What food you use to attract birds?

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gerbstoke

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Mart
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I put some sun flower hearts in my bird feeder about a week ago. This afternoon I have never seen so many different spices on it. Blue tits, Cole Tits, Great tits, Dunocks, Sparrows, gold finches and to top the lot a couple of Nuthatches. Plus on the lawn word pigeons and blackbirds. Sunflower hearts are the way forward.
 
Sunflower hearts work well for me too although the Goldfinches, Redpolls and Siskins much prefer the nijer seeds.

I find it can vary in terms of what they like so I kind of vary it. A few weeks ago they were ignoring the black hearts so I put out the white hearts and they came. A few days later the numbers dropped so I switched back and they all wanted the black ones LOL

My normal set up is:

Sunflower Hearts (black or white)
Nijer Seeds
Fat Balls
Insect Cake
Peanuts
 
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A 3 Course meal with an expensive wine/champagne at a fancy restaurant usually works for me. :naughty:

On a serious note though this is an interesting question, now I dont exactly live in bird central. All I seem to see around here are Sparrows,starlings,blackbirds and blue tits. Never seen a finch,hatch,pecker etc etc of any description in this area (too coastal or just too far north maybe) but I'm no twitcher so probably just not looking in the right place however anything that would maybe attract more species to my garden is welcome. Also any tips on placement of feeders, dos and donts ?
 
I agree sunflower hearts are liked by just about every bird.

Other things I've found that are well liked are fat cakes (found the square ones better than the round fat balls) but best of all are live mealworms.

They are expensive but everything, including unfortunately grey squirrels, eats. Only problem I've found is that if they are put in an open location the bigger birds will spot and get to them and eat them in one sitting.

Birds like/need shelter and food so any shrubs/trees will encourage them both as cover for them and as food sources - seeds, berries and insects on the shrubs.

Birds will come to feeders that are standing away from any cover but they like to have somewhere nearby that they can use as a fairly secure place to check out the feeder before using it. Hanging feeders on a shrub is good as it provides a lot of safety for birds.

If food is provided on the ground it is a good idea, if possible, to have it well away from any undergrowth to reduce predation from cats. Though attracting birds to the garden can reduce predation - more pairs of eyes to keep a lookout.

It can take some time for birds to find a new feeder - could be a week or more.

Gary, I would have thought being on the east coast you would see a few autumn migrants. You are not too far north. I'm in Gairloch just now and the garden is full of birds - mainly chaffinches, but also greenfinches, great, blue and coal tits; and yesterday a goldcrest and a sparrowhawk, which really upset things for a while.

Dave
 
we're in the south east and we only get sparrows and pigeons - one blackbird family, one robin family and a baby starling (his mum and dad came for a week and left when he fledged).

despite this I have an extensive collection of bird feeders and treats :D - my hubby calls me the mad bird woman

anyway - I have a 'feeder station' with a tray and a water dish and wrought iron swirls to hang stuff on - this is about 3' away from the fence and next door's apple tree. The birds tend to gather in the tree until they feel it's safe to eat

in the tray I usually put a mix of sunflower seeds, niger seeds, dried meal worm, peanuts and other things which come in the 'seed mix' bag - all the birds seem to like the tray but the starling chucks all the other food out in his search for meal worms

hung on the swirls I have:

a peanut feeder (I have seen squirrels and a magpie eat from this as well as the sparrows),

a fat ball feeder (shaped like a log) - this is a new addition and so far I haven't seen any birds using it

a coconut shell filled with yummy seeds, beef suet and beef dripping (home made) - I have seen a robin eat from this

I also have a coconut shell hanging from the ivy on the fence (no-one seems to use this but I think it is too low down)

last but not least is the plastic RSPB window feeder stuck on with suckers (to the window). My son has seen the starling eating meal worms from this but mostly the birds avoid it)

the blackbirds prefer to dig up worms and snails from the lawn

we once had a GSW use the peanut feeder but haven't seen him since. We also have LTTs but they never use the food on offer.

we live near a copse and I'm convinced that there's so much food in those trees that the birds don't really have to use garden feeders. It seems that the sparrows (a horde of 12) and the starling see my garden as their home. I remember one morning I filled the feeder with fresh meal worms and water and the birds swooped on it seconds later - they must have been watching me lol, cue Hitchcock music....
 
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If you want blackbirds cut a pear or an apple in half and chuck it on your lawn. They love it.
 
ooo thanks Mart will def. try that :)

Just have to hope the pigeons don't get it first.

none of the other birds eat the niger seeds and it's so frustrating seeing them all leftover but no gold finches in sight...
 
