attracting new birds

[gazza]

Can u attact new birds in your garden all the birds i get is GREEN FINCH/HOUSE SPARROW/SPARROW/BLUE COAL GREAT TIT/ROBIN/CHAFFINCH/BLACK BIRD/WOODPIGEON/NUTHATCH/ i feed them on black sun flower seed/seed mix/nuts/fat balls/blocks/would like to see /starling/goldfinch/bullfinch/wren/jay/ so some info would be great thanks:cool:

[Emma]

Goldfinches like niger/nyger seed. You need a special seed feeder for this.

By far the most popular food in our garden is sunflower hearts which is eaten by just about everything that visits us.

Wrens are ground feeding birds so you could try scattering chopped peanuts/sunflower hearts under any bushes you may have? Our Wren is particularly attracted to our log pile where he or she searches for insects (and food I've hidden there, too).

Starlings will eat almost anything: try putting out some soaked currants/raisins or bread/grated cheese etc but be careful what you provide once we get into the breeding season - nestlings can choke on larger bits of food (peanuts, for example).

Bullfinches like fruit tree buds, berries, seeds and fat cakes.

Not sure about the Jay though, sorry

[davidb]

I think you have a good variety of visitors, there are probably one or two more who are regulars but not at the time you are looking.

Do you have any water in your garden for birds to drink and bathe? I find new birds often come for a drink before they begin to find the feeders.

Have you tried any live food? You can buy dried meal worms if the thought is easier to work with

I think Jays like peanuts but it is the wrong time of year to feed whole nuts unless they are in a feeder, is has been said that chicks can choke on nuts!

I think that variety of food, water and patience will bring more birds to you.

[oasisjack]

Youve got a good number there.
Starlings will probly only come if your garden is a better offer than what else is around. Iv got a big field of scrub behind my garden so they dont give me a second glance.
Youll probly get some goldfinches on your black sunflower seeds as we head towards summer.
Id love to have a bullfinch too but their quite rare and they mainly eat buds on trees so there isnt really any food you can but out specifically for them. I say plant a tree!
Wrens are easy, they're the commonest breeding bird so there will probly be some around. Put some table food or dried mealworms under a hedge and you'll have some within a week. Dunnocks (hedge sparrows) can be attracted this way too.
No idea about a jay never had one myself. Like to though

[Bebe]

Reading your replies about attracting starlings, I have the opposite problem. How do I deter starlings?!:confused:

They monopolise all feeders & tables as well as devouring all my specialised fat feeds. They even use the wall hung table right outside my open window.

[oasisjack]

I imagaine that can be quite frustrating if your hoping to attract other birds. However starling are an endangered species - there are still lots of them but theyre declining fast. So gardens like yours are important strongholds for them. If theyre entering your garden it probly means there isnt much else for them nearby. So love or hate them, I think theyre probly there for good!
I think your quite lucky, having a resident starling flock is a rare thing for a garden these days.

[Bebe]

We overlook an arable farm & there are several old oak trees in the road-side hedging as well. The starlings roost in these or a large walnut tree opposite. I will keeping feeding in several areas to satisfy all-comers!

[Ben]

[quote=oasisjack]I imagaine that can be quite frustrating if your hoping to attract other birds. However starling are an endangered species - there are still lots of them but theyre declining fast. So gardens like yours are important strongholds for them. If theyre entering your garden it probly means there isnt much else for them nearby. So love or hate them, I think theyre probly there for good!
I think your quite lucky, having a resident starling flock is a rare thing for a garden these days.[/quote

Still seems to be as many starlings visiting my garden as ever there was,just wish they would take their droppings elsewhere.

[Kerry L]

The jays that visit us only come for the acorns. If there is a glut, we don't see much of them as they usually stay in the woods. They like to eat baby birds too - given an opportunity, but that is not much different from the other carrion and woodpeckers (not sure about the green ones - although they like ants and usually appear on the lawn in our front garden).

[Caroline]

My Jay's (3 in total) quite like my nut feeder.

[Kerry L]

My mother-in-law doesn't have any oak trees anywhere near her, but she has a few jays, perhaps ours are just fussy! She also has parrots, I don't think I want them though.

[Bob Sallis]

Can anyone tell me if it's unsual for a Black Bird to have a white head ??? as one visits my garden daily

[Kerry L]

Hi Bob

I have often seen blackbirds with the odd white patch. At the moment one of mine has a very pretty picoteed edge to his tail. I call him Sharky (white tip). He used to be in the back garden and he almost ate raisins from my hand, but his territory is now the front garden. He doesn't mind when I walk near him and sometimes I have to shush him away from the car - I don't want to squash him! We also used to have a blackbird with curly back feathers - I thought he had been damaged somehow, until I saw sister (or daughter) feeding her baby and both had curly backs. I haven't seen any of them this year though, sad really, they were unusual.
Regards, Kerry

[Bob Sallis]

A Daily Visitor to my garden, click on attached thumbnail for larger image

[Kerry L]

Hi Bob - nice photo. Perhaps his babies have reached their teens!:D

[Bob Sallis]

Hi Kerry! Thanks for the feedback on my posting. My garden does seem to attract black birds, I have a 6ft conifer hedge that separates the lawn and vegetable plot, and they have been nesting in it now for several years, and last year we did have a black bird that had white tipped wings, so perhaps my new visitor is one of there offsprings.

[Emma]

Hi Bob.

Your blackbird is leucistic. It's quite common. I have heard of many reports of leucistic birds, but particularly leucistic blackbirds, for some reason. Yours in a very nice example. Lovely photo.

