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In a quandary with aggressive birds (1 Viewer)

Susiesue

Member
Hi all, can anyone give me some advice on my problem please?
When we moved to our present location in Ireland we had loads of blue tits, great tits and sparrows - house and tree. We very occasionally saw some goldfinches, greenfinches, bullfinches and the odd starling.
This year we find we're overwhelmed with green and gold finches (very aggressive and territorial) and hardly any sign of my beloved blue tits or great tits. Is it that the more aggressive birds are keeping the others away or should I be feeding something different? At the moment we feed general seed, niger seed, mealworms, fat balls and peanuts - along with grapes and apple for the blackbirds, doves and thrush.
Also keeping the tens of cats from around our estate is proving very difficult. Help!
:h?:
 
Hi Susiesue I've moved your post to the Garden Birds forum, as I think you're more likely to get the help you want.

For ideas on discouraging cats you may want to read the Sticky thread, which you'll see at the top of the forum.

I've subscribed you to this thread so you can find it easily.
 
Hi Susiesue I am a keen allotmenter and have experienced cat problems from that point of view, fouling mostly. I have had good success with the organic grit you can broadcast which smells like garlic, rather than the pepper stuff. I could give the best brand but I am a newbie and am not sure of the rules - Delia can I give the brand? It is not the cheapest solution, but I have found effective it does deminish with rain, but if you persevere it seems to break their habit of coming to that area so can be a longer term solution?
 
Hi Julie

In these circumstances (responding to a query) it is OK to give the name of the product.

We do not appreciate the owners of a service or product joining just in order to try and push their products.
 
Hi, I get a lot of Gold and a few Greenfinches on my feeders and they are aggressive to some of the smaller birds such as the different Tit species. However, I find that the smaller birds are not put off at all and generally zoom in, collect a sunflower heart and zoom out again. On the occasions when there are no free feeder holes available they utilise the food the finches don't touch such as Peanuts, Fatballs and Suet blocks. Also, the Gold and Greenfinches don't stat all the time, they visit somewhere else for a while and then return.

Dave
 
Hi Susiesue

It is called Growing Success Cat Repellent. It has mixed reviews on Amazon, but looks a bit like Marmite - you either love it or hate it! Might be work a try?
 
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