Puzzling Bird Feeder Behaviour (1 Viewer)

All, I need some help with some basic back yard birding. I have 3 Brome 1024 Squirrel Busters and a little thistle feeder. As a general comment, the birds for a couple years were plentiful and over time, less and less so. A few things that I am conscious and aware of. I keep the feeders clean and put them in the dishwasher about once every two months. I store the feed in my shed in what are essentially paint buckets(with lids of course). I keep the feeders full, when they get down to about 1/4 left I refill.

So I feel like I'm doing as much as I can right, but just less activity. So a good piece of information to work with is that I had three feeders. Before the last cleaning the Cardinals and even sometimes the swallows were eating the black sunflower seed like mad. I also had cracked sunflower that no one was touching. I cleaned the feeders and now no one touches the black sunflower and everyone eats the cracked sunflower.

At the thistle feeder it used to be standing room only. There were consistently 5-10 birds on at a time. Now, a fraction of that.

So I'm puzzled, any help or things to try is great.

I don't know much about feeders (what makes them attractive, or not) but what I can tell you is that last year was a really good "finch year" and this year most definitely is not. We had a big flood of Common Redpolls and Pine Siskins last year, and that's down to just about zero this year. It's nothing sinister, just that these species (at our latitudes) come in cycles.

Perhaps that would explain the low numbers at the thistle feeder, anyway.

Hi Jullman and a warm welcome to you from the entire staff here at BF :t:

How's the Hawk activity around you? I had a month where very little bird life due to a lot of Hawk activity.

Well, I recently started commuting to a new facility and it's more rural and I've definitely seen more hawks but I think it's because of the area. I have seen some beautiful Hawks though.

But I'd rather see birds at my bird feeder.

Thanks for the replies!!!

jullman76 said:

Well, I recently started commuting to a new facility and it's more rural and I've definitely seen more hawks but I think it's because of the area. I have seen some beautiful Hawks though.

But I'd rather see birds at my bird feeder.

Thanks for the replies!!!

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Yes, as KC says, if your feeder birds see hawks in the neighborhood, they will be looking for safer places to eat, and come back when the hawk takes up a new territory. (This is of course depending on the kind of hawk.)

A hawk can get an easy meal from little birds that notably congregate around feeders. I'd suggest emptying the feeders for a few weeks, then refilling them.

Also, maybe the fact that you clean the feeders in the dishwasher might deter the birds... there may still be soap on the feeders.

I don't know anything about "back yard" bird feeding on your side of the pond but my garden bird feeder activity dropped off dramatically when the new family next door brought home a couple of cats. Could that be a factor ?

The tits, finches, et al, were happy with our dog "patrolling" the garden and seemed to understand that he didn't pose a threat. That said, he kept the number of pigeons and squirrels (greys) low.

I must have a bunch of not so smart birds at our feeders. We have almost daily visits from the hawks. The red tails will perch about 70 yards away and watch. I have never seen them come in to the feeders. The Coopers on the other hand have landed many times on my deck or in the weeping cherry trees that are right in the feeder area. I look every day for evidence of kills. Only twice have I seen evidence, a morning dove and a junco. I also have watched the Coopers fly straight into a thick shrub and come out empty handed. With in minutes of the hawk departing, usually me chasing it away, the birds start to return. I feed 300-400 birds a day.
These hawks have been around the property for the 15 years that I have lived here. I just started to feed wild birds in Oct. 2013. I don't think these hawks will leave if I take the feeders down.