Gazamonk said:
A 3 Course meal with an expensive wine/champagne at a fancy restaurant usually works for me. :naughty:

On a serious note though this is an interesting question, now I dont exactly live in bird central. All I seem to see around here are Sparrows,starlings,blackbirds and blue tits. Never seen a finch,hatch,pecker etc etc of any description in this area (too coastal or just too far north maybe) but I'm no twitcher so probably just not looking in the right place however anything that would maybe attract more species to my garden is welcome. Also any tips on placement of feeders, dos and donts ?
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Nice to see someone else shares my sense of humour. I came here to give the same initial response but you beat me to it.(y)

To answer the question, Sunflower hearts, sunflower seeds, nijer seeds, peanuts, meal worms, fat balls, lard, general bird mix, breadcrumbs etc.

Also, given that I'm not too far from Carnoustie I can assure Gazamonk that there's plenty about in this neck of the woods. However, they won't come to your garden for nothing. You need food, a bird table, a perch or hedges close by. Also, if you have cats in the area you're obviously less likely to attract feeders as they don't want to become the food themselves! Here is a list of regular garden visitors off the top of my head:

Blue, great, coal & long-tailed tits, siskin, goldfinch, dunnock, tree & house sparrow, yellowhammer, greenfinch, robin, chaffinch, wagtails, wren, blackbird, starling, thrushes, doves, pigeons, rooks & ravens. Less frequent visitors include great & green woodpecker, hawfinch, bullfinch, willow warbler, bramling, fieldfare, sparrowhawk, buzzard, pheasant and more. And that's just off the top of my head!!

Oh, and we have a couple of very regular red squirrels here who also like the nuts in the bird feeders!

:D
 
Fruits and especially the Grapes :)

Just on a lighter note...

[SIZE=-1]One day a parrot walked up to the counter inside a convenience store. The parrot said to the clerk "Got any grapes?"[/SIZE][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-1] [/SIZE]"No" replied the store clerk. The parrot smiled and walked out the door. A little while later the parrot returned and asked "Got any grapes?" The clerk replied "No! I already told you 15 minutes ago, i don't have any grapes!"[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]The parrot smiled and once again walked out of the store. Ten minutes later, the parrot returned and asked once again "Got any grapes?" The irate clerk yelled "No! We didn't have any, we don't have any and we're not going to have any! If you come back in here again, i'm going to nail your feet to the floor!" The parrot smiled and walked out the door. Later that day the parrot returned and asked "Got any nails?" The clerk said "NO!". The parrot replied "Good. Got any grapes?"[/SIZE]
 
We seem to go through phases of having different feeders emptied, but typically we have sunflower hearts, nyjer seed, woodland crumble table mix, peanuts, meal worms and a selection of raisens, sultanas and grapes and sometimes normal breadcrumbs. Couple of months time and the fat balls will start going out again.

The biggest draw at the moment in our garden seems to be the 2 bird baths though.

I would like to find a way of attracting more smaller birds and less stupid pigeons though - they seem to scare off the sparrowhawks.
 
I've put more kinds of food out. Fat ball, black sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, wild bird food peanuts and apples. Now I've got long tailed tits, blue tits, great tits, cole tits, nuthatches, gold finches, dunnocks, blackbirds, sparrows and wood pigeons oh and green finches. I've never had so many different sorts.
 
I'm getting very few visitors right now (other than spuggies) due to there being plenty of natural food sources around but in the spring/early summer my nijer and sunflower hearts feeders were inundated with Gold and Green finches. The blackbirds love the wastage that hits the ground and the spuggies love the sunflower hearts too. The other real plus point of nijer and hearts is that the starlings don't want them :)
 
i just put out anything normally just stale bread crusts
put out a hand full of dog biscuits the other day and they disappeared seriously fast no idea what took them,I was curious as to what had a fetish for dog biscuits put out some more but still not spotted who takes them.
Investigations continue lol
 
Maybe next doors dog?
 
To attract blackbirds to a bird table, use dry cat food with small kibbles (cheap supermarket own brand). Make sure you provide water. I've been doing this for over three years or so and it's their favourite by far. The same bird was returning for three winters.

Sunflower seed will attract a lot (most tits, goldfinches, even woodpigeons and collared doves once they work out they can bend a branch to reach the feeder) - away from the house I just use the black ones and allow the shells to mulch the area under the tree that the feeders hang from. Close to the house I'd use shelled to reduce the mess.

Loose peanuts on a tray in a quiet area of the garden attracts jays - and I've some imaginative ways planned for this winter of presenting the peanuts to them so I can get a shot of them that's a bit different.
 
Rebel t3i said:
I was going to preempt the dog jokes with no it's not my dogs
suspects on my list are squirrels, pigeons, magpies or crows
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Could be any of those four Tony. Badgers like dog biscuits as well.
 
fracster said:
Could be any of those four Tony. Badgers like dog biscuits as well.
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was going to list badgers as I have a large badger set in my woods but that isn't occupied and the dog biscuits disappear during daylight hours
I have just put out the dog biscuits and have CSI arriving shortly lol
 
What about a dash of aniseed oil in the seed I've heard that can be good to attract lots of birds
 
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