Lots of birds too little bird feeders....

[sue11]

We have moved from a house in a residential development to somewhere semi rural with larger grounds (had a deer run run across the grounds the other day, fantastic). We always fed the birds in our old house and although most were sparrows, we saw a lot of others such as gold finch, woodpecker, robins, bull finch etc.

In our new place, we have loads of blue tits, a few great tits, a couple of robins, but would like to try to encourage a few more different species. We have 5 bird feeders up, a small feeding tray on the pole and a fat ball feeder. We have these seperately filled with bird seed mix, peanuts, black sunflower hearts and suet in the tray, these are being emptied pretty quickly by the blue tits and great tits who are loving their new menu.
I tried niger seed and peanut nibs in two of the feeders, but the fussy so and so's turned their beaks up at them, so I have mixed these in with the bird seed. Has anyone any other suggestions of what food to try. I am reluctant to put out ground feeders in case it encourages rats and mice.
I can have a look at a wild bird site if someone can recommend a good one, but has anyone got any other suggestions?

Any suggestions?
Cheers Sue

[ladybirder]

Yep, here you are.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/

[sue11]

Many thanks ladybirder!
Sue

[rowanwitch]

niger in a proper feeder hang separately to attract goldfinches and siskins although they may take a while to realise it is there. a small log with holes drilled into it filled with suet feed block pressed into the holes and hung near the trunk of a tree for greater spotted woodpeckers, string cut up apple onto a length of wire and drape in a bush for thrushes starlings and blackbirds, a hanging mealworm feeder with soaked dried mealworms or live one for robins and dunnocks
I would put a little seed as far from the house as possible for the ground feeding birds though despite the rodent risk a mix of small seed and niger for chaffinches and bramblings

Suet pellets especially the ones with insects are popular..soaked dried fruit. and soaked dogbiscuits for the crows and magpies

[ethandron]

i bought some niger seed and the goldfinches didn't touch it. all i use now is sunflower hearts, i find the black sunflower seed husks which the birds don't eat make such a mess on the ground, same with the seed mix stuff. i get all sorts of birds at the sunflower hearts, including loads of goldfinches who love the sunflower hearts. if they're in your area, they'll appear. we also have 3 bullfinches who regularly visit the feeders which i'm delighted about as one died in the garden last year, along with a whole load of disappearing greenfinches, due to the virus which was rife. thankfully the greenfinches are also back but not in the huge numbers they were.
i also have a couple of peanut feeders, the mesh sort for whole peanuts, and during winter i put out fatballs and mealworms. i also buy smartprice sultanas and throw a couple of handfulls of them around under the feeders. if you have any apples in the house which are going soft and you won't eat, cut them in half and put them out, the blackbirds love them. again, during the winter i buy smartprice apples especially for the birds. i've put blackening bananas out too, which get a mixed reception but generally get eaten in the bad weather.
personally, i'm prepared to take the risk of a rat visiting and always put food on the ground for the ground feeding birds.
the rspb site is the best one for advice.

[nannybooby]

Mealworms are good by them here you get the bird seed (they aren't live )

[sue11]

Thankyou all for your further answers, we are considering trying niger seed again in a proper feeder, we have just bought sunflower hearts so will give those a go as well, I know birds like blackbirds love fruit, so the sultanas are a good idea. There is a very scruffy looking blackbird eating up the seed that has fallen on the ground, so hopefully he will start to look a bit healthier with a bit more food inside him.
I will start to implement some of the very good ideas given. Thanks once again.
Sue

[nungate]

You really need special feeders for the niger seed - it will eventually dawn on the finches that it is there - goldfinches really love it, and it can also attract siskins. Robins are very partial to sultanas or raisins - as are blackbirds. The birds will get used to you feeding them if you do it at a regular time of day - early mornings are probably best and once they are used to you, you never know what will happen, we used to have a robin greet us every morning, he would even come and take fruit from our outstretched hand - it's wonderful when wild thing comes to spend a little with you. Ground feeders like dunnocks etc prefer to eat from the ground and of you remove the feeding station in the evening you ought to be safe enough from rats or mice. Most important of all is that you keep the feeders scrupulously clean, birds can pick up lethal infections from dirty feeders.