Feeding SMALL birds

The birds used to eat fat balls in my old garden but not when it was really cold - I guess freezing temperatures made the fat too hard.
I sprinkle the fat nuggets around under the shrubs here and the blackbirds and robins snaffle them up.

Trying to keep some fresh water available too

We have lots of starlings here - they sit on the electricity cables waiting for my next door neighbour to put crusts and scraps on her front garden and then all arrive in a great swoop. Usually it's fun to watch, but a sparrow hawk joined in the other day and caught one of the starlings. nature red in tooth and claw...

I’ve bought a hanging bird feeder and placed fat balls inside but they haven’t been touched. I only see Magpies and Crows around here but thought the feeder might attract some tits etc but even the Magpies and Crows have gone. I did wonder if it was too cold even for them!

AreWeThereYet the starlings can still feed from them. They learnt the trick of hanging on with one foot so there is not too much weight on the stand.

Clever things! I haven't seen starlings on it yet; but at least gulls and pigeons aren't on it, as I live near the sea. During the Covid lockdown I put a birdbath out, and the ONLY birds I ever saw in it were gulls!

I'd love to have one of the protected ground feeders, but as I have decking I would worry about rats being encouraged.

We have quite a few goldfinches visiting our niger seed feeders. Also woodpeckers on the peanut feeders. In the back garden yesterday was a flock of redwing, and a blackcap in the front.

Ps I mean he ate the actual shell

The birds ignored the fatballs so we don't buy them now.

I hung filled coconut halves from a tree but the squirrel ate the coconut shells too. 🐿

So it's just seed and mealworms now.

Callistemon21

We put mealworms in a feeder which has a saucer shaped bottom.

All the feeders hang on a feeding station, sometimes a squirrel tries to hang upside down on it and reach the food but mostly it is just small birds.
The pigeons hang around underneath, waiting for any spills.

Similar here.
The fatball feeder is in the centre of a lantern effect feeder to stop squirrels, so’s the sunflower seed holder.I also hang half coconuts filled with fat and seeds on tree branches.

Arewethereyet I too have noticed the changed behaviour of the ground feeding birds. Robins are quite adept now at using the hanging feeders and for the first time this year we have seen blackbirds doing the same. I have to laugh at the young blackbirds frantically running around the caged ground feeder trying to work out how to get in. It’s usually a robin that shows them how it’s done.

We solved this problem years ago. We use a ground feeder as well as hanging feeders. The ground feeder has a cage around it which has a grille on 2 sides which you can adjust. We have ours wide enough to let in blackbirds and starlings but no access for pigeons, magpies and squirrels.

We have the Adjustable ground feeding sanctuary available from the rspb website. It’s been hugely successful. The site wouldn’t let me save the photo unfortunately.

The first winter I had Hattie the hound we had heavy snow and she had never seen it before, getting very excited.
I had hung strips of suet from the washing “umbrella” for the birds and caught her up on her back legs trying to get the suet. Greyhounds are permanently hungry and very greedy. She got one bit down but I was then unable to find the metal ‘S’ hook I had hung it up with. I had a sleepless night worrying that she had swallowed the hook as well - which would have meant an x-ray and immediate surgery, and could so easily have been fatal.
Next morning I dug right down in the snow and (phew) found it.

The blackbirds scuttle around in the shrub borders and pull worms out of the lawn. They don't seem to go on the feeders.

We've had robins feeding on the feeders for a long time now, but does anyone else have blackbirds that feed off the feeders? We noticed earlier this year they seem to be copying the starlings. The chaffinches also used to ground feed but quite happily join the greenfinches and goldfinches now.

Visgirl.....we had a Sparrowhawk in our garden too today! I've never seen one before.
I had to stop putting anything with suet/fat in as we had a regular rat visiting us...

We used to have starlings here - one fell down the chimney years ago then we fitted a cowl.

But we only see young ones a couple of times a year now.

Cali 🤣🤣

Your starlings are all in my garden! It’s a wonder they haven’t brought the tv aerial down and the noise when they squabble is unbelievable!

Also got one similar to this in green.

I have one of these Roamwild feeders hanging up on my feeding station. If any of the bigger birds land on the perches, the ports close and pre ent them accessing the food. Finches and tits can dine in peace!

We rarely see starlings now.
Sometimes a few young ones will arrive, have a peck around for a few days and then go again.

Eats, pecks and leaves !

I've ordered a protective cage to put over a tray of bird food on the ground. It comes in a choice of mesh size depending on the birds to be allowed access. I also have a squirrel buster hanging feeder which stops pigeons. However, they can still clean up the bits dropped on the ground by tits and finches. This keeps everyone happy!

I have a feeder for smaller birds but the greedy starlings still manage to get at the fat balls but it's a lot more work for them.
I noticed our local robin tends to flit around the flowerbeds and on the patio so have taken to scattering some odd little bits for him. He seems happy enough and it keeps him away from the bigger greedy birds around the feeder but I don't put loads out as even the blackbirds miss out.
But any residue fat from cooking is mopped up with porridge and that goes quickly when it's put out.

I find this one is good - bigger birds can't hold on to it. It's called an acorn feeder from Am***n of course!
I scatter mealworms around under the shrubs early in the day so it's a free for all but small birds seem to find them and nothing stays on the ground overnight.

Visgir1

My DD puts feeders out in her front garden. Yesterday she saw this beauty.. Sparrow Hawk, now that's a big bigger than her normal visitors to the feeder.

Great photo, Visgirl

One swooped past my head in the summer and grabbed a feeding sparrow, took it in the shrubbery .....

We put mealworms in a feeder which has a saucer shaped bottom.

All the feeders hang on a feeding station, sometimes a squirrel tries to hang upside down on it and reach the food but mostly it is just small birds.
The pigeons hang around underneath, waiting for any spills.

We have those too choughdancer - mainly because we have so many squirrels, but the starlings can still feed from them. They learnt the trick of hanging on with one foot so there is not too much weight on the stand. They get balanced and the beak goes in and you don't see it again until they've eaten everything they want 😁 They mainly like the suet and will push each off the perch to get their beaks in. I was pretty shocked when I saw the price of them in our local garden centre - twice the price we paid a few years ago.

That's a beauty of a sparrowhawk Visgirl

It's