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No tits! :( (1 Viewer)

V

vinnielo

Well-known member
I've been regularly feeding tits since around 1994. Every year, some'd return and feed from there.
I've been away for university and have not had the chance to feed them.
I've now graduated and returned to the feeding. I've got my usual mesh nutfeeder hanged up at my table, but have not been able to attract any birds at all! I've seen the tits around, as they're frequently at a tree/bush overhanging my table.

One problem I've noticed is that there have beeen a lack of bushes since my next door neighbour started hacking at them, and virtually destroyed them all.

Either that is the problem, or perhaps this "generation" of tits don't have the concept of eating "nuts", since no other birds have been able to teach them in previous years when the feeder hadn't been put up.

Should I try moving the table elsewhere?
 
Hi,

All of the reasons that you mention sound possible, but another possibility is that your Tits don't like peanuts any more.

In years gone by, hanging peanuts used to be popular in my garden, but now nothing will touch them. You could try sunflower hearts instead, which seem to be much more acceptable these days....

BTW... Just noticed that this your first post - welcome to Birdforum and hope you enjoy yourself...


Rgds... Ruby
 
Hi Vinnielo,

Welcome to Birdforum.

I think that the bushes may have something to do with it, ours seem to have a sit in the bushes and then go to the feeder but return to the bush to eat.
I agree with Ruby about the peanuts, very rarely do ours eat the peanuts they much prefer the sunflower hearts (don't get the whole enclosed sunflower) and the next thing for them is fat balls.
 
Hi vinnielo and welcome to BirdForum.

If the tits come to the tree overhanging your bird table, it's unlikely that the disappearance of your neighbour's bushes is a factor. Much more likely that they don't like the nuts. I have the same problem as you. The birds in my present garden won't touch peanuts (I'm assuming these are the nuts you mean). Where do you buy yours? If you're going to offer peanuts I'd get ones fit for human consumption from a healthfood shop or similar source (unsalted of course). They have more oil than ones sold in pet shops. The latter can be so poor that for the birds its like chipping away at wood - and why would they bother to do that? (Answer: they don't!)

But, like I said, I don't have any luck with peanuts of any sort, so I agree with Ruby. Far better to offer sunflower seeds (preferably the hearts so you don't get the mess of discarded shells beneath your feeders). These are very oil rich. Within about a week of switching to these the number of birds visiting my garden had increased about fourfold.
 
My bluetits come to the peanut feeders, but they enjoy sunflower hearts and black sunflower seeds too. They also eat up a home made suet "treat" every two or three days - but best of all are the mealworms we provide.
 
Thanks for all your replies.
It looks like we've not kept up "with the times".

I remember years ago, only the great tits would touch the sunflower seeds. You would always find the bluetits at the PEAnut mesh feeder... except when I once had whole peanuts being given away by a dispenser.

I've also bought a pack of Robin feed - which contains dead insects and stuff. I've heard a robin sing in my garden, but I've not spotted it taking the food. Any ideas on that one?

Thanks for your welcomes.
I'll tell you a bit of interesting pasts:
1. I've never had nesting despite having a couple of nestboxes up. It's not like they weren't interested - I had the usual peckings and inspections, and even one year, saw one of them carry a twig in. Oh, well.
2. I've had tits do weird displays on my window. They'd flew up, and rub their bellies against it. No usual putty pecking, though.
3. I've never had coal tits, finches or woodpeckers.

And a few beginners comments (not like you've never discussed them before!!)
1. Late summer starlings. Aren't they great? You throw out a few pieces of broken up bed, and a whole bunch come flying in. A really noticeable noisy crowd! The sparrows would then join them.
2. Woodpigeons. Cor, they're greedy! You leave a dishful of mixed seeds, and they'd be all gone in 15 minutes!

I might give you some more, when I remember some more.
 
I would rather get some good quality seed that had a little bit of everything in than the ones for a specific type of bird - I once got one of these and next to no one touched it ! Our robin prefers to stay on the ground most of the time, but he did jump on one of the Sunflower heart feeders the other day and got some.

Why not put a dish on the floor near the table, with some of your mix in, some chopped up Sultanas (I get mine from the home baking section of Morrisons about 50p for a pound.) and some grated cheese (end bits that have gone hard). This might get them a bit more interested.

But as we have all said so far you can't beat sunflower hearts they are more expensive to buy, but you have no waste and any dropped bits from the feeders are normally cleared up by the ground feeding birds.
 
Isn't it amazing how things vary from one part of the country to another? I'm here in SE Kent and I'm buying (shelled) peanuts from the RSPB at quite a rate. So much so that I've now bought a 20kg bag from CJ and saved quite a bit over two 10kg bags. I reckon it will last me to about the turn of the year at the current rate they're eating them !! And it definitely isn't squirrels that are getting to them.

Birds that mostly eat the peanuts - there are two feeders in the garden - are the blue and great tits first, sparrows second and then the starlings. This year I've had a lot of young blue tits visit regularly almost from the moment they could first fly. They've been there from early morning until late evening, flying between the feeders as the mood takes them. It's almost a rare event NOT to see tits on the peanut feeders these days.

So I wonder why should they be happy here with the peanuts and not touch them somewhere else? Is it that they get used to what's available and just go with it or do their tastes get a bit "sophisticated"? Do they like the taste of the sunflower hearts and the fact that they don't have to work to hard at getting them and then won't go back to the peanuts where may be it's more of a trial to get to them?

I do have a seed mixture, also from the RSPB, and that goes in a feeder and on the tables and there's almost a queue to get to them. But it's always the tits that get there first though it's only a touch down, grab a seed and take it away to eat!

I was thinking about sunflower hearts as a change but if it's going to result in maybe a change in eating habits altogether, then I'm not to sure.
 
