which birds 1st to your table ?

[acherontia]

Definitely our robin - he comes to the kitchen or living room windows (when he sees us) to remind me to put out food and he sits and waits while I do it.
Very often he starts to eat before I've finished and behind my back!
Then it's the blackbirds followed by the dunnock about the same time as the blue/great/coal tits. The collared doves take a while - as do the starlings, house sparrows and gold/green/chaff finches.

A good question for a thread -robin and blackbird seem to be the most common answer.

Acher

[shenk1]

Just been corrected by the head of the household bird feeding section (and everything else!) that its the Goldfinches beating everyone to it at the moment.I was right about the blackbird chuntering in the tree though so I'm glad I don't get everything wrong!


(Whoops ,she's just told me that in fact I do get everything wrong.)

[Gaina]

Jackdaws are always first, then Walter the Woody, followed by various Tits and Finches.

Mind you, nobody's feeding of anything today cos we woke up this morning to find my lovely wrought iron feeder (the one I bough in the summer) bent!

[BucksMike]

Pigeon, followed by a fatter pigeon followed by another bigger one and so on. Often though we do get a starling coming along eventually. The Pigeons even have a system on the feeders, one pigeon manages to cling on flapping chucking seed everywhere while the others go on the ground catching all the seed being thrown about. OK did see a jay flitting about the other day in and around the garden. btw this is Leytonstone, very different from the house and garden in Bucks where blue and great tits were usually first during the day but often Rooks were around at first light followed by anything from Greater spotted woodpeckers to nuthatches, lots of finches, magpies and a great many others.

Mike

[Jonathan]

There's a paper by the BTO called "Eye size and the time of arrival at garden feeding stations in winter" which I'm sure woud be interesting . . . if only I could access it! Anyway, here's an abstract:

The work, led by the BTO’s Nancy Ockendon, has revealed that birds with larger eyes (relative to their body size) start arriving at garden feeding stations sooner after sunrise than birds with smaller eyes. This suggests that the time at which garden birds begin to forage on winter mornings may be limited by their visual capabilities. It has always been assumed that small birds need to start feeding as soon as possible after sunrise in order to replenish energy reserves depleted overnight. Our findings are important, therefore, because they suggest that such birds may not be able to begin feeding as early as they would like; instead they are held back by not being able to see well-enough to start feeding. Birds which have large eyes relative to their body size, such as Robin, can start feeding earlier and are among the first to arrive at feeding stations.

I don't feed the birds in my garden (though I have a farmland feeding station) but I'm usually out before dawn - the bird I see foraging most often at this time is without doubt the robin.

Cheers
Jonathan

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

There's a paper by the BTO called "Eye size and the time of arrival at garden feeding stations in winter" which I'm sure woud be interesting . . . if only I could access it! Anyway, here's an abstract:

The work, led by the BTO’s Nancy Ockendon, has revealed that birds with larger eyes (relative to their body size) start arriving at garden feeding stations sooner after sunrise than birds with smaller eyes. This suggests that the time at which garden birds begin to forage on winter mornings may be limited by their visual capabilities. It has always been assumed that small birds need to start feeding as soon as possible after sunrise in order to replenish energy reserves depleted overnight. Our findings are important, therefore, because they suggest that such birds may not be able to begin feeding as early as they would like; instead they are held back by not being able to see well-enough to start feeding. Birds which have large eyes relative to their body size, such as Robin, can start feeding earlier and are among the first to arrive at feeding stations.

I don't feed the birds in my garden (though I have a farmland feeding station) but I'm usually out before dawn - the bird I see foraging most often at this time is without doubt the robin.

Cheers
Jonathan

That may well have been from the survey that the BTO conducted in 2004, which I took part in. Details are on this link ..

early bird

Melanie

[SusieBee]

Male Blackbird's first, followed by the female's then the Robin's in between. I've been watching this early morning order for weeks now, it's lovely.

The Blue, Great & Coal tits are next and not fussy who's about or what to eat darting from feeder to feeder.

About half an hour after at another corner station the Jackdaws & Crows have their breakfast.

[Carole Wakeford]

Originally Posted by rossy

have you noticed which bird or birds come to the table or feeding station 1st ? at 1st light today and most days after putting food out the resident robin comes followed by dunnocks then blackbirds ? rossy.

Re which birds 1st to your table ?
Most mornings collard doves, followed by a blackbird, and on the fat cakes tits followed by the starlings.

[pitre]

as with most others its usually a race between the robin and blackbird closely followed by the tit family

[AshLee]

The Robin here at the moment