Bird War and Peace

[Daisy]

I have fed the garden birds for years, but just recently have moved the ground feeding place to where we can see them from the kitchen.

I've noticed the small birds on the feeders go quietly about things - finches, tits, even starlings seem to wait for one to finish before they fly in. But the ground feeders are a different kettle of fish (to mix the metaphors)

I put out sunflower hearts and peanuts regularly throughout the day so there is never any left by the end of the day.

We seem to have about 4 male blackbirds who will do anything to chase each other off, and two females who are just as bad. The pigeons appear out of nowhere as soon as the food goes down and there's lots of flapping about while they squabble among themselves. They all seem to be bad tempered and aggressive to their own breeds. The two male robins seem far less territorial but don't share.

On the other hand, the pair of collared doves happily share a small pile of seeds, no problem, and the little pied wagtails flit around pecking up whatever they can find out in the open.

The big surprise is the jackdaws though. I've always seen them as groups of sulky teenagers who would hang around the feeders scaring off the little song birds. But with more space and food on an old garden table, they fly in quite gently, carefully take 1 or 2 peanuts in their beaks and fly off again to eat them. They tolerate each other and ignore other species - they've definitely gone up in my estimation for good manners.

[Nanto2girls]

We have battles between robins and blackbirds.
When the starlings show up,all the other birds are off in the blink of an eye.
Last week we brought a packet of fishfingers from dads.
They were in the freezer but the box was open.
Hubby cut them up and put them out raw.The birds went crazy over them, didn't last 5 minutes.
I expected every cat from the estate to come sniffing, but the birds didn't give them a chance.

[Gemini]

The pigeons seem to dominate our garden, which annