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Can a feeder's colour affect its popularity? (1 Viewer)

Kevin

Kevin

Registered User (not drugs)
I have birds feeding regularly from different feeders in the garden - but about 6 weeks ago I hung up a new one which has been totally ignored by all the birds.

All the others are green and this one is blue, could the colour have anything to do with it?

Any thoughts?

See photo attached

Kevin
 

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Kevin said:
I have birds feeding regularly from different feeders in the garden - but about 6 weeks ago I hung up a new one which has been totally ignored by all the birds.

All the others are green and this one is blue, could the colour have anything to do with it?

Any thoughts?

See photo attached

Kevin
Click to expand...

It doesn't look like it's ignored, it's 1/3 empty. ;) I have had green, yellow, blue and wooden and it doesn't seem to make any difference although I have heard that red is preferred by one specie but I can't remember which one. Maybe someone else can say.

Joanne
 
joannechattaway said:
It doesn't look like it's ignored, it's 1/3 empty. ;) I have had green, yellow, blue and wooden and it doesn't seem to make any difference although I have heard that red is preferred by one specie but I can't remember which one. Maybe someone else can say.

Joanne
Click to expand...
Yes i too have heard about one species prefering red and if i remember correctly its the siskin that has been shown to gofor the red feeders over any other colour
 
neil brown said:
Yes i too have heard about one species prefering red and if i remember correctly its the siskin that has been shown to gofor the red feeders over any other colour
Click to expand...


Thanks Neil, that rings a bell....think I'll get a red one, it would be nice to have siskins. :loveme:

Joanne
 
joannechattaway said:
It doesn't look like it's ignored, it's 1/3 empty. ;) I have had green, yellow, blue and wooden and it doesn't seem to make any difference although I have heard that red is preferred by one specie but I can't remember which one. Maybe someone else can say.

Joanne
Click to expand...
It's 1/3 empty because I was getting tired of throwing away so much mouldy, uneaten seed. Why fill it full, when I may have to discard it yet again?

The mystery remains though...why don't they use it?

Puzzling!
 
Kevin said:
I have birds feeding regularly from different feeders in the garden - but about 6 weeks ago I hung up a new one which has been totally ignored by all the birds.

All the others are green and this one is blue, could the colour have anything to do with it?

Any thoughts?

See photo attached

Kevin
Click to expand...

Hmm... interesting, I just bought the same feeder, but in the greenish color. I should check & see if it's being used.
 
Great, 20 minutes ago I just ordered 2 blue peanut feeders from the RSPB site (half price until midnight tonight by the way!)

I particularly like the RSPB feeders as you can put them on poles and attach seed trays to them to prevent spillage. Bit more expensive, but you pay for what you get.
 
SixxStar said:
Hmm... interesting, I just bought the same feeder, but in the greenish color. I should check & see if it's being used.
Click to expand...

So far mine is not being used. I wonder if it's because I hung in on the big shrub close to the house (opposite side of the yard from where the thistle sock is hung). They probably don't realize its even there.
 
My experience

I normally use green or copper-colored tube feeders and the birds like them. A while ago, I put up a yellow feeder to replace a green one - in exactly the same place - and I got no visitors. After several weeks I replaced this with a copper one and the birds came back within a couple of days. So it seems that at least some birds don't like yellow!

Jeff
 
I think it has something to do with time (birds are weird about how long it will take them to go to a new feeder-just a few days to a number of weeks) and the seed that you are using. I would use something of a little better quality, like sunflowers or sunflower hearts. A lot of that seed in your new feeder may not be as desirable as what might be in your others. The older one in the photo looks as though the seed is a better quality.

Someone needs to do a test on their birds. Everyone should! Then we can find out about this color thing.
 
