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Science/nature/environment

Popular or favourite bird that visits your garden.

(61 Posts)
WOODMOUSE49 Fri 15-Jan-21 20:12:12

I stood at the door watching the birds on the feeders this morning. I'd filled the feeders up the day before.

I couldn't see the fat balls for all the long tailed tits. Maybe 7 at one time. They are such friendly, sociable birds. Our pet name for them are "lollypops" .

I wished I had my camera or phone handy for a photo.

What's your favourite garden visitor?

Alexa Sat 16-Jan-21 10:52:40

Mostly blackbirds. When I see them stuffing food down themselves I imagine how that will help them to survive to sing the best songs of all the birds.

dustyangel Sat 16-Jan-21 10:39:19

At some times of the year we get a lot of Azure Winged Magpies, which look beautiful but are just as bullying as any other magpie. We’ve had half a dozen at a time on the bird feeder tree but they startle and flee at any hint of movement from in or outside the house.

Baggs Sat 16-Jan-21 10:35:29

Wrens, robins, dunnocks, goldcrests, treecreepers, magpies, jays,

Tawny owls. Never seen one but I hear them on many nights.

There's a very determined sparrowhawk around at the moment too. Yesterday MrB saw it chasing a crow. He didn't see the conclusion of the chase.

Not in the garden, but we can see eider ducks on the loch sometimes, and oystercatchers, curlews, herons. But my favourite loch bird to see is Little Grebe.

timetogo2016 Sat 16-Jan-21 10:32:11

Same here vampirequeen.
I live behind a canal and we get all types of birds in the garden amongst other wildlife,including fallow deer who are beautifull.
But my favourite has to be the cheeky robins who sit on the bird bath and watch us and wait for food.
They aren`t a bit scared either.

Liz46 Sat 16-Jan-21 10:29:32

Our neighbour had a problem with a rat which climbed up the cavity wall into her loft. She reckoned it was attracted to her garden by the bird food so we stopped feeding the birds for a while.

We now have two big 'poppy' feeders which we fill with meal worms. The blackbirds feed from them but I think they are too low for the bluetits.

The squirrels seem to ignore them but when I used to put fat balls out, one day I saw a squirrel trying to run along the top of the fence with a fat ball under his arm.

henetha Sat 16-Jan-21 10:20:39

I've got a lovely 'pet' robin at the moment who comes every day to eat the mealworms I put out for him. That's if the wood-pigeons leave it alone.
But I must admit there is something magical about blackbirds to me.

Witzend Sat 16-Jan-21 10:16:44

Parakeets queueing for the feeder! In the small tree just now.
Had to take it through a window, otherwise they have been frightened off.

rubysong Sat 16-Jan-21 09:51:17

I saw a lovely male nuthatch the other day which I was pleased about. There were a lot of cats at this house before we moved here two years ago and it is taking a while for birds to come back. I am concerned about rats which I know are about so I am picking up the tray of ground feeding food overnight. On a happy note a bluetit was having a house viewing in the new bird box yesterday.

Witzend Sat 16-Jan-21 09:06:07

Lots of long tailed tits here, among other tits on the fat balls and sunflower hearts. Robins are always around and I sometimes see a wren - always around but usually flitting about in the undergrowth.

A thrush often emerges from under a mass of choisya (sp?) for some dry porridge I sprinkle nearby for the ground feeders.

We often have great spotted woodpeckers, and lately the parakeets seem to have worked out how to manage a feeder we’d thought was parakeet proof.
There’s very often a queue of them waiting in a small tree near that particular feeder.

We get through masses of bird food - regular bulk deliveries organised by dh, who also fills up the feeders.

Sarnia Sat 16-Jan-21 08:48:07

The starlings are like the Mafia of the bird world but I do enjoy watching them. We have robins and collared doves nesting in our trees. Both lovely birds.

Eviebeanz Sat 16-Jan-21 08:39:28

We love it when the Robin comes onto the decking to eat. We are lucky enough to have a muntjac deer that comes to eat from our vegetable garden

Beauregard Sat 16-Jan-21 08:28:47

We love the blackbirds in our garden, they have so much character. They always appear when we are gardening in the hope of a worm or two being uncovered. When we hear their distinctive 'alarm call' we rush out as it invariably means there's a cat nearby which needs shooing off. Some of them have dots of white on them so we know which ones they are.

We love robins too but don't see many of them in our garden.

kittylester Sat 16-Jan-21 08:01:47

I love watching the birds and have a special fondness for a wren and also a black cap.

We get all sorts of tits and gold finches. I have heard long tail tits called flying teaspoons. When we first moved here we had lots of chaffinches and bullfinches but rarely get with now.

