Feeding SMALL birds

Just saw this thread is still going, most of my terrace only have yards in the back, and tiny front gardens, and my next door neighbour a really nice old man died this year and a young couple moved in.They’re not all that friendly, and the tree in their yard, which I used to hang bird feeders from as the branches came over the wall, has now been cut down.☹️It was a lovely tree, some kind of Spring flowering one, masses of pink blossoms.

I’ve 2 robins, both almost tame but of course they ‘hate’ each other and attempt to chase one another away. Plenty of food and despite a big garden, it’s not big enough for the two of them.

I feed my birds at dawn and dusk. I put so much out, mealworms, peanuts, seed, suet bites, along with fat balls and blocks in suitable containers. I often add a handful of dried fruit too - the cheapest mix I can get.
I find the blue tits and robins are lined up waiting and they can barely hang on for me to finish loading everything up before they descend to feed. The jackdaws and magpies usually come along half an hour later with the doves, feral and a couple of fat wood pigeons. I’ve apples I leave on trees that are well pecked too.
My thought is that feeding the corvids might just prevent them from praying on the smaller birds.

We bought a seed feeder today (usually feed peanuts, fat balls and porridge). Filled it with sunflower hearts and 2 ½ hours later it is empty! Mainly coal tits. Not filling it again until the morning. Coal tits store food for later in the winter so I suppose all the surrounding trees have little cache.

I use feeders for small birds, trays and easy access for starlings, seed on the ground for pigeons, collared doves etc, and I hid meal worms, suet and seed under shrubs etc for ground feeders like the robin, blackbird etc.

I aim to please🙂

Lixy that's a very helpful RSPB link.
Thank you.

Meant to say that I save my knitting wool scraps over the year and put them out in a fat ball feeder in March. We find some colourful nests when we do the Autumn pruning.

Effi

I put apples cut in half on ground for blackbirds.
They love them.

Anyone else a tip like that - for left over particular food?

Ours like a bit of mashed potato mixed with seeds. I put it in a shallow saucer on the ground for the blackbirds.

When I make a pie (a very rare event!) I cook the pastry trimmings too. Its the only time my OH volunteers to put the bird food out - not sure how many actually make it to the bird table!

This link is to the RSPB site. I was surprised by the advice that lumps of animal fat are OK as I thought it interfered with preening and the waterproofing of feathers.

www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/feeding-birds/safe-food-for-birds/household-scraps-for-birds/

Visgir1, I| hope there's cover near those feeders - as the sparrowhawk is after the smaller birds.

I've got metal squirrel baffles above my feeders - that mainly stop the bigger birds. Still, a few clever pigeons have worked out how to fly at the feeders to tip some seed out.

I buy a sack of baker's sunflower hearts (cheaper than small amounts), some I actually use for cooking and the robins, sparrows and goldfinches all love them.

I hang squirrel proof feeders on a feeding station and also on a tree, one for peanuts, one for sunflower hearts and one for fatballs.I scatter a bit of cheaper seed for squirrels and mice on the ground.

Callistemon21

Visgir1

My DD puts feeders out in her front garden. Yesterday she saw this beauty.. Sparrow Hawk, now that's a big bigger than her normal visitors to the feeder.

Great photo, Visgirl

One swooped past my head in the summer and grabbed a feeding sparrow, took it in the shrubbery .....

...but not for a romantic liason😖

My DH looks after our garden birds and some of them now are quite tame. They regularly take showers in the lovely clean water DH puts in two shallow dishes every day. Recently 2 birds of the same kind showered together 🦆🦆

Recently our resident Robin was swaying his little neck from side to side, whilst another robin looked on. Apparently it is courtship behaviour, so we hope to welcome some baby robins later in the year.

I put apples cut in half on ground for blackbirds.
They love them.

Anyone else a tip like that - for left over particular food?

lixy

Ours here like sunflower hearts best. I usually buy them from Pets At Home as they are the cheapest I've found.

Peanuts just go mouldy in the feeder. I have splashed out on nyjer seed before as goldfinches are supposed to like it, but they prefer the sunflower seeds too.

I did save the heads of the sunflowers that grew in the garden this year and the birds like these hung from a shrub.

