Bird Behaviour (1 Viewer)

[Devillish1]

Good afternoon all and thank you for allowing me to be part of this very informative site.
I have a bit of a puzzle where my garden birds are concerned.
I have a large black lace tree in the garden and i hang suet pellets, mealworms and nuts in different feeders on this tree and the birds feed very well from all the feeders. I also have sunflower seeds that used to hang on this tree but i moved it to the other side of my small garden but now i have moved it there has not been one single bird feed from it that i have observed. Also i have a feeder with mealworms in another corner of the garden that hangs from a bird feeding station but again nothing seems to be attracted to the food on this station either. The tree is completely bare at the moment so the birds do not have any shelter from the tree so does anyone know why the birds will not choose to eat from the other side of the garden. I am a little bewildered.

 

[delia todd]

Hi Devillish and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators.

It could be a combination of things - they can take a while to settle down and trust a change, so you need to give it time. Also, following the bad weather, most of my birds have gone walk about so they're probably finding enough to eat in the wider countryside. The flocks of passerines are now splitting up and pairing off in the process of sorting out where they're going to nest for the summer, this changes things a bit.

I'm pretty sure they'll be back before too long.

I hope you enjoy your time here with us.

 

[Devillish1]

Hi Devillish and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators.

It could be a combination of things - they can take a while to settle down and trust a change, so you need to give it time. Also, following the bad weather, most of my birds have gone walk about so they're probably finding enough to eat in the wider countryside. The flocks of passerines are now splitting up and pairing off in the process of sorting out where they're going to nest for the summer, this changes things a bit.

I'm pretty sure they'll be back before too long.

I hope you enjoy your time here with us.

Thank you for such a quick reply and for the help your reply gave.
Its strange that all the food i put out i get only the same bird species even though the variety of food should attract a wider range of birds but i am happy with what i get. In the colder days the birds have flocked to the feeders on the tree and even taken food off a tray that i put down with food on for the blackbirds and anything else that chooses to feed from the ground and the feeders have almost been queuing up to take their turn to get on the feeders but non of them will feed from the empty feeders on the other side of the garden. That is what i find weird, very weird.

 

[KC Foggin]

I have no idea but I'm just going to jump in here and wish you a warm welcome to you
We're glad you found us and please join in wherever you like

 

[Devillish1]

I have no idea but I'm just going to jump in here and wish you a warm welcome to you
We're glad you found us and please join in wherever you like

Thank you so much you have made me feel very welcome and i think i am going to enjoy reading a great deal about birds from every corner of the world which is going to take quite some time and time i feel will be well spent. I am not good with faces and thumbs up so its all just pure words for me.

 

[Kits]

Welcome to Birdforum! I am sure that you will find lots to interest you here and I hope that you enjoy your visits.

It will be interesting to see if the birds use the feeders in the bare tree once its leaves appear.

 

[Devillish1]

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Welcome to Birdforum! I am sure that you will find lots to interest you here and I hope that you enjoy your visits.

It will be interesting to see if the birds use the feeders in the bare tree once its leaves appear.

Hi Kits,
The birds are very used to this tree as it has the regular feeders on all year round but it's the feeders that i have put around the garden that they are not interested in. I have 2 blue tit nests up and they have been up for a couple of years now and last year blue tits nested in the one box to my great delight. I have some wonderful photos of them carrying cotton wool in and feathers which i am going to print and frame of their ongoing activity but this year so far nothing so i spread the food out in different areas of the garden to attract them back to the nest but the blue tits are just coming into the garden taking the food off the tree and flying off. That was not the plan that i had planned!!

Welcome to Birdforum! I am sure that you will find lots to interest you here and I hope that you enjoy your visits.

It will be interesting to see if the birds use the feeders in the bare tree once its leaves appear.

 

[Kits]

Ah! I misunderstood! I thought you'd moved the feeders to a bare tree, but now I think you moved them to a feeding station? Is there any shelter near the feeding station? Birds do take a while to trust a new feeding set up. And they rarely do what you hope they'll do!

 

[Devillish1]

Ah! I misunderstood! I thought you'd moved the feeders to a bare tree, but now I think you moved them to a feeding station? Is there any shelter near the feeding station? Birds do take a while to trust a new feeding set up. And they rarely do what you hope they'll do!

There is a large bush right by the feeding station which quite a few birds take shelter in there and last year when i used the feeding station they used it like it was their last meal but since moving the food to the other tree and now moving some back to the feeding station they really are not interested. Time will tell and if they do not use it then i will admit defeat and put it all back on the tree.

 

[Fritz73]

Welcome to Birdforum

 

[Deb Burhinus]

There is a large bush right by the feeding station which quite a few birds take shelter in there and last year when i used the feeding station they used it like it was their last meal but since moving the food to the other tree and now moving some back to the feeding station they really are not interested. Time will tell and if they do not use it then i will admit defeat and put it all back on the tree.

Hi welcome to Birdforum

Delia made some good suggestions but just to add:

When I move my feeders around (to give the ground a rest) it takes a few days for the birds to start using the ones in a new location. I would also do regular cat checks to make sure there are no cats in your neighbours garden the other side of the fence that could be putting the birds off. Also make sure there are no cats lurking in your garden. As far as nestboxes, birds tend not to nest in environments where there are too many feeders or in too close proximity to them. Feeders attract predators like squirrels, cats, Sparrowhawks and Corvids/ie crows and Magpies. Birds aren’t daft, they will not try and brood chicks in a very high risk environment. It’s all a work in progress! 🙂

 

[DomG]

Hi,
Has anyone noticed this behaviour at all. I certainly haven't but maybe I wasn't watching carefully enough. It's a follow on from the feeder discussion actually. I have several feeders at one end of the garden. At the mo I'm just dispensing sunflower seeds and sunflower hearts. They are both popular with greenfinch, goldfinch, tits , siskin and parakeets (!!!!) while the dunnocks and woodpigeons are happy to sit underneath to hoover up the spills. The other day I noticed a coal tit taking a seed, flying off and returning about 20 secs later. I remarked that he was a busy little soul and supposed he must have a nest full of chicks, but then I noticed that he wasn't actually leaving the garden. No, instead, he was flying down to the other end with his seed and planting it in the plantpots there. Each time it was to a different pot. Some have germinated now and started to emerge as plants. Is this common behaviour? Why would he do this? I can always do with help in the garden but, on balance I think I would like to choose what goes in!!!

 

[DomG]

This was the wrong forum wasn't it. I will repost in bird behaviour. Ta