Bird feeders through the year? (1 Viewer)

Sorry if this has been discussed before, I haven't been around for a while.

Is it a good idea to keep feeders topped up all year? Mine have become very popular with the new chicks (tits, sparrow etc) but am I encouraging a feeder-dependent population who won't develop foraging skills? Or is it too late to avoid that?
I'm tempted to stop filling them up whilst there are still insects around in the hope the youngsters will have to learn to fend for themselves, but am I trying to be too clever?

Thanks.

I personally use them all year just to see the birds.

Where we live in Russia, the weather is unpredictable to say the least and many species can and do, use the seeds to supplement their usually insectivorous diet if it's chilly.


A

My feeders are filled year round.

I stop filling the feeders from about the middle of May, mainly because the birds stop using them and if I'm not careful the seed starts to rot. I recommence sometime around the end of September, but it varies a lot depending on the weather - again I put out a feeder and see how quickly it gets eaten.
That said, my house and garden back onto farmland and woodland so there is plenty of alternative, natural feed.

In summary I'd say if you live in an urban, or semi-urban environment with no sizeable tracts of woodland, parks, fields etc. nearby, and the feed you put out gets eaten relatively quickly (refilling daily?), and you can afford it (!), then carry on. Personally as long as 'natural' food sources are available relatively close by then I think it best that young birds are encouraged to go and get it, and that supplementary feeding could be detrimental. Feeders are also more likely to become Sparrowhawk supermarkets when there are lots of young inexperienced fledglings about......

Mick

MTem said:

In summary I'd say if you live in an urban, or semi-urban environment with no sizeable tracts of woodland, parks, fields etc. nearby, and the feed you put out gets eaten relatively quickly (refilling daily?), and you can afford it (!), then carry on. Personally as long as 'natural' food sources are available relatively close by then I think it best that young birds are encouraged to go and get it, and that supplementary feeding could be detrimental. Feeders are also more likely to become Sparrowhawk supermarkets when there are lots of young inexperienced fledglings about......

Mick

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We get through, or our birds get through, about 2KGS every 3 days.

We've had a lot of sick and dying birds this year, mainly Greenfinches and Siskins for some reason and I had wondered if something was wrong with the seed but the feeder is clean and as I say, emptied every couple of days?

A

In my area of London, people hate anything green or brown, so they cut down trees and bushes - concrete-over their back gardens so they can pretend to be Australian (BBQs) - concrete-over their front gardens so they can park their cars. My garden is only a muddy swamp with two trees, but my feeders provide food all year round. I know I can't make up for what others have done to their gardens, but I need to do something... so I feed the birds (and the Squirrels)

Oh, and don't forget to provide water - due to the amount of concrete, rain water only goes down the drains.. doesn't collect anywhere, unless you count the potholes in the roads

andyadcock said:

We get through, or our birds get through, about 2KGS every 3 days.

We've had a lot of sick and dying birds this year, mainly Greenfinches and Siskins for some reason and I had wondered if something was wrong with the seed but the feeder is clean and as I say, emptied every couple of days?

A

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The Finches/Starlings/Sparrows/Pigeons etc get through more than that a day in my garden, but I'm the only one within a few hundred meters that feeds them.

Your sick birds probably have Trichomonosis. Regardless of advice you might get, you've no idea where else they are feeding, so taking your feeders down could be pointless.

MTem said:

I stop filling the feeders from about the middle of May, mainly because the birds stop using them and if I'm not careful the seed starts to rot. I recommence sometime around the end of September, but it varies a lot depending on the weather - again I put out a feeder and see how quickly it gets eaten.
That said, my house and garden back onto farmland and woodland so there is plenty of alternative, natural feed....

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That's interesting, Mick. We back on to woodland and are rural, yet the birds round here empty the feeders every couple of days even though they also take natural food as well. Clearly they are Hampshire Hogs!

ChrisKten said:

The Finches/Starlings/Sparrows/Pigeons etc get through more than that a day in my garden, but I'm the only one within a few hundred meters that feeds them.

Your sick birds probably have Trichomonosis. Regardless of advice you might get, you've no idea where else they are feeding, so taking your feeders down could be pointless.

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That fits the symptoms perfectly Ken, thanks.

There are a few feeders around but many of our birds disappear for the winter, even Greenfiches and the Siskins have been totally absent for 3 years until this, year, I suspect they've picked it up much further away?


A

Kits said:

That's interesting, Mick. We back on to woodland and are rural, yet the birds round here empty the feeders every couple of days even though they also take natural food as well. Clearly they are Hampshire Hogs!

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We also back onto extensive woodland so I don't feel too bad about denying them occasionally. At current rate of consumption seed and nut feeders need refilling 3-4 times a week, I'm going to refill twice a week and allow a brief 'famine' in between. Come the autumn I will keep filled constantly.

Thanks for comments.

