Bird Feeders & Visiting Birds

[Lord Snot]

Does anybody have a feeder in their garden?

I get so much joy from watching the birds out of my window, I can easily sit here for half an hour absorbed in their behaviour and beautiful colours. I really like the great spotted woodpeckers, coal tits and starlings. Twice I've had sparrowhawks come to hunt, which is a sad but quite awesome thing to see. They are amazingly fast and accurate.

Earlier I had 15 birds in the garden: 12 on the feeder fighting for spaces, 1 on the washing line looking hopefully for a space to appear, and 3 frolicking in the bath.

I've found that none of the birds who visit me like peanuts so I put dried fruit in the peanut feeder, which the starlings adore. They eat about 250g a day and would have more if I put it in. I bought a wild bird mix for the smaller birds, the finches and sparrows and tits. When I put out leftover rice or bread the pigeons come and demolish it.

 

[Lord Snot]

I was having to fill mine up twice a day so I bought a feeder that's about 3 ft long. It lasts 3-4 days before I need to refill. I also found a great water bottle that refills the dish at the bottom and because of the design they can't defecate in it, which I've found a big problem. I have to clean and disinfect the bird bath at least every 2 days because there's so much crap in it!

For anyone in the UK, I really like this program from the RSPB: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdidentifier/. It shows you pictures of all different birds at different life stages and of different sexes so you can identify what you've seen. You can narrow down the pics by choosing criteria like habitat and size.

 

[KLS52]

I love birds! I have a birdbath in the backyard that has a little fountain...it's solar powered so when the sun is shining, the water shoots up from a little spout! I haven't bothered with birdfeeders, lately...I just put the seed out on the deck railing. It's messy, but the birds are happy! I do throw out some peanuts for the squirrels who have to share with the woodpeckers and bluejays.

 

[Lord Snot]

I've loved watching the starlings these past few weeks. All of a sudden one day loads of starlings appeared with their babies and took the seeds and fruits and fed the little ones mouth to mouth. After a few days the little ones would eat directly from the feeders, and then they started coming by themselves without the parents. Now the babies are fighting with the adults to get the best spots!

 

[IamJen]

Anyone have suggestions for keeping birds from flying into windows? I was trying to find some of those cling/static stickers, but I've struck out at several stores (haven't checked the local hardware store yet). We have a bird feeder on the window and one pair does just fine, but IS says he's heard a bird thump twice now. Eek.

 

[Lord Snot]

Anyone have suggestions for keeping birds from flying into windows? I was trying to find some of those cling/static stickers, but I've struck out at several stores (haven't checked the local hardware store yet). We have a bird feeder on the window and one pair does just fine, but IS says he's heard a bird thump twice now. Eek.

You need anything that will break up the reflection on the glass so the birds don't think it's a patch of trees/bushes/whatever is reflected. Ideas:

- put up a net curtain
- put up a fine net on the outside of the window to break the birds' impact
- hang some dream-catchers or wind chimes from the top of the window frame
- put a poster or calender or something up

 

[IamJen]

Thanks. I will add some decor to the windows.

 

[KLS52]

Anyone have suggestions for keeping birds from flying into windows? I was trying to find some of those cling/static stickers, but I've struck out at several stores (haven't checked the local hardware store yet). We have a bird feeder on the window and one pair does just fine, but IS says he's heard a bird thump twice now. Eek.

My daughter has that problem. She has vertical blinds so she leaves them across the window and only pulls the chord that opens the slats so at least the light can shine in. But it's enough so that it stops the reflection...no more thumping birds!

 

[Lord Snot]

I just saw some house sparrows for the first time. They have beautiful colouring, coppery-red.

 

[IamJen]

Also, the bird that loves our feeder appears to be a Coal Tit, near as I can tell from the RSPB's bird identifier. Some things are way funnier when you're American. Heh.

 

[Poppy]

I love having the birds come by! I have 4 feeders around the yard. I have a safflower feeder in the front yard - that draws mostly cardinals, but the squirrels, chipmunks and bunnies graze underneath. Then there's the feeding station for the neighborhood riffraff, which is out near the back of the property. There I have a tray feeder which I fill with bread cubes, shelled peanuts and sunflower seeds. It mainly draws blue jays, grackles, woodpeckers and squirrels (I have seen a chipmunk in it!). I have a hanging feeder by the kitchen window that contains shelled sunflower seeds and that draws all sorts of song birds, especially my favorite - chickadees. And then I have a hummingbird feeder and small hanging birdbath near my big hydrangea in the side yard.

 

[Lord Snot]

I wish we had chipmunks here, they're so cute!

Also, the bird that loves our feeder appears to be a Coal Tit, near as I can tell from the RSPB's bird identifier. Some things are way funnier when you're American. Heh.

No, it's funny to me too

I get a lot of coal tits and blue tits, but lately the starlings have been taking over and scaring off the smaller birds.

 

[KLS52]

I get a lot of these cute little guys. *smitten*

Tufted Titmouse

 

[AeryFairy]

Aww, birdies! We have a lot of feeders in My mum's garden, but it's not something I have now I live in a city centre apartment. When I move out to greener land, I'll definitely have one.

 

[SummerRain]

I also always laugh at tit, I always say "oh I saw a lovley pair of tits today" if I saw two blue/great/etc tits. Cracks me up every time (nobody else finds it funny!).

I have put bird feeders up both in my garden and on my window (the garden is shared, and I can't see it from my window, so I wanted to be able to watch them) but neither worked, neither got eaten Any ideas why? The one in the garden was sort of under a tree, I didn't think they'd mind, but could that be it? I gave it months and months before giving up.

I love those bird boxes with web cams, when I can afford to (and I have my own garden) I'd love to get one

 

[Lord Snot]

I also always laugh at tit, I always say "oh I saw a lovley pair of tits today" if I saw two blue/great/etc tits. Cracks me up every time (nobody else finds it funny!).

I have put bird feeders up both in my garden and on my window (the garden is shared, and I can't see it from my window, so I wanted to be able to watch them) but neither worked, neither got eaten Any ideas why? The one in the garden was sort of under a tree, I didn't think they'd mind, but could that be it? I gave it months and months before giving up.

I love those bird boxes with web cams, when I can afford to (and I have my own garden) I'd love to get one

It takes them some time to learn that a new feeder is there. If it was under a tree they might not have been able to see it from the sky and unless they used the tree for nesting they wouldn't have seen it. Our feeder is in the middle of the garden and our living room faces it. When one of us in the living room stands up the birds all scatter, they're pretty shy of people. Perhaps they didn't want to get too close to the window to investigate?

 

[SummerRain]

Yeah that might well be it They had good reveiws online saying birds did use them, and we have nets in the windows, so I hoped it'd be okay but I guess not! I might look up free standing ones and hope nobody minds if I put it out the way around the side of the house... As long as they're not too expensive.

 

[IamJen]

FWIW, I saw some small male bird (not sure what it was) in our garden last weekend fending off not one, but two Starlings. They were hopping back and forth like a couple of dancers in West Side Story.

 

[Lord Snot]

The birds have deserted us

I forgot to buy dried fruit this week so I expected the starlings to storm off in a huff, but all the little birds have been absent too. The seed hasn't decreased in 4 days. Does anyone know why that could be?

 

[KLS52]

Starlings are so ...I love how they flock together, flying up and then landing on the ground, then flying up in the air again. Amazing.