DH has mixed the nyjer seed in with the other seed now because they ignored it.

Fatballs (good ones) were ignored too.
The favourite food here seems to be ordinary seed and mealworms.

Chaffinches and bramblings are the same, I always scatter seeds for them on the ground.

Aren't nuthatches so gorgeous Juliet <3

I bought two half circle hanging baskets which I held together with garden ties and hung the bird feeders in the middle, the little birds can all get through the 'cage' but the big ones can't. Robins like to scavenge and eat from the ground.

Visgir1

My DD puts feeders out in her front garden. Yesterday she saw this beauty.. Sparrow Hawk, now that's a big bigger than her normal visitors to the feeder.

We get sparrow-hawks too- and they feed... on the small birds. So fast. Hard, but nature. Happens rarely- but it is part of the chain.

I have 2 semi tamed crows that have been coming for years- and I feed them soaked dog pellets separately on the grass- and a pair of magpies usually try and come too, and there is a bit of a scuffle.

Most cheap bird seed is full of cracked wheat- only suitable for pigeons and the like. So I only buy sunflower seeds,with husks.

We have an amazing variety of birds, and it is such a joy. And both types of sparrows, town and tree.

Lots of the usual garden birds but also quite a few greenfinches at present and a visiting nuthatch. Had a pied wagtail for a while but he’s moved on as has the one redwing.

DH made a bird table that only small birds can access, the biggest being a blackbird, bigger birds get anything spilled on the ground.
We had no birds either but now have a couple of robins, lots of sparrows, a few blue tits and a flock of long tailed tits.
It’s amazing how they find you, although our little estate of bungalows is about 60 years old there is a sad lack of mature trees, hence the lack of birds.

How strange is that! After saying yesterday that I only occasionally get little birds in my garden, one at a time, I had 4 little birds all together on the hanging bird table, 2 robins & 2 sparrows. I was so pleased to see them. I had already cleaned and put fresh food on it the day before, then yesterday I emptied the hanging mushroom of nuts, they were all mouldy, yuk! I gave it a good clean and put Tesco bird seed in, so hoping for some more little birds now.

Yoginimeisje

That's the sort of birds I got in my old house, loads of Goldfinch and a greater speckled woodpecker. Beautiful Robins.

Very envious of all the birds people seem to have, probably have bigger gardens than me. At the front of the house, all I get is sparrows and the occasional blackbird back of the house. I do get blue tits and pied wagtails but nothing very exciting….

Front of the house I have a bird table and peanuts and fat balls and the main thing they go for is the fat balls. While the fat balls are out. They seem to leave the peanuts alone. I’ve just got a blackbird going on the bird table.
Out the back garden I have a tree that has a peanut feeder hanging from it. Also a bird table. They seldom use the bird table and at the moment probably cause it’s so cold not even using the peanut feeder.
Take no notice of the punctuation. My iPad lately has been putting full stops all over the place! 🤷‍♀️

That's the sort of birds I got in my old house, loads of Goldfinch and a greater speckled woodpecker. Beautiful Robins.

Lovely thread. In my old house I was so lucky, had every bird you could think of, lots & lots of them every day. I got a bird's eye view through my bedroom window as they loved my conifer tree.

In my new house I'm trying to coax some robins and other little birds, not successful yet. Have 3 squirrels that I throw Monkey nuts down on the patio for, they are so funny, so agile.

I've found, as others have said, that the fat balls go untouched and the nuts I put in the feeders go mouldy. Tesco's bird feed seems the favourite. I get 2 lovely doves every day on the feeder, only occasionally the little birds and robins that I love. I'm trying to get it right with the food stuff for them and reading the advice on here.

On returning home recently, my son showed me a picture of a Sparrowhawk that had visited our garden whilst I was out, wonderful! Till I zoomed in and saw it was eating a Bluetit

Tizliz count and boast away, that sounds brilliant.
I had thought we'd get fieldfares in our new garden here as we're much closer to open country than we used to be and they came to our previous garden, but not a flutter so far.

If your birds are anything like ours I can guarantee that, come RSPB Birdwatch counting time, they will disappear to someone else's garden!