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Science/nature/environment

Popular or favourite bird that visits your garden.

(60 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?

Galaxy Fri 15-Jan-21 20:14:03

It's probably boring but I love the Robin who comes to visit. We also have a very fat pigeon who dominates the bird table, he makes me laugh.

Shandy57 Fri 15-Jan-21 20:19:08

I think the long tailed tits are my favourite too, I get about 7 squeezing into my fat ball feeder, all with their tails sticking out!

I've just made a dish of lardy seed for the blackbirds, they have stripped the pyracantha of berries and are desperately searching for food.

Shandy57 Fri 15-Jan-21 20:20:50

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.

Puzzler61 Fri 15-Jan-21 20:28:40

The robin is my favourite and blue tits a close second place.
They live together with sparrows, amiably enough, in our garden. They seem to have a commune of nests inside evergreen bushes. Is that usual does anyone know?

merlotgran Fri 15-Jan-21 20:30:22

Long tailed tits are so beautiful. They pass through in spring and autumn in our garden.

We are never without a greater spotted woodpecker and who doesn't love a robin?

We often see a barn owl following the route of the drainage ditch at the end of our field and we regularly hear tawny owls.

We are surrounded by fields so at this time of year the garden is home to a lot of pheasants. It amuses us to hear the guns from the farm shoot on a Saturday morning knowing our residents are safe and I think they know it too.

Marmight Fri 15-Jan-21 20:32:06

I’ve just signed up for the RSPB Bird Watch from 29/31 January. I’ve (hopefully) attached details. The more the merrier ????

mrswoo Fri 15-Jan-21 20:43:53

There is something about blackbirds that bring me absolute joy! They may not be particularly handsome birds or “pretty” like blue tits or finches but they are full of character.

I’ve put out fat balls and they have been completely ignored in favour of mixed seeds or hanging coconuts which the sparrows and tits seem to prefer.
I’ve signed up for the RSPB Bird Watch - I did it last year and hardly saw a bird although my garden in generally full of them!

vampirequeen Fri 15-Jan-21 20:47:33

I can't pick a favourite in my garden. I love them all from the tiny to the big. From the quiet to the noisy. They're all just a joy.

lemongrove Fri 15-Jan-21 20:59:16

Yes, the long tailed tits are my favourite as well, followed by the wren, although wrens are so nervous and being ground feeders don’t go onto the hanging seeds etc.
As Shandy says, the Peckish make of fat balls seems to be a winner, the garden birds go mad for them, even preferring them to the highly expensive sunflower hearts.
However, as well as the small garden birds enjoying the fat balls so does: about five noisy jackdaws, a whole flock of rooks, two different squirrels and a very shy rat.The rat is quite pretty, like a small squirrel without a bushy tail, and he runs up the small tree and takes a small bite of fatball then flees for cover, repeating this about every five minutes.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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