Why no NUTS???

[craigdaniel]

The birds eat the following foods in the garden: Wild bird food, niger seed, suet pellets and mealworms. The answer im looking for is why have the nut feeders remained untouched. The birds never seem interested, i always thought blue tits used these alot, but even they dont touch them. Any reasons why?? The bird count is now up to 11 in the garden not bad for an urban spot: species include.1 Blue tit 2 Coal tit 3 Robin 4 Blackbird 5 Wren 6 Dunnock 7 Starlings 8 Collard dove 9 Woodpigeon 10 House sparrow 11 Goldfinch . Also a rare visit from a Kestrel and a Spotted Woodpecker.

[~T~]

I've been trying to figure that out as well though all I can think of is the nuts are far to cold. I mean nobody likes frozen nuts The only birds that use my nut feeder just now are starlings and even then it's usually when all the other feeders are in use.

[rossy]

fair question , dont fill your feeder ,only put about a third in as they will go mouldy, but try putting some on your bird table, and some on the ground , not to many , ive tried this and they soon get eaten, worth a try , let us know how you get on, rossy.

[Kayleigh]

Crush them and make them into a home-made fat cake along with some seed mix,raisins or dried fruit,suet and lard..
They will soon go..
the blackbirds, robins starlings and blue-tits love this mix..

[~T~]

I've been putting my nuts in the blender

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by ~T~

I've been putting my nuts in the blender

Painful

[RKB]

The reason is that eating the nuts is more risky and time-consuming for them - they have to hang off a feeder and chip bits off. This takes time, and they are exposed to Sparrowhawk attack and usurping by other birds while they do it. With the other foods, they can grab a seed/pellet and retreat to cover to eat it safely. Given the choice, they will always take the safer option.

Also, suet, nyjer and sunflower seeds have a higher fat content than peanuts, and the birds go for fattier foods first, as they give more calories.

[nightshade]

Blitz them in the grinder, nuts are hard work.

[Lemars]

I thought I'd add my two-penneth to this discussion – purely for comparative purposes, really, since I'm not in the UK. I just hope it's of interest to someone. I'm in France.

When we first moved here, there were very few birds in the garden (too much choice out there in the fields), but old habits die hard and I started trying to encourage the birds towards the house.

The first winter, we had sparrows – and they've increased year on year. I came to the conclusion, subsequently, that they're more the 'bully-boys' of the bird world than starlings. They've taken over.

We still have a lot of tits and blue-tits, a robin, gold-finches (only if I acquire niger seed from the UK – they won't come otherwise), blackbirds, chaffinches, greenfinches, wrens, dunnocks etc. Plus black redstarts, redstarts, swallows and housemartins in the summer. Once, I even saw gold-crests in the fir.

We've also had sparrow-hawks, woodpeckers, pigeons and sometimes a hoopoe (living further south is an advantage in this), but the sparrows are the kings.
Not since that first winter have I seen the blackcap, the brambling or the hawfinch – which were my first ever sightings and wonderful to see. They came daily that winter.

Now we have less variety - much less variety and the sparrows have become a dependent flock. There must be a couple of hundred of them out there and the bird-feeding is a lengthy business.

Daily, I fill three feeding stations. A sunflower feeder, three peanut feeders (peanuts have to be acquired from the UK too – they're only available here in small and very expensive quantities), mixed wild bird seed, fat balls (about 4 a day), bread and millet (3 - 4 a day).

They demolish the lot. I know we've created a rod for our own backs, but that wasn't the original intention. Much as I love the sparrows, I'm inclined to think they now deter some of the other birds which used to come to the feeders. There's a reported shortage in the UK ? We could re-stock a small village.

[nightshade]

Niger seed was the least popular feed in our garden! I tried narrow red feeders
packing it in teasel heads no takers. The Goldfinches (up to a dozen at a time) just emptied the sunflower heart feeders. There are four Goldfinches now on the feeder and others around calling for them to hurry up.