Wild Bird Food

[Coldicote]

I occasionally buy groceries on line for home delivery. Recently I had a packet of cornflakes much bigger than I had intended and decided to use some for bird food. The birds won't even look at it. I put out a few cut up crusts with it on a bird table. The crusts all disappeared but not the cornflakes. I would have thought birds would relish cornflakes but they don't want to know. Can anyone suggest why?

[squarebear]

Did you leave them some milk and sugar out too?

[McMouse]

Our garden birds don't like anything from Tesco.

[ethandron]

i used to buy a mixed seed to feed the birds, which contained flakes similar to cornflakes, and they were always the last to get eaten. i now only buy sunflower hearts for them which get eaten almost as soon as i fill the feeders.
at this time of year there's plenty of natural food around for the birds - berries, apples, etc. - but during the depths of winter they will eventually eat cornflakes when there's nothing else.

[alexanderd]

there is more nutrition in the box than in the cornflakes, put that out instead

[ttfn]

Coldicote - some days aren't you glad you asked? I have no idea why the birds don't like the raw cornflakes but I have on occasion put out homemade flapjacks with the cornflakes as an ingredient - no doubt the fat and coconut etc makes it more palatable for the birds (FLAPjacks - no intended pun sorry)

[Coldicote]

Thanks everyone. No harm in having a less serious subject occasionally, but I still wonder what's 'wrong' with cornflakes that birds won't eat them. I would have thought a corn product would be attractive to them. Somehow I'm feeling a little less enthusiastic about breakfast. Regards, Coldi.

[theparrots]

they have to be kellogs or they wont touch them,but joking apart ive found the blackbirds do like porrige in winter.

[ethandron]

birds are very specific in their feeding habits. change the sort of stuff you put out and you'll change the sorts of birds you get in the garden. have a look at the rspb website if you're interested in attracting birds to your garden.

[Prudie]

At a guess I would say unless they get soggy with rain then cornflakes are too hard and sharp for birds to take in.

[EcclesCake]

We get a lovely range of birds in our garden and have gone through a whole array of different feeds, fat balls, niger seed, sunflower hearts, peanuts, mixed feed. The only thing that gets eaten by the birds is the sunflower hearts - bloody squirrels eat the rest!

[ethandron]

here you go, advice from the experts:
http://www.rspb.org.u...g/whatfood/index.aspx

[Coldicote]

A lot of interesting answers here. Thank you.

[pusskin]

birds in my garden love cooked plain rice. it never ever goes to waste, and they love it!