Feeding birds in back garden - no blue tits or similar

Cuttlefish

Hey

so I feed birds in my back garden and have a fat ball feeder along with two holders where I put black sunflower seeds and a smaller holder where I put more sunflower seeds and it has a small opening for birds to fly and in abs take seeds

I also throw fistfuls of black sunflower seeds on the ground for larger birds be they collared doves, wood pigeons, starlings or various crows and a robin who visits too

My question is - do house sparrows drive out smaller birds as I never see any blue tits of great tits in the garden ?? I do enjoy watching the sparrows feed or have dust baths in the flower beds and listen ti the chattering they make!!!

I have also noticed over the years that the wood pigeons no longer fear the crows when they are on the ground feeding. The wood pigeon will, on occasions, raise itself up and flutter its wings in an effort to drive off the crows or fellow wood pigeons. The only crow it will back away from is the hooded crow and from what I see all other crows will not stand up to a hooded crow

iniscealtra

Peanuts in a feeder to attract the tits.

Str8outtaWuhan

Surely at this time of year don't feed them, there is plenty of natural protein around?

iniscealtra

october to april for feeding

Cuttlefish

heard different opinions about feeding as pointed out some say only feed during winter or harsh conditions whilst other do say feed all year round

Cuttlefish

By the way first ever that I have a robin actually eat from the fat ball feeder they usually are taking whatever drops from the feeders

NickNickleby

I'm lucky enough to have a variety of birds in my pocket sized garden. At the moment I've two hanging feeders and a little bird house with mesh around to keep the pigeons out. All I'm using is sunflower hearts. I get sparrows, goldfinches and bluetits. The blue tits mainly go for the house, but will go to the feeders. And that's even while there are sparrows and goldies on the feeders.

Also, I had two Robins for a while, who mainly took cheese from my hand, but would also go for the sunflower hearts, even hanging off the feeders and I think this year was the first time they did that. Funnily, if I threw sunflower hearts down in front of them, they'd ignore it.

Sunflower hearts for the win. Expensive by the 800g bag, go for 12.5kg for best value, about €51. Lasts me about 2 to 3 months. I keep it in a big airtight plastic container in the shed. No mould or other problems.

BTW, peanuts are definitely the preferred food for blue tits, but I get lots of them with the sunflower hearts. Maybe go for peanuts first, to tempt them in. I think that's how it worked for me. (years ago )

Markcheese

Are sunflower hearts the actual flower head with the seeds still in it ?

50 euros ? Damn , i had 4 or 5 a couple of years ago , just from sunflowers i grew for the kids , and yes the birds loved them ..

NickNickleby

Sunflower hearts are the seed with the black outside 'shell' removed.

There's no waste whatsoever, apart from what gets dropped on the ground. But the sort of good news is that I have up to eleven feral pigeons gathering up the the spillage.

The worst offenders are the goldfinches, who drop as much as they eat.

With mixed seed I found that the sparrows would toss away loads of stuff to get at their favourite. I've no idea what that was, but these days they eat the sunflower hearts, dropping very little.