New to feeding birds

barneysplash

Hi all,

I started feeding the birds in my area this winter by using s small hanging
bird feeder filled with peanuts.

It's great getting all the pretty birds to come in to my garden.

Should I put out drinking water for them too?

How do you do this, in a dish or bowl or what?

Any other things I shoudl know about or online guides for the beginner?

Thanks

Barneysplash

jmkennedyie

Yep, I think water is a good idea. I have an upside down bin lid collecting rain water (better than tap water I reckon considering the various chemicals). If you put stones or a log in it the birds will have a ramp into the water. Some other thoughts...Place the feeders away from where cats could hide. Don't place feeders beside nestboxes (nesting birds go mad trying to drive other birds away from the feeder). If you have shrubs/trees with berries you want to cut back, don't cut them back till after the berries have been eaten, or else in Feb before nesting begins.

Birdwatchireland.ie have an excellent information sheet on nest boxes and probably have something on bird freeding but their website was down when I tried. They have branches around the country with regular (usually free) outings. Also a winter garden bird survey that you could participate in (maybe too late though - started a few weeks ago).

rspb.co.uk is also a good website (note there are more species in UK than Ireland) with a useful bird identifier - http://www.rspb.org/wildlife/birdidentifier/

boneless

By all means put out drinking water for the birds. Just make sure you keep it refreshed and wash out the container once in a while. To stop it freezing, add some sugar. Never add salt though. Not good for the creatures.

The best thing to do is expirament with different types of seeds, nuts and fruits. Different birds will be attracted to different food types. For instance, I started putting fruit like apples on the feeder table and have now got blackcaps visiting.

Also, keep the feeding areas and the feed containers clean. Birds can spread infections to each other otherwise. And keeping the area clean of food debris etc will stop other wee beasties... ie rats... from nosing around.

I wish you very many happy days of watching and enjoying the feathered friends!! Good Watching

kerrysgold

yep, definetly put out some water.

different foods usually attract different sorts of birds so maybe you could put out some small seeds in a seed feeder as well, and maybe throw some food on the ground too for the ground feeders like thrushes and blackbirds. e.g. loose seed, crushed up peanuts and hazelnuts, porridge oats etc.

littlebug

I'm new to bird feeding as well. I set up my sooper dooper bird feeding station just last week after seeing the success my father was having (see my redpoll post:)
However after 5 days I've seen a total of 5 birds I moved it further from the house and there seems to be a bit more interest but still not a lot They don't seem interested in the ""supreme wild bird food" in the hanging feeders but have been poking a bit at the same stuff on the little tray and at the sunflower seeds. I've put a couple of suet balls out but they haven't been touched at all.
I don't know if it's the type of feed that isn't attracting them or if it's the feeders. The mixed feed stuff is in 2 plastic feeders (the cheap kind) while the sunflower seeds are in the more expensive wooden hanging feeder.
I'd say the friendly neighbourhood cat isn't helping matters much either.
I'll try some peanuts and fruit to see how that goes down.

kerrysgold

try putting it out in the open rather than near a hedge or whatever, birds will feel more safe if they can see any predators (i.e. the cat) but a cat could easily hide under the hedge waiting to pounce and I suppose they know that.

also, ''my'' birds didn't bother with the fat balls at all either, so I chopped them up and put them out with the seeds I put on the ground and they ate it that way.

abbafan40

I got this tip from my brother in law , he gave me the recipe and bet €100 it would draw the birds. And it did !!!

If you have stale bread , crumble it up into it , if not just make it without .
1: Oat flakes , I use the cheapest I can find on special offer .
2 add in a scoop of cheap raisins , again Aldi etc have cheap ones .
3 . A fat ball , crumbled into it .
4 a dallop of cooking oil , whatever you have around the house .
5. if you can grind peanuts ( i use a coffe grinder , but I dont always have them )
Mix them all up together and pop out on a tray or on the feeder .


Within days I had queues of birds , all sorts , shoving each other out of the way .!!

Kess73

littlebug wrote: »

I'm new to bird feeding as well. I set up my sooper dooper bird feeding station just last week after seeing the success my father was having (see my redpoll post:)
However after 5 days I've seen a total of 5 birds I moved it further from the house and there seems to be a bit more interest but still not a lot They don't seem interested in the ""supreme wild bird food" in the hanging feeders but have been poking a bit at the same stuff on the little tray and at the sunflower seeds. I've put a couple of suet balls out but they haven't been touched at all.
I don't know if it's the type of feed that isn't attracting them or if it's the feeders. The mixed feed stuff is in 2 plastic feeders (the cheap kind) while the sunflower seeds are in the more expensive wooden hanging feeder.
I'd say the friendly neighbourhood cat isn't helping matters much either.
I'll try some peanuts and fruit to see how that goes down.

It can sometime take a few weeks before you get large numbers of small birds coming to your feeders. It can take time for them to come across it and also to feel comfortable there. But in the end it is well worth the wait.

crosstownk

Just in case anyone's interested....I started feeding birds a few years back. I used to buy mixed seed from Woodies, supermarkets, etc. Damn expensive. Now, I go to my local pet shop and buy a 20kg bag of wild bird seed for less than €20 and it lasts for months.