Kits said:

That's interesting, Mick. We back on to woodland and are rural, yet the birds round here empty the feeders every couple of days even though they also take natural food as well. Clearly they are Hampshire Hogs!

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Do you get many Sparrowhawk visits?

Andy I think Chris is right - Your sick birds probably have Trichomonosis.


We had this horrible disease affect our feeding station a few years back. In our case we eventually decided that the shared bird bath might be the vector for infection. We now change the water several times a day - which is a bit of a pain but seems to have done the trick.

We also stepped up our hygiene regime under the feeders - as we noticed that little bits of food were being dropped by feeding birds which others then picked up.

We lost several Greenfinches and also our beautiful pair of Serin before we figured out what was going on. Strangely Serin are back this year but don't visit the feeders. (Maybe they heard what happened to the last pair )

Torchepot said:

Andy I think Chris is right - Your sick birds probably have Trichomonosis.


We had this horrible disease affect our feeding station a few years back. In our case we eventually decided that the shared bird bath might be the vector for infection. We now change the water several times a day - which is a bit of a pain but seems to have done the trick.

We also stepped up our hygiene regime under the feeders - as we noticed that little bits of food were being dropped by feeding birds which others then picked up.

We lost several Greenfinches and also our beautiful pair of Serin before we figured out what was going on. Strangely Serin are back this year but don't visit the feeders. (Maybe they heard what happened to the last pair )

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Thanks for this and yes, I agree.

As per the instructions, I'll disinfect the feeder today with a dilute bleach solution in boiling water but surely it will just get reinfected as soon as a sick bird returns to feed?

I wonder if it may be wise to stop feeding for a few days, my idea being that any sick birds will possibly have died so won't reinfect the feeder, is this too simplistic an idea?

Greenfinches are the worst, very messy and greedy, half eaten seed goes everywhere and they'll feed almost to the point of bursting.

Sick birds are a sorry sight, they just sit, often sleeping and you can often just pick them up. They struggle to feed as they seem unable to swallow and we usually put them in a quiet place overnight to die in relative comfort.


A

Hi Andy

I suspect that the feeders themselves are probably not the primary source of infection - I think it's more likely that the food particles dropped by infected birds and in our case the shared drinking water are more dangerous as it's spread by saliva I believe.

Since the first wave of infections hit us years ago we're much more vigilant and we have had the odd sick looking Greenfinch since. We immediately stop feeding for a few days and do a serious clean up. As you've noticed the poor little guys don't last very long and this certainly seems to break the cycle of infection.

I remember first hearing about it before we moved here (ten years ago) when I think it was first noted in the UK. We had big finch flocks every winter with no sign of disease when we first came here. From memory (not always reliable these days ) it was 5 or 6 years ago that it first reached us - I wonder if this could be the frontline of the disease spreading further East and reaching you or a subsequent wave?

On a positive note this has been a bumper year for Greenfinch here and they all appear healthy - plus two pairs of Serin have appeared again this year after being absent for years since the disease came through.

The other nice side effect is that a couple of our neighbors have noticed the increase in birds since we've been here and started feeding them too :t:

We had to cut down on the food we were putting out as it got a bit ridiculous - 50kg of sunflower seed was lasting us less than a week! We had some pretty amazing finch flocks though! Now we use much smaller feeders and fill them half full every day. We also put out Niger, fat balls and our secret weapon - Brioche which we cut into tiny pieces (we never put peanuts out anymore). We feed the birds all year round but step it up in bad weather and through the winter (if we're here).

Thanks again Torchpot,
cleaned the feeder and won't feed for a couple of days, I noticed at least one bird seemed to be showing the early signs.

That must have been a heck of a flock, 50KGS a week and brioche......I knew the French were fine diners!

Does anyone know if there's an agency in Europe that's monitoring it's spread that I can report it to?


A

Another dying bird on the balcony today, a very sorry site.

A

Here in the Alps I'm feeding through the summer this year, I had a lot of peanuts left over after the winter, the birds hardly touched the peanut feeder in fact. So I experimented a few weeks back and crushed some peanuts (fresh, not those left in the feeder !) and put them in the tray atachment of the main feeder. Since then I'm seeing family groups of Great Tits (12 together on the feeder this am for example!) plus the odd Coal, Blue and Marsh which empty the tray each morning. I refill it each early evening but leave it empty in between. We went away for a few days recently so I put out some fat balls which were apparently well appreciated!
The odd occasion when I've tried brioche or bread here it's been ignored so I reckon the Alpine passerines have lower cholesterol than those where Torchepot lives

I am in Central Portugal and like Andy use around 2 kilos every three days throughout the year,around 50 greenfinch and approx 60 serin and about 30 house sparrow daily.
Lots of juveniles over the past month joining their parents.
I have managed to grow two rows of millet and sun flowers as well.
We do have a local sparrowhawk and booted eagle which take the odd bird.