Bird table...... birds avoiding it....

Is it simply because it's 'new'? Birds can take a little while to get used to something so they may be a bit suspicious at first but might get used to it after a while.

Birds will often ignore a new bird table (and even hanging feeders) while they “suss it out”, especially a roofed one. I’ve never known it take months though. We had one that was thus ignored and so DH took the roof off. Bingo!
shinamae I will be interested to see whether robins take to your nest pocket. I’ve used similar nesting pockets before and they’ve been universally ignored. I do hope you get some takers.

I will definitely keep you informed about the robin nest. Did not know about putting an apple out for the blackbirds, I will do that in the wild garden bird table because like I say at the front all I get is sparrows....??

In situ about 4 foot from the ground because apparently Robins like their nests quite low down......

GD thank you but I don’t really want to take the roof off because the birdseed is quite expensive and if it gets wet....? also I have no apples at the moment would a blackbird be happy with a pear?

I read somewhere that ducks should not be fed bread - the suggestion made was that they enjoyed greenstuff such as lettuce. So we and our grandchildren took at bag of lettuce pieces to feed the ducks - and they definitely didn't appreciate it!

Birds are very fickle aren’t they? I used to have a couple of blueberry bushes and blackbirds would often strip most of the fruit before I got a chance at it, but you scatter blueberries on the grass for them and they won’t touch them!

I don't know if the Blackbirds like pears or not, but we have apple trees and deliberately leave fallers for them. BUT they never eat them!
The do love the Pyracantha berries though

I, like you shinamae have noticed interesting habits in the birds that visit my garden!

Namsnanny we have a pyracantha outside the kitchen window and the blackbirds love it, there's also a perfect little nest just within sight, I'm really hoping they'll come back to it this year.

My bird feeder bent and got damaged in the wind recently so we bought a more robust bird table, like you Shinamae we're having problems getting the birds interested.

Namsnanny

I don't know if the Blackbirds like pears or not, but we have apple trees and deliberately leave fallers for them. BUT they never eat them!
The do love the Pyracantha berries though

I, like you shinamae have noticed interesting habits in the birds that visit my garden!

I find you have to cut the apples in half for them. Wouldn’t’ve thought they’d struggle with the skin but it dies seem to make a difference. Or maybe windfalls aren’t sweet enough. My blackbirds are very spoilt!

Well I have got an apple today cut it in half and put it on the bird table but are blackbirds not ground feeders? Hopefully they will try the bird table anyway, fingers crossed. ?

Forgot to mention I also bought some sunflower hearts today and a feeder so hopefully that might attract some different birds,if not apparently blue tits like sunflower hearts anyway....

I bought some mealworms, hoping to attract the robin and perhaps blue tits and put them in a little wire tray hung on the bird feeder.

Who should I see hanging upside down scoffing them? The squirrel, he couldn't get them down fast enough. Any that fell on the ground were pecked up by a fat pigeon.

I replaced an old bird table with a new one just like you have in your main picture Shinamae
The birds didn't notice. I put a heavy plate on it under the roof and put suet pellets and mealworms. They love it. The plate's always empty the next day. I also put fat balls in a hanging feeder and tie it securely around one of the supporting poles.
I would move the table a bit further away from the fence so the cat can't get on it.
Don't feed bread as it will bloat them and has no nutrition anyway.

I think we have more people feeding the birds round here than there are birds.
Apart from over fed pigeons, there seem to be plenty of them.

I've got hoards of birds busily feeding here, as always. I refill two hanging feeders in the mornings and the special Niger seed feeder every three or four days.

The fat blocks last longer, maybe about a week. I clean and fill the bird bath every day too. The feeders are on long wires, hung from a tree, so squirrels can't reach them. Still, I use the clear feeder 'baffles' as they stop rain reaching the seed.

I buy sacks of sparrow mix and sunflower hearts from Peckamix. Wood pigeons clear up anything that's dropped.

We only have a suet feeder. Mostly starlings and crows though!
Occasionally a Northern Flicker and Cedar Waxwings, but not very often. Once the weather warms and insects return I will stop feeding them.

I’ve joined a corvid lovers Facebook group as I’m fascinated by them. The Americans and Canadians in the group have a huge array of different corvids: Blue Jays etc. And many have crows that bring them thank you gifts for their food.

Gosh, some of you have some very exotic birds! I never put bread out for the birds in fact I think they have a veritable feast, they have suet pellets,suet blocks,peckish birdseed, mealworms,fat balls and now the sunflower hearts. I might try the plate thing on that bird table Sharon. It’s quite amazing how much pleasure I get from just watching the birds, the ones at the front garden I can see quite well but at the back garden I sit on the sofa with my binoculars and watch them and get really excited if I see a robin a blue tit or a longtailed tit ?but recently in the last few days I’ve seen very little activity in the back wild garden but the sparrows are still very prevalent in the front garden...?

Not sure this sunflower hearts feeder is correct, I suppose it should be as that’s what it said on the label,It only has a few small round holes in it, I bought it from Wilkinsons £2.50, I have put it in the front garden to see if the sparrows will use it. I have ordered a more substantial one costing £8 from Amazon which is arriving today and will go on the cherry tree in the small wild garden at the back of the house....

During the cold spell I put out bread, soaked dog kibble, and crunched egg shells. This went on an old coffee table that is due to be binned. It stands under a crab apple tree where hangs the fatball feeder. Everyone liked the table food AND the fatballs. However since the weather became milder the fatballs are unpopular even among the squirrels.

I soak stale bread in leftover fat in the winter.

I would love to have squirrels in my garden....??????

They are a cute grey menace, Shinamae

They are grey squirrels
They bury nuts all over the garden which sprout into trees
They bury nuts in my flower pots
I found two fat balls buried in my flower pots (not fat balls from our garden)
They hang upside down and eat the bird seed.
They ate my little purple sprouting broccoli
They ate my tulips when they were green shoots
Sometimes they fight
They can get into roof spaces and chew wires

Apart from that, they are cute

If you send me your address I will catch them and post them to you
???