Whitewavemark2 Sat 16-Jan-21 03:38:52

The more rare smaller breeds don’t get a look in as tens of starlings and sparrows along with pigeons and seagulls fill the garden every morning emptying the feeder that I fill before they all get up.

There is a robin that I put down dried mealworms around the shrubs for and a wren, the occasional finch and blue tit also a magpie, never see a blackbird or thrush.

CanadianGran Sat 16-Jan-21 03:35:13

Interesting to hear about your birds.

Our robins are quite different from yours and have all migrated south, so we won't see them until spring.

We have only a suet feeder, and have seen:
starlings - greedy b***ers, come in large flocks
crows - also in groups
stellar jays - always single
sparrows - not sure of variety
cedar waxwings - a small group of 5 or 6

Blossoming Sat 16-Jan-21 02:59:44

My favourites are the chaffinches, though I love to see the goldfinches, bullfinches and greenfinches too.

Spice101 Fri 15-Jan-21 23:17:54

We have several but my favourite is the Rainbow Lorikeet. They are tough birds and keep many of the introduced species at bay. Very vocal and there are often up to 20 feeding at a time.

Nell8 Fri 15-Jan-21 22:38:31

We have a small garden but still see a wide variety of birds. Flocks of goldfinches come every day with the other common garden birds. Less frequent sightings are bullfinches, red kites and buzzards (flying overhead), sparrowhawks, woodpeckers, redwings, nuthatches. My favourite regulars since April were a handsome pair of red legged partridge which moved from garden to garden in our neighbourhood triggering lots of WhatsApp reports! We haven't seen them since Christmas... I hope they're safe.

grannyqueenie Fri 15-Jan-21 22:29:02

Currently there’s a “turf war” being played in my out in my garden by 3-4 pairs of blackbirds. It’s very entertaining to watch! There’s a regular robin and we’ve had blue tits, lots of goldfinches too as well as an occasional nuthatch and even a pied wagtail one day last week. Have never had long tailed tits, a bull finch only once and a woodpecker only now and again. Sparrows, starlings and ring necked doves come and go, of course so do the pigeons. After a couple of particularly cold winters a few years ago we had waxwings visiting in April. Each time they came for several days in a row completely stripping the fruit from the miniature crab apple tree. The sparrow hawk visits from time to time!

Granny23 Fri 15-Jan-21 22:27:11

I have a bird buffet just outside my kitchen window, which attracts mainly blue tits and coal tits + 1 robin who lives in the hedge, a pair of ring necked doves who are now so tame that they will eat from my hand + thrushes, 1 jackdaw, 1 magpie, this year for the first time several sparrows and a pair of blackbirds.

Since just before Christmas I have had an unidentified regular visitor, who is the size and shape of a thrush, but has black plumage and yellow beak like a blackbird. However his/her outstanding feature is like a lacy white cap on the back of the head. I have scoured the bird books and googled without finding anything similar, though I did wonder if the bird is a part albino blackbird. Any suggestions?

Jaxjacky Fri 15-Jan-21 22:08:57

It’s rare, but goldfinches, we also have a solitary robin, sparrows and sometimes starlings. Twice last year a sparrow hawk.

Juliet27 Fri 15-Jan-21 21:47:37

We have a pair of blackbirds most years and there’s been a new shy female this winter and I wondered when a male would turn up. Today one did so I’m hoping that will be this year’s breeding pair in our garden. Still only have a single robin so far. I do feed the birds but I do worry about attracting rats as one year our robin’s nest box was raided by one and the babies were beheaded. The parents were distraught and so was I.
We get all the tits and in summer nuthatches, goldcrests, greenfinches and bullfinches visiting but never starlings or sparrows. There are always resident dunnocks and I hear a wren but never see him.
One spring I was concerned at how many ambulance sirens I was hearing early in the morning but it turned out to be part of the blackbird’s repertoire. We often used to get a family of woodmice but I think the rat put an end to their visit.

Millie22 Fri 15-Jan-21 21:43:48

The nuthatch is my favourite but I do love the blackbirds as well. My neighbour has a woodpecker that visits every day.

WOODMOUSE49 Fri 15-Jan-21 21:42:47

Shandy57

I forgot to say I paid a lot more for the RSPB fat balls - they seem to be rock hard, and the birds are ignoring them for the 'peckish' make.

I live close to a Mole Valley Farmers outlet and they sell boxes of 150 fat balls £11.99. They're very peckish smile

tanith Fri 15-Jan-21 21:29:12

My Robin has started bringing his friend today the two of them hopping around on the ground together. I assume they are a couple as they are usually so territorial. I hope they nest close by. They are delightful and brighten up my day.