How do I attract garden birds?

[anonymous-user]

I live in a city, and have a rear lawn/garden area of a around 16 metres long by the width of the house.

I usually only see the odd Pigeons and Seagulls flying around, but in an effort to attract different birds I have put a bird feeder in the middle of the lawn, filled with various different types of feed and fat balls for smaller birds.

Same as this sort of thing:



It has been there over a week now, and whilst I am clearly not watching it all the time, I only seem to have attracted a few greedy pigeons here and there, but no other varieties of bird.

Any tips?

[Mr Pointy]

It takes time for the birds to find feeders & there's quite a lot of natural food around at the moment. They'll probably turn up as it gets colder. Maybe site the feeder nearer the trees so it's an easy hop for them.

If you have a lot of local cats then they may well have decimated the bird population so you may not see many.

[Zirconia]

Persevere. Took a while to get our hedge to be used by sparrows. Seed will go off.

Try some on a hedge where the birds might think there is more cover. Fat ball feeders create a lot of mess. Use a plant pot holder with holes for the rain to catch the crumbs. Suspend it under the feeder with string or something.
Wood Pidgeons will hoover up anything they can get but I worked on the principle that if larger birds were in, the smaller birds might see it as not so risky. Seemed to have worked.


I get my feed from the RSPB shop and refer to them below from what I got.
Nibbles (little fat and seed bits) starlings love them, starling will not touch the seed I have out.
Seed mixes are smaller birds, sparrows etc.
Sparrows love the fat balls but so do starlings and they will mob it.
Fat cakes (rectangle of fat ball feed) the sparrows and blue tits loved.
Ground feed magpies, crows and jackdaws and again pigeons. Also collared doves.


Oh, and water. Lots of water around. Not so bad in this weather but put a few trays out. Wildlife needs to drink. Especially if you have hedgehogs.

Edited by Zirconia on Sunday 6th October 15:09

[anonymous-user]

Mr Pointy said:

It takes time for the birds to find feeders & there's quite a lot of natural food around at the moment. They'll probably turn up as it gets colder. Maybe site the feeder nearer the trees so it's an easy hop for them.

If you have a lot of local cats then they may well have decimated the bird population so you may not see many.

I will move the feeder nearer the end of the garden away from the house as there are a couple of larger trees there.

I was wondering about the cat thing. I own a lazy black and white cat who spends quite a bit of time outside surveying the garden, and there are a few other local cats I see wandering past the garden on the tops of the fences.

I cant see much murdering going on, the cats round here seem far too lazy and well fed to bother. My cat did murder small birds and bring them home every few months but hasn't really done that for years now.

[anonymous-user]

Zirconia said:

Persevere. Took a while to get our hedge to be used by sparrows. Seed will go off.

Try some on a hedge where the birds might think there is more cover. Fat ball feeders create a lot of mess. Use a plant pot holder with holes for the rain to catch the crumbs. Suspend it under the feeder with string or something.
Wood Pidgeons will hoover up anything they can get but I worked on the principle that if larger birds were in, the smaller birds might see it as not so risky. Seemed to have worked.


I get my feed from the RSPB shop and refer to them below from what I got.
Nibbles (little fat and seed bits) starlings love them, starling will not touch the seed I have out.
Seed mixes are smaller birds, sparrows etc.
Sparrows love the fat balls but so do starlings and they will mob it.
Fat cakes (rectangle of fat ball feed) the sparrows and blue tits loved.
Ground feed magpies, crows and jackdaws and again pigeons. Also collared doves.

Unfortunately there are no hedges round here.

There are a couple of larger trees at the bottom of my garden, but I very much live in a city environment where it is mostly lawns and fences with the odd tree here and there.

I was prompted to try to encourage birds as my parents live in a rural area and my dad has quite a large selection of feeders and attracts loads of smaller and medium size birds, which is really very nice.

[Mr Pointy]

Lord Marylebone said:

I was wondering about the cat thing. I own a lazy black and white cat who spends quite a bit of time outside surveying the garden, and there are a few other local cats I see wandering past the garden on the tops of the fences.

I cant see much murdering going on, the cats round here seem far too lazy and well fed to bother. My cat did murder small birds and bring them home every few months but hasn't really done that for years now.

The problem is around fledging time when the young birds are just learning to fly. They often end up on or near the ground & it's not unusual for a whole generation to get wiped out. Once they are gone, that's it.

Anyway, give it time & move the feeder nearer the trees & when the natural berries & seeds have run out you may well find the birds turn up. Don't put a lot of seed in the seed feeders until you see them being used as old seed goes mouldy.

[hyphen]

It takes more than a week I'm told for birds to start seeing a new feeding/watering place as a destination.

So keep water filled up and they should soon get used to it.

