. These will need cleaning regularly to prevent spread of disease as with your feeders.

[Tursiops2]

Originally Posted by briar rose

Thank you everyone for some brilliant ideas, I may need to take out a second mortgage to buy all this but I'll give it all ago, I've seen Redwings over the fields in the past, the only trouble is they're building on them now, so maybe they'll come to my garden instead
The feeding station I bought has a water dish with it, but I haven't so far put any out on the ground, do you think I should or will the other one do, also with water, will out of the tap do, or should it be rain water, filtered water, cold boiled water or what

See if your local greengrocer will let you have damaged fruit cheap. As for water, tap water's fine, you could try with two - one on the ground and one raised.
T2