Question on feeding

[Carole Wakeford]

Please can someone tell me why the seed and peanuts in my feeders are being left, and only the fat cakes and grapes on my grape vine are being eaten? I have never noticed this before, the birds I am seeing are mostly tits starlings and blackbird
Thankyou, Carole.

[Jim Ford]

I've given up putting peanuts out for birds. They seem to prefer almost any other food to the fresh peanuts I've put out in the past.

Jim

[SusieBee]

Hi Carole, welcome to WAB

I had the same here for the last year, I kept putting fresh peanuts in and still nothing......Until today

This afternoon had lots of Blue tits enjoying them ignoring the fat balls, I was really pleased. I did move the feeder that could have helped? I was just thinking about emptying the peanuts and filling with fat balls/cake.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Cheers SusieBee

[Madelinew]

I find that it varies and is often seasonal. Sometimes my kibbled peanut feeders are emptied quicker than everything else, at others the more expensive niger seed vanishes and at others I'm replacing fatballs almost daily. Just as I stock up on more of the stuff that's going quicker than the rest, they switch to something else and I've got an excess of one foodstuff. One thing that always goes is the sunflower seeds.

[pitre]

Both black sunflower seeds and hearts disappear on a daily basis, fat cakes last a little longer depending whether we get a flock of starlings or not.Peanuts are popular but last longer, is it because the birds have to work harder ?. Sunflower hearts are popular with our golfinches - when they run out the goldfinches leave and wait for the refill

[Jenny W]

Originally Posted by pitre

Both black sunflower seeds and hearts disappear on a daily basis, fat cakes last a little longer depending whether we get a flock of starlings or not.Peanuts are popular but last longer, is it because the birds have to work harder ?. Sunflower hearts are popular with our golfinches - when they run out the goldfinches leave and wait for the refill

Spot on there! Whole peanuts in a wire mesh feeder, despite being nutritionally very good, full of fat and oil etc, are very energy intensive when it comes to extracting them from the feeder. If there is a more efficient option available, then they will go for that.

Same reason why sunflower hearts are so popular, they don't have to be du-husked, which reduces the effort required to obtain the seed

[Jason Claxton]

Peanuts in the red bag used to bring in loads of birds,including Siskins,but now I have little success with them here.Sunflower hearts do attract the birds,but I dont have that much luck with with black sunflower seeds.

[Jim Ford]

I put black sunflower seeds in a large globe feeder. I don't use sunflower hearts as I think the whole ones stay fresher and are less likely to go mouldy.

Jim

[Carole Wakeford]

Hi,Susie Bee,
I will try moving my peanut feeder, might work. Thankyou,
Carole

[Phoebe]

Originally Posted by Jenny W

Spot on there! Whole peanuts in a wire mesh feeder, despite being nutritionally very good, full of fat and oil etc, are very energy intensive when it comes to extracting them from the feeder. If there is a more efficient option available, then they will go for that.

Same reason why sunflower hearts are so popular, they don't have to be du-husked, which reduces the effort required to obtain the seed

I agree Jenny, the peanuts are always left until last on my feeders but I do crush some and put them on and under the feeding table. The Nuthatches and Woodpeckers are the only ones to feed regularly from the peanut hanger.

I think especially in the winter sunflower hearts are better as the birds lose less of their valuable energy at this time of year, only trouble is they go so quickly....