What to feed?

[-John]

At the moment, my garden contains

- Two Sunflower Heart feeders
- 1 niger seed feeder
- 1 Mixed seed feeder
- 1 Bird table

I get goldfinches on the niger, greenfinches, robins and the very occasional blue tit, coal tit and once a great tit on the sunflower hearts and next to nothing on the mix seed feeder. I get the usual starlings, collared doves, wood pigeons and blackbirds on the table. When I have put out suet on the bird table, the blue tits seem to love it, especially for their chicks at the moment.

I would like to know what bird food you think I could try to entice new visitors or less frequent visitors to visit on a more frequent basis. I have seen, House Sparrows, coal tits, dunnocks, great tits and a goldcrest. I was wondering what food I could use to get these birds to visit more often and maybe some new birds?

Im stumped for ideas
Any help much appreciated,
John

[Fieldfare95]

Sounds like you're getting some good'uns I'd love to have a goldcrest.
However I noticed that you don't have ordinary peanuts-this might make the tit family more regular.

[-John]

Originally Posted by Fieldfare95

Sounds like you're getting some good'uns I'd love to have a goldcrest.
However I noticed that you don't have ordinary peanuts-this might make the tit family more regular.

I used to have a nut feeder up. It was huge but the magpies used it, it was that big! Never had much luck with small birds though, only very occasional visitors. Do you think the enormity of it could have out them off? Worth investing in a smaller one?

John

[Jenny W]

The more variety of seed types you have, the greater number of species you will attract. Different species will favour different seed types.

[Hedge Witch]

Many people are saying that peanuts are not so popular these days. I gave up with peanuts a long time ago.

TBH, it may not be your food choices. Are the less frequent visitors to the feeders also less frequently seen in your area? Could it be that the area does not suit them, there isn't the availability of nest sites or the right habitat? Or that the birds on your feeders are out-competing the others?

[-John]

Originally Posted by Hedge Witch

TBH, it may not be your food choices. Are the less frequent visitors to the feeders also less frequently seen in your area? Could it be that the area does not suit them, there isn't the availability of nest sites or the right habitat? Or that the birds on your feeders are out-competing the others?

That is what I was afraid of, but there were great tits nesting in the front about a week ago. Also I have heard that small birds only travel about 2 miles from their nesting sites and I live about 1/2 mile away from Richmond Park as the crow flies (If you are familiar with it).

We've had the tits, chaffinches and numerous others but I do not know how to keep them coming!
Do many birds use fat or suet feeders?

John

[Hedge Witch]

Richmond Park, lucky you. Occasionally used to visit that way when I lived in Acton.

Yes, suet cake (in its various forms) is excellent. Be prepared for more Starlings though. But all the tit family seem to enjoy this food

[hel1985]

have u tried dreid meal worms and fat balls,,we get gold finches,chaffinches,blue tits,coal tits,robins,black birds,thrushes,,the dreded starlings an jackdaws,collard doves and recently we've had a spotted woodpecker..all we have out is 3 seed feeders with husk free seed,our kitchen scrapes and recently mealworm suet things an dried meal worms.
hope this helps somehow.

[hobble]

Our Mr and Mrs Dunnock like to feed from the ground and they like high energy bird seed.
The Long Tailed Tits love the Fat Balls best.

[Paul mabbott]

Several things.
Firstly, rare birds are not going to turn up at your feeders, whatever you put there and neither are ones that don't live in your area.
By and large, at this time of year there should be plenty of natural food for most adults but you should be thinking about the feeding of nestlings. So on the one hand don't put out large seeds (especially nuts) which may choke nestlings but do put out high fat/protein things (fat cakes or live invertebrates).
Finally, in the long term, aim at the relatives of the species that you already attract: if you get goldfinches you could attract siskins in the winter; if you get chaffinches then you should be able to attract bullfinches, greenfinches ...
Good luck.
PS: there are huge seasonal variations in which birds you will see - in the winter I get an interesting variety but at this time of year they are all off feeding themselves naturally in the fields and woods - which is right and proper - I hardly even see a robin or a blackbird - they'll come back in the winter when they're desperate!