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Post by kleftiwallah on Jun 24, 2020 19:19:42 GMT
God evening everyone, can anyone recommend a decent wild bird food that all the birds enjoy? I'm a bit tired of clearing away seeds and such on a regular basis. I know not to go for a food containing wheat but other than that I'm at the mercy of the dealers. 
Cheers, Tony.  |
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Post by rowanberry on Jun 24, 2020 20:18:58 GMT
I've learned to avoid the mixed birdfoods- the sparrows just toss out anything they don't like, and half of it ends up on the ground. The thing that works the best for me is one I mix myself- kibbled peanuts and sunflower hearts. They do cost a bit more, but with there not being any waste I think it works out better. I get mine from a company called Brinvale- I've been ordering from them for years, and they are very good. www.brinvale.com/ |
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Post by Tringa on Jun 24, 2020 21:42:10 GMT
Sunflower hearts all the way. They are more expensive than mixed seed but as said above there is a lot of waste because the birds throw away the seeds they don't like. Just about every garden bird seems to like sunflower hearts. I buy from a variety of suppliers. The last ones I bought were from here - www.thecornmill.com/sunflower-hearts-20kg-14 Currently they do 20kg for £24.95 with free delivery. Dave |
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Post by Psamathe on Jun 25, 2020 9:12:58 GMT
As OP has found, in the days when I used "mixed seed" feed, birds would sit on the feeder removing a seed, dropping it, remove seed, drop it, etc., etc. until they found a seed they liked (normally a sunflower seed) - so most of the food ended-up on the ground.
Sunflower seed hearts (as others have said) seem loved. I feed sunflower seed hearts, fat balls and peanuts and they are all being eaten at the moment.
Sometimes birds can be weird as I used to provide my parents (60 miles away) with bird food and their's would not touch the fat balls my local birds loved. Birds round my parents house would only eat fat balls from the local garden shop (£££££).
Niger seeds never really got eaten (they just ended-up wet and useless so the special feeder sits in the cupboard).
Also I find a "balance difficult" I live edge of very small village so mostly open countryside around me and in the past I have found the more you feed the larger the populations get, so you feed more, populations increase, you feed more, ..... (mainly goldfinches). And I got into complete madness where the goldfinch numbers were quite unnatural and unsustainable (one day I counted 50 waiting on the house roof and I'd not got half way through the swarm). They were getting through a mega feeder of sunflower seed hearts every day (and that starts £££££). Whilst I'd prefer too many than too few, I did feel I was skewing the environment badly as those unnatural population levels of one species (thanks to me) may have been negatively impacting other species (maybe). Impacts bank balance as well!
Ian
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Post by kleftiwallah on Jun 25, 2020 9:57:28 GMT
Good morning everyone, many thanks for those comprehensive answers and Ian, I would love to be in the position of having too many goldfinches!
I've tried peanuts but they just get left and end up in the bin.We get the standard issue if bird types here. I shall certainly keep your comments in mind come next autumn
Cheers, Tony.
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Post by Tringa on Jun 25, 2020 10:13:20 GMT
As OP has found, in the days when I used "mixed seed" feed, birds would sit on the feeder removing a seed, dropping it, remove seed, drop it, etc., etc. until they found a seed they liked (normally a sunflower seed) - so most of the food ended-up on the ground. Sunflower seed hearts (as others have said) seem loved. I feed sunflower seed hearts, fat balls and peanuts and they are all being eaten at the moment. Sometimes birds can be weird as I used to provide my parents (60 miles away) with bird food and their's would not touch the fat balls my local birds loved. Birds round my parents house would only eat fat balls from the local garden shop (£££££). Niger seeds never really got eaten (they just ended-up wet and useless so the special feeder sits in the cupboard). Also I find a "balance difficult" I live edge of very small village so mostly open countryside around me and in the past I have found the more you feed the larger the populations get, so you feed more, populations increase, you feed more, ..... (mainly goldfinches). And I got into complete madness where the goldfinch numbers were quite unnatural and unsustainable (one day I counted 50 waiting on the house roof and I'd not got half way through the swarm). They were getting through a mega feeder of sunflower seed hearts every day (and that starts £££££). Whilst I'd prefer too many than too few, I did feel I was skewing the environment badly as those unnatural population levels of one species (thanks to me) may have been negatively impacting other species (maybe). Impacts bank balance as well! IanI have found the same with niger seed. Some of the goldfinches would eat it if they could not get at the sunflower hearts or the sunflower feeders were empty. We have had goldfinches sitting on the niger feed waiting to get to the sunflower hearts.Here the birds largely ignore the round fat balls but they like the square fat cakes. Unfortunately the squirrels eventually destroyed the wire holders of the fat cakes, so no more fat cakes on the menu.Dave |
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Post by rowanberry on Jun 25, 2020 10:17:58 GMT
 Did I tell about the time I came upon a massive bag of sunflower hearts at B&Q marked down to £5? I didn't even stop to think why... poor Snowlynx had to run get a trolley while I stood guard over it, and it took both of us to lift it into the boot of the car. That thing was the size of a sack of horsefeed. When we got it home, I discovered why it was so cheap... it was up to its expiration date and I now had a year's worth of sunflower seeds about to go off. The only thing I could think to do was to freeze them. I keep those plastic tubs that soups in the chiller aisle come in, and I filled every single one we had, along with every other container I thought would stand up to being frozen. Thank goodness the landlord's old upright freezer was still here in our hallway... I certainly put it to good use! One entire shelf and part of another drawer were packed with sunflower seeds.  It made things a little challenging at Christmastime when I needed that freezer space. It did take the birds about a year to gradually work their way through all of them, but they eventually did it. I think I finally used the last container last autumn. That's certainly top of the list for one of the best bargains I've ever found. 
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Did I tell about the time I came upon a massive bag of sunflower hearts at B&Q marked down to £5? I didn't even stop to think why... poor Snowlynx had to run get a trolley while I stood guard over it, and it took both of us to lift it into the boot of the car. That thing was the size of a sack of horsefeed.
It made things a little challenging at Christmastime when I needed that freezer space. 