If there is a hiding place for predators etc near it than that won't help so if next to a shed roof or something than move it perhaps

Also some birds feed that way but others are ground feeders and want to peck on a base rather than at something.

Edited by hyphen on Sunday 6th October 15:27

[Zirconia]

Lord Marylebone said:

Unfortunately there are no hedges round here.

OK, just a thought, but as mentioned above somewhere they can flit to in a hurry. My rear is just a fenced in area and the feeders hang off the washing line but I have a small hazel at the bottom with the fat cakes in. A lot of back gardens around here but not many feeders and many gardens are just concrete.

I have a hedge at the front but no hedge does not mean it will not work. Just give it time but remember stuff goes off. I did try Nyler seed and got sod all interest in it. That also goes off quickly I am told. Not "off" as such but no longer yummy to the board.

My cat cannot hunt. He is useless but all feeders are high. We also have windows feeders, remember to attach the safety string if you use one.

In the winter, blackbirds love apples. We get them in the colder months and when they are feeding nippers. They love the worms and grubs and the ground feed but once the nest is empty, we normally don't see them til winter again.

[Boosted LS1]

Birds like protecting cover near to feeders just in case they need to dive for cover lest a sparrowhawk fly in.

[Zirconia]

Had the sparrow hawk chase through a feeding group of starlings. It missed. Nature at work and seen it (or another one) a few times now around our house. Sometimes hunting, sometimes cruising around.

[ali_kat]

Yep, it takes a while as they have patterns & regular haunts

My small birds even come to feed even if the cats are out they know they have never shown any interest in going near them so they are no danger, but they also have the shelter of the Apple trees.

I’m not seeing the crows, blackbirds & thrushes anymore, one of my blackbirds was taken by a hawk according to next door. The food I put out for them is just lying here til I clear it up, but they know I’m a food source & when it gets colder they’ll be back

[Mort7]

All good advice. Once you begin to get a few birds on the feeders you'll find you'll get increasing numbers over time as passing birds will be attracted by the feeding birds. As long as you continue to put food you should find that you get "regulars" - particularly with Winter on the way.

Make sure that you clear up spilt food as a) it will grow, and b) it will attract rats.

[Zirconia]

A handy use of a small plastic plant pot tray and a bit of string on a fat ball feeder. Easy to adapt to other feeders as well. I had one feeder that comes with a base to catch the mess. Needs to be cleaned out often but you can see the mess a fat ball can leave with no action taken. In the summer it is all hoovered up but once the wet weather sets in you get this mush.

[Japveesix]

First tip, get a proper free standing bird bath and keep it fairly clean with fresh water regularly. Birds hardly ever seem to use the water on those feeder stands, partly because they always get manky food and droppings in them. We get large flocks or sparrows and starlings using ours regularly, even when there seems to be a lot of water around elsewhere like at the moment.

Stick in a nice big bug house, or a good log pile, the messier and rougher the better. Literally use anything you're cutting down anyway or nick logs from friends or some woods when you're out and about. This will help attract wrens, robins, dunnock etc.

Be patient, keep feeders in one place. Try and have some variety, though you don't need 15 different feed types. Hang a peanut feeder under branches in a tree to stop bigger birds and help tits who like the cover. In the open you should still get sparrows and starlings etc though.

Leave a rough patch in the garden, the more natural food (bugs etc) the better.

If it helps we have 2 cats and probably another 8-10 that regularly pass through, plus a very active sparrowhawk, and we still see 50+ sparrows a day, loads of starlings, loads of tits (wahey!) and all sorts of other things at different times.

I mostly feed fatballs and peanuts bought in bulk from bargain scabby shops like B&M. A few suet cakes, mealworms, sunflower hearts etc if I have them. Feed fairly regularly and the birds will come.

Edit: also don't write off pigeons or magpies etc. Any big bird that's feeding happily in your garden will reassure the little more nervous birds that all is safe and well and that a food source exists. Just make sure you give the little ones an opportunity by covering the table to stop larger birds getting access (upsidedown hanging baskets work well on a flat bird table) or providing awkward feeders that large birds can't access.

Edited by Japveesix on Tuesday 8th October 15:28

[Gandahar]

As a side note if you get the blocks to put in the wire meshes then use peanut based ones and not suet. The suet ones are a lot cheaper but the peanut ones are better.

Using peanut ones will encourage wood peckers and long tailed tits out of the woods and into your garden if you are not too far into London once food gets scarce late Nov to late Feb.

Actually quite a lot of food about at the moment for all birds. Best to start feeding later, then they do more investigation and fly more.

Our bats are still going, see them flying around the garden at twilight, they will be tucked up soon.

[Zirconia]

Some feed you really need to keep of the ground or clear up before night just in case there are hedgehogs around. Peanuts, mealworms and sunflowers I think.