Hi Bob. Yes it is strange and I don't pretend to have an answer. If your birds are happy there's no reason to change your habits, but you could always get an extra feeder for the sunflower hearts and see what happens! Could be interesting. Could be expensive too, though. At this time of year the birds in my garden get through a 20kg bag in about a month!
 
Hi Bob,

Yes, it is strange...

In the case of my own garden, I used to offer wild bird mixture etc on the bird table and peanuts in the feeder. Despite the fact that there were quite a lot of birds coming to be fed, the peanuts were ignored and I ended up just throwing them away as they became old and skanky.

After a while, I gave up and offered sunflower seeds and hearts instead and the birds really took to them. It wasn't a question of there being peanuts and sunflowers on offer at the same time and the birds preferring the sunflowers.... they just didn't like the peanuts at all.

I now just offer sunflower hearts, which I buy in 20kg sacks, which (like Jason) don't last more than a few weeks.

Can't really understand this, as peanuts used to be pretty popular here and when I visit down to Bough Beech reservoir (only 15 miles or so away) the peanut feeders are always very crowded....

Absolutely no idea what it's all about....
 
I've wondered about this as well. Like Ruby, I had peanuts out and nothing went near them, so I tried seed mixes and sunflowers and the birds love them. I suppose part of it could be the fact that most birds don't just feed from one garden, so if they've got a taste for sunflowers in other people's gardens nearby, they're not going to go for the peanuts in other gardens. My mother and I live half a mile apart, and she still gets lots of birds to her peanuts, in fact more than visit her seed mix in a holder. Very strange.
 
vinnielo said:
3. I've never had coal tits, finches or woodpeckers.
Click to expand...

Vinnielo, a year ago I also had never had any of these birds in my garden, which is in the middle of a town, with no large trees in it or in nearby gardens. I introduced a niger feeder and sunflower hearts and very soon (within a couple of weeks) I was having goldfinches visit. I also occasionally had siskin come to this. Over the winter, greenfinches started to come regularly, and in fact, they continued right through the summer till a few weeks ago (I think they're on their holidays now, but I expect them back soon). I also started to feed a ground blend, from CJ foods, which brought in song thrushes (plus many more blackbirds, dunnocks and robins). I also bought one of those logs with fat in, which I refilled with my own mixture of suet etc. once it was empty and one glorious day last November I saw a great spotted woodpecker feeding from this. Totally unexpected.

Anyway, the thing I learnt from all this is that the greater variety of food you provide for the birds, the greater variety of birds you will have coming to your garden.
 
Vinneilo, i have bought one of those robin insect mixes. they seem to have taken to it! they were shy, but now come on the bird table (out front) and have seen them in back garden too now!(house 4 years old). also had a CHIFFCHAFF out the back this morning! had one or two out the front (copse and hedgerow) but never back! seed mixes are going fast, especially with tits and greenfinches. nuts are loved here!!, and saw a GSW on once recently! dunnocks, sparrows and countless starlings soon ( i live in kent)
 
Last week I caught a very fleeting glance of what was either a Marsh or Willow Tit as it grabbed a sunflower heart from the bird table and flew off. A first for my garden. Today I was thrilled to see it again, and able to get a good, long look for several minutes through the binoculars, even though it was only about 10 feet from the window. It spent a good few minutes on the sunflower heart feeder, then the peanuts, went away, then came back again. It was definitely a Marsh Tit. Really shiny cap, tiny bib |:d|
 
Time of year

Bluetail said:
I'm jealous, Songbird! I love Marsh Tits and would be over the moon if one appeared in the garden.
Click to expand...

One factor which is also worth considering is the time of year. In the first place, I don't start putting food out until October here and the the first chilly nights, when insects are starting to die or hibernate. At present we are having great flocks of up to twenty mixed tits coming through the garden and the park opposite - yesterday for the first time this autumn I noted there several Long-tailed tits in with the Blues and Greats. They seem very happy foraging in all the trees, staying a long time and apparently feeding well.
As to interesting garden birds, one of our local pairs of Black Redstarts was around this morning as I went to the market at 6.30 - the male singing. And there was a large flock of Tree Sparrows in a garden just up the road, which is always nice to see, too.
Best
David
 
Hello Everyone,

Re the peanuts - when I supplied peanut feeders along with sunflower seed feeders the peanuts would remain untouched until I took to breaking them up - first with a mallet then in the foodmixer (that lay untouched for years in a kitchen cupboard!). They now disappear as fast as the sunflowers. I think the birds just prefer 'fast food' rather than having to work at it. They can 'hit and run' on the granules.

Having said that - the biggest glutton is the woodpecker - who parks up and munches for ages!!

I also use suet cakes in a guardian so only the little guys can get at it - and this has been the best purchase I've ever made. All the tits visit. The robins and even a dunnock also 'sussed it out'. The gold crest has just returned - he twirls around the edges picking up debris. Male and female black cap have also been guests. But best of all are the long tailed tits who all crowd inside - well they did until they disappeared to breed and I'm anxiously watching for their reappearance. When will that be - anyone know?

Margaret
 
Sadly, I have yet to have had a single bird make a visit to the feeders, despite a relocation of the table to a larger area of my garden.

I've now also hung up the robin mix feeder after discovering the mix would be totally gobbled up by something overnight. (Squirrels? Pigeons?)

I'm not too sure what I can try now. I'll probably shake off some robin mix from the feeder so it doesn't get messy after the amount of rain we've had recently.
 
vinnielo said:
I've now also hung up the robin mix feeder after discovering the mix would be totally gobbled up by something overnight. (Squirrels? Pigeons?)
Click to expand...

More like rats or mice I think! Or do you have foxes coming into the garden?
 
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