We have several feeders in our garden, containing peanuts, mixed seed, niger seeds, sunflower hearts, fat cakes with nuts and fruit, and fat balls. Most of the feeders are dark green in colour, but we have one which is copper coloured, and it contains sunflower hearts. We get a fantastic variety of birds in our garden - and they get through a lot of food! But the feeder containing the sunflower hearts remains untouched. It's been there a few months now, and we've cleaned it out and replaced the sunflower hearts several times, we've also changed the position. I don't know whether it's the colour that's putting the birds off but they certainly don't seem to like this feeder and I thought that sunflower hearts were a favourite. Any ideas?
 
I will do a test, I'll move it closer to the thistle sock which is visited regularly & see if they like/use it. The sock is pure thistle, but the new feeder is Kaytee's ultimate finch blend.

I still have a feeling that mine is location. If there is an abundance of a food source they're used to, why would they think to go elsewhere in the yard. I moved it closer to the house, so I could try & get better pictures of them.

To be continued...
 
SixxStar said:
I will do a test, I'll move it closer to the thistle sock which is visited regularly & see if they like/use it. The sock is pure thistle, but the new feeder is Kaytee's ultimate finch blend.

I still have a feeling that mine is location. If there is an abundance of a food source they're used to, why would they think to go elsewhere in the yard. I moved it closer to the house, so I could try & get better pictures of them.

To be continued...
Click to expand...

I tried different finch blends, Kaytee, Stokes, Wagners and found there was never much interest in the blends mainly fine sunflower chips, canary seed, thistle etc. FWIW I find the straight Nyger/ Thistle seed in a thistle feeder works best for me. I tried the blends in a sock and that drew little interest also. ;)
 
There is a lot of filler in many types of blends out there.

I like either straight thistle, peanuts, suet, corn or sunflower hearts/chips--or of course, a mix of these.
 
Kevin, one concern that I would have is with the set up of having one feeder directly above another. Considering the diseases that are carried by garden birds,

(November 2006 update from SAC)
http://www.sac.ac.uk/news/currentnews/gardenbirdshygiene

one diseased bird landing to feed on the upper feeder, and defecating onto one the horizontal perch poles of the lower feeder, will spread the disease to any bird which lands onto the bottom feeder, and ends up wiping it's bill/beak, as they will do, on the horizontal perch pole.
As for Siskins, I have had more Siskins on Yellow netting bags compared to Red netting bags. They are better comouflaged on Yellow. Red does work for me as well, but the number comparison points to Yellow.
Drayton, if this is the first time you have tried S/F hearts, then as Birdpotter has said, it will take some time for the birds to get used to the change in food offered.

Regards

Malky
 
Ok, about 3 or so days ago I moved my feeder to the same area as the thistle sock. It's still not really being used that much, I am thinking that Lou G is right about blends not being popular.

We've had weather in the single digits here w/windchills that make it feel -10 to -20. I thought for sure it would get used, my other feeders have been emptied by time I return home from work-filling those almost daily lately.
 
SixxStar said:
Ok, about 3 or so days ago I moved my feeder to the same area as the thistle sock. It's still not really being used that much, I am thinking that Lou G is right about blends not being popular.

We've had weather in the single digits here w/windchills that make it feel -10 to -20. I thought for sure it would get used, my other feeders have been emptied by time I return home from work-filling those almost daily lately.
Click to expand...


The best test is to buy a small bag of straight thistle/nyger seed (Walmart) and fill the feeder to just above top feeder hole (depending on size of feeder).Don't do this if it's a super long tube. Start small and see what results you get. I can't keep seed in my thistle feeder (15" long) between the goldies and juncos they're cleaning me out. I am really enjoying it though cause the goldies are just starting to yellow up a bit but mostly still drabby. Good luck SixxStar :hi:
 
I have changed the seeds round.

I've put the cheaper mixed seed in the smaller green feeder (their favourite) - and the nutritious sunflower hearts in the new large blue feeder (the one they don't like).

Guess what?

They still won't eat from the new feeder - preferring to stick with the old green one, containing the inferior mixed seed.

So I am left with conclusion that they just don't like the blue.

There must be someone out there who can enlighten me?
 
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