Mylow

crosstownk wrote: »

Just in case anyone's interested....I started feeding birds a few years back. I used to buy mixed seed from Woodies, supermarkets, etc. Damn expensive. Now, I go to my local pet shop and buy a 20kg bag of wild bird seed for less than €20 and it lasts for months.

Or if your making a trip to Newry drop into Jollyes Pet Store (Its on way into Newry, old customs post). They sell 20kg bags for £12.

littlebug

It can sometime take a few weeks before you get large numbers of small birds coming to your feeders. It can take time for them to come across it and also to feel comfortable there. But in the end it is well worth the wait.

Too right! one week on and there's a constant stream of birdies of all sorts They didn't appear in any great numbers until I put out some peanuts though they still rarely touch the wild bird seed.
I've now got a resident blackbird who takes care of the fat balls while the goldfinches etc fight over the peanuts. I'm setting up the table tomorrow so i'll be using albafan's recipe then.

Kess73

crosstownk wrote: »

Just in case anyone's interested....I started feeding birds a few years back. I used to buy mixed seed from Woodies, supermarkets, etc. Damn expensive. Now, I go to my local pet shop and buy a 20kg bag of wild bird seed for less than €20 and it lasts for months.

Woodies have 20% off all bird foods, feeders, nesting boxes, feeding tables etc.

Was in there tonight and spotted it. They also have dried mealworms, Niger seed, sunflower hearts, and various other types of individual feed, as well as suet balls, fruit and suet balls, mixed seed and peanuts.

The 10kg bag of mixed seed is 11 euro less the 20% at the moment, and they are doing the 50 ball buckets of suet balls.

I picked up some niger seed (Brings Goldfinches to a garden like no other seed can) and some dried mealworm (loved by Robins, blackcaps, dunnocks, wrens and Blackbird)

Also picked up a spare nesting box.

juuge

Mylow wrote: »

Or if your making a trip to Newry drop into Jollyes Pet Store (Its on way into Newry, old customs post). They sell 20kg bags for £12.

I've been buying 25kg sacks of peanuts over the years and I've noticed the price going up every six months or so - it's madness so perhaps I'll take a trip to Newry very soon.

isthatyoudave?

Used to go to Jolleys in Derry but the staff there can nbe so unhelpful it drives me mad!

I get a big bag of Peanuts, Sunflower Seeds and Wild Bird mix from Horkans Garden Centre in Turlough. www.gardencentre.ie Price is about €20 for the Seed, €40 for the Peanuts and I can't remember about the Sunflower Seed.

Also I make the fat balls from the fat from the george foreman!

Lady Lainy

Most pet shops will sell "Wild Bird Seed" or loose peanuts and fat balls, but as mentioned above they are very easy to make from home.

Yes unfortunatly in the last year or so, peanuts have become more expensive across the country. If this is somehing you plan on doing on a large scale, ie bird feeders through our the garden. I would reccomend getting the 20/25KG bags if you can

However careful storage would be important, both to keep the nuts fresh, and to prefent rats and mice getting into them. Plastic bins are ideal. and for added security place a large rock on the lid. nothing worse than spending a small fortune on nuts and having the bag ruined and comtaminated by rats

isthatyoudave?

good point Lady,

I picked up some of those big plastic storage boxes you get in pound stores and the'yre ideal for the job, also theyre see through so I can tell how much I have left....

juuge

Sacks of peanuts were great value at one time and became very popular. Then the merchants became greedy. Two years ago a sack cost me twenty five euro in Newcastle now its almost forty. Recently I've bought cheap packets of muesli in lidl for about two euro. The muesli lasts a little over a week in the feeder and it attracts all sorts of finches - not bad value at all.

artieanna

I heard this so a word of caution - It is advised not to put out dry food like breadcrumbs, porridge oats. when the bird drinks water after eating these dry foods, it swells in their breast causing the bird to swell an can cause death by bursting .

Also please remember to wash the bird feeder regularly with a cap of milton mixed in a pint or so of water to ward off disease, as birds tend to contaminate each other with various diseases.'

Lady Lainy

I would love to attract a range of different birds to the garden. the wild bird seed and peanuts just seem to attract our resident robbin to eat. as well as the damn crows who knock the feeders around. would love to get some different birds.

my mom is a health nut so she's always buying nuts in the health shop, she buys so much of it that bags go our of date. so what ever my own parrot doesnt eat the wild birds get.

juuge

artieanna wrote: »

It is advised not to put out dry food like breadcrumbs, porridge oats. when the bird drinks water after eating these dry foods, it swells in their breast causing the bird to swell an can cause death by bursting .

I didn't realise this - thanks for the warning!
We've been throwing left over bread onto a flat roof for years thinking we were helping the little creatures - we will cease post haste.

artieanna

juuge wrote: »

I didn't realise this - thanks for the warning!
We've been throwing left over bread onto a flat roof for years thinking we were helping the little creatures - we will cease post haste.

If you wet the bread it will be fine...;)