Hi, does anyone have any experience with putting bird feeders in their garden? Do the birds actually know what to do? I’ve heard people say that no birds come to eat from them as they don’t know what to do. I want to start encouraging the birds. My mother in law throws stale rice out for the sparrows and they all wait around the time she throws it out. What are the first steps to encouraging birds?
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Birds are pretty smart, so it’s simply an issue of putting it in a visible spot and waiting.
I made one and a bird bath. The birds love both.
Do some research to see what kind of birds are in your area, and what the kind you want to attract eats. I’m guessing that you don’t want crows or pigeons in your garden…
A few years ago, after putting out mikans for the mejiros every spring, I decided to make a proper bird feeder for our small garden.
However, the project never got off the ground, because I couldn’t find birdseed for wild birds. I found what looked like millet, which I put outside, and the sparrows loved it, although it took them a day or so to find it. However, none of the other local birds (jobitakis, yamabatos, ishitatakis, shijuukaras) seemed interested.
I’ll put out mikans again next spring for the few weeks the mejiros are here.
Has anybody tried installing Nesting Boxes for birds or bats?
get a clear plastic tube feeder and fill it with hulled sunflower seed. hang it somewhere off the ground (they sell poles for this also). the birds will figure it out, maybe not immediately but eventually. the advantage of using a tube feeder is that only small birds (like songbirds) will be able to use it; crows, etc. will be too big to feed from it. if you keep the feeder filled consistently, you will get a steady population of birds coming to visit it.
p.s. using hulled sunflower seed is ideal because the birds will eat all of it, even anything that falls on the ground. cheaper blends will have things like millet in them that songbirds may not eat and will just end up wasted on the ground
experience: i used to own a store that sold bird feeders and seed
Bought a small, plastic house-shaped hanging bird feeder (w/a rail around the outer edge for the birds to sit on while feeding) from Amazon a few years ago and we fill it with kuzumai (which has the advantage not producing seedlings and weeds from the spillover). The sparrows love it and if you get a feeder that’s small enough, the crows won’t be able to make use of it.
I have multiple bird feeders , but have to be careful because the neighborhood cats are too smart. Get the wild bird seed at our local home center .
Horrible thing coming home to a murder scene that may have been prevented if you’d just not made it so easy.
I put a birdhouse in ours a few years ago. I didn’t keep close enough attention on it one year (birds mostly ignored it) and discovered too late that a wasps nest with dozens of wasps had taken hold (thankfully not suzumebachi). Had to go out there one night in the summer wrapped head to toe and take care of it with one of those bazooka things, then dispose of it.
Not saying that this will happen, but you do have to keep close tabs on them once they are up.