We don't have a leucistic blackird visiting us but I did see an albino blackbird many, many years ago. We have a jackdaw who visits us sometimes, and he has a white belly.

[Bebe]

I have a female blackbird with no tail! She flies quite happily & is frantically feeding nestlings at the moment.

[Emma]

I have a female blackbird with no tail! She flies quite happily & is frantically feeding nestlings at the moment.

Aww :)

A close shave with a cat, maybe?

[dorte]

Hi new member I am, but I have starlings in my garden. They arrived a few years back when an elderberry tree appeared in my garden They seed like weeds. but are good for birds, so I now keep a few). They descended on the ripe berries in the autumn and now they seem to come in spring for ordinary bird foods like seeds and fat balls. They do make a racket when the flock is large, but it is mostly in the autumn when they get "elderberry drunk":p .



Can u attact new birds in your garden all the birds i get is GREEN FINCH/HOUSE SPARROW/SPARROW/BLUE COAL GREAT TIT/ROBIN/CHAFFINCH/BLACK BIRD/WOODPIGEON/NUTHATCH/ i feed them on black sun flower seed/seed mix/nuts/fat balls/blocks/would like to see /starling/goldfinch/bullfinch/wren/jay/ so some info would be great thanks:cool:

[Kerry L]

We are noticing there are lots more starlings than earlier this year. Overall, this is not unusual. I haven't seen the youngsters yet, but I love the beautiful colours of their feathers, purple one way and then they turn and can be emerald green or blue. I also love the way they come into land - like little Harrier Jump Jets!:D

[justsomeoneelse]

hello all,
hmm... i'd gladly 'swap' my starlings for ooh, a goldfinch or chaffinch etc. i think i'm slowly developing a disliking to starlings, sorry... i don't think i'm helping much !


justsomeoneelse

[dorte]

I've just seen the first baby starling this morning, being feed live mini meal worms by its mum (dad???) on top of my garden shed aaaah. Little fat, fluffy one it was too. Then I spotted what I think were baby sparrows on the lawn being taught how to find food?!?!? They were certainly much lighter in colour than normal and had this baby fat/fluff thing going on.

[justsomeoneelse]

hello all,
..oh ? we've had baby starlings for the past fortnight now. the little dears sit inside the birdtable whilst mummy or daddy feed them meal worms, or nibble at the suet cakes. its actually quite fun to see the pesky darlings muster up enough courage to try to clamber down onto the cage themselves, or struggle to find a safe foot hold once on it.


justsomeoneelse

[dorte]

I don't know whether the babies seen today are the first ones out - I just really haven't been at home to enjoy the sights of my now somewhat 'wild' garden (no time to do weeding and all that and the birds love it - so I'll be turning most of my lawn into a meadow - only needs mowing twice a year;))

[Kerry L]

Hi Dorte

We have had the baby starlings for the last couple of days, they all had a bath and were so busy preening themselves, that they kept losing their balance. They looked so cute even with their soggy, fluffy tummies!
Yep, the weeds are shooting up thick and fast now. I have to nip out in a dry spell just to keep the veggies clear, but haven't managed the rest of the garden yet. But the smaller birds like the protection of the greenery, so lots of dunnocks around.:)
Regards, Kerry

[dorte]

Hi Kerry,
I wish I could see 'your' babies and my 'own' for that matter, but time, time.... I do have all 3 kinds of sparrows in my little surburbian garden, mostly due to the 'nature' reserve (read rubbish dump - although not as bad as it has been)across the road and 6/7 large not leylandii, but conifers of one kind or another, where they all seem to live, nest, 'scream and shout' irrespective of and without thought for my need to sleep:D

I have decided that it is far too expensive to buy all these live meal worms which they all seem to love starlings, blackbirds and sparrows alike and have started an experiment for breeding my own:eek: :eek:

could be funny to see how that'll turn out :rolleyes:

anybody tried?????

[fiazie]

Don't get me started on starlings!!

We have a resident flock of about 25 in our garden all year round, and they gobble up all the food we put out before any other birds get a look in, and make one hell of a mess with their droppings. We've taken to hiding food all round the garden so that the wrens, dunnocks, and blackbirds will fine some when they're rustling about in the leaves.
Goldfinches in fact appear to be the only ones to stand up to the starlings. Far from being the shy birds it says they are in bird books, they gang up in a flock of about 8-9 and fight the starlings off the sunflower heart feeder!:D .

I do have some special affection for them though, because every February since i moved to south Norfolk 9 years ago, enormous flocks of them circle around in the sky for about half an hour before dusk, before goning down to roost in a rough grassy field a little way behind our house. The flock must be a good few thousand strong, and they circle and twirl in amazing patterns. I tell you - its better than watching the red arrows anyday!

They get a bad press in the village though, unsurprisingly, due to the amount of droppings that get splattered over every car, window, and person in the street!!!:mad:
If only they would fly over the fields instead!


Does anyone know why they do this mass gathering every year, because i haven't got a clue?

[Birdman]

We have a regular flock ( I say flock but basically some 8 to 10 ) of starling arrive almost daily, along with some 4/5 or 6 collared doves, yes, along with hedge sparrows, gold finches and tits, mind you, our garden is a haven for food since a couple of handfuls of sunflower hearts and of mixed wirlbird food is sprinkled across our lawn, I won't mention about the seeds that germinate after awhile...LOL....mention worms of any discription and very soon I am invaded by starlings who polish up every conceivable worm...now of the dried variety....robins, tits and all the other birds never get a look-in...oh well, first come -- first served..LOL