Are chaffinches a bit thick ? (4 Viewers)

[EK_Birds]

Morning everyone

Question/observation for you all.

I have my feeders hanging inside one of those cages you see at filling stations for gas canisters. Feeders are suspended from the roof on carabiner clips and I have two long trays suspended approximately 18 inches below the feeders to catch any seed and stop it from laying on the slabs below.

I also have some wire mesh round the outside of the cage as we had a couple of visits from a rat, who seems to have disappeared again following the introduction of the mesh and some peppermint oil spray.

We have some chaffinches who visit every single day at the same time as the goldfinch horde. Before the changes above, the chaffinches would fly inside and land on the slabs hoovering up some of the mess. Since I added the mesh, they obviously can't get in through the bottom holes, but could easily fly in at either the top or further down and then land on these trays. Not a single chaffinch has done this so far, despite the fact they see the goldies, various tits, bullfinches, robin etc all flying in and out and feeding no problem.

The setup has been this way for about 4-6 weeks, and I would have thought they would have sussed it out by now.

Does anyone have any experience of a similar situation at all ?

 

[EK_Birds]

2 weeks on and the chaffinches still haven't gone back inside the cage, either to the feeders or the trays catching the dropped seed underneath.

All the other birds are feeding as normal 😂

 

[EK_Birds]

Chaffinches are finally using the trays under the feeder.

Based on this, I fully expect the apocalypse to begin shortly 😂

 

[wolfbirder]

Its an interesting comparison.

I recall seeing House Sparrows hovering in front of my car windscreen when we were eating sandwiches, expecting us to share them, which we did. Clever little things i thought!