Getting our garden birds back.

[Old-Man-George]

Hi all,

Around 18 months ago, we moved house from a town centre, out to a quieter suburb, and I really enjoyed seeing the birds on the feeder in the garden.
But last summer, we stopped putting seeds and fat-balls out for them, thinking there was plenty of other food for them around. After starting again in the autumn, we've hardly had any birds come back over winter, and they're still not using it now. Obviously they got used to the idea that we weren't feeding them last summer, and they never came back.
Can anyone suggest why they might be staying away, or how we can encourage them back?
We currently have a nesting box, a seed feeder, and a fat-ball feeder, all of which they used to love.

Many thanks,

George

[artdemole]

Natural for the birds to be in the fields and hedgerow now.Finches and tits may come now feeding time for the young is here.If it goes cool again they might visit your feeders especially if you place a water tray on the ground.Hope the predators are not driving them away.Make sure you have some bushes or trees for them to go in....aDm...

[Littlesparrow]

The birds in our garden who will happily share the feeder in winter are getting quite territorial now so we only have one pair of blackbirds and one pair of robins, the usual gang of house sparrows and a disabled chaffinch. I tend to not feed so much now because there are a lot of insects about,one feeder in the tree and a bit of feed on the hutches.

[Old-Man-George]

OK, thanks folks.
We do have some small trees that provide cover for them.
Perhaps they'll return in the summer. I do hope so.

George