* JakeD wrote, On 12/10/2007 12:05:
On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:02:05 +0100, Serena Blanchflower
wrote:

What other birds do you know are in the area and that you particularly
want to attract?

Hi Serena,

From a practical POV, I would like to attract anything that will be
beneficial to my vegetable patch. That is to say, particularly
anything that also likes slugs and snails!

From a purely visula/auditory pleasure POV, I'd be interested in
attracting anything that is colourful, with a pleasant musical song. I
have seen wrens, robins, cahaffinches, magpies, spotted flycatchers
(?) blue tits (?) and a few others I would be even more hesitant
hesitate to identify, along with the very very occasional, but much
appreciated kingfisher (there's a river nearby). A neigbour claims to
have seen buzzards circling nearby (there's an RSPB bird sanctuary
about half a mile away)!

The finches and tits are likely to use a seed feeder as well as
picking up any seeds which fall to the ground. The wrens and robins
are both ground feeders but will take sunflower hearts (but probably
not whole sunflowers) from the ground. They also love the ground
feeders' muesli that I put down. Wrens are fairly shy birds, so are
most likely to take food if it's near cover. Magpies along with
other, larger, birds are more likely to take food from the ground or
from a table (without a roof), although I have seen some large birds,
such as the Jay and the Greater Spotted Woodpecker using both peanut
and seed feeders.

I don't know what, if any, birdfood would encourage the spotted
flycatcher and I don't think that any birdseed is going to interest
either the kingfisher or the buzzard!

I get my seed from http://www.vinehousefarm.co.uk/, who are very
good but Haith's, in particular, do a wide range of softbill mixes
(see http://www.haiths.com/category-Softbill-Foods-WBFSOFT/), to
attract the birds like robins, wrens, blackbirds and thrushes. I've
found these birds seem to do pretty well on Vine House Farm's ground
feeder mix though.

I find that by far the most popular food is sunflower seeds; when I've
fed seed mixes, of any kind, there's a huge amount of waste, as the
birds pick out the sunflower seeds and leave most of the rest! The
only exception to this is the mix I get for the ground feeders, which
is pretty much like muesli.

I didnl;t realise there were specifically ground-feeder birds. Perhaps
that's why I'm only seeing great tits at the moment.

Yes, different birds have different diets and feeding habits. Not all
of them are able to cling onto peanut feeders, for example and others
have problems opening hard seeds, preferring nice soft insectlife.
Some are also shyer than others and are unlikely to join a scrum at a
feeder.

Nowadays I feed sunflower hearts, peanuts and ground feeders' muesli
throughout the year and add fat balls in the winter. That attracts a
pretty wide range of birds. As well as what to feed, it's well worth
considering where. The birds will feel a lot more confident if
there's cover close to hand, along with perches to use before and
after feeding.

Thanks for the tip. There is a large spruce tree ouside my window. I
'll try moving the feeders back onto that. I'll still be able to see
the show from my window there.

Thanks again...


Good luck!

--
Cheers, Serena
Nothing right in my left brain. Nothing left in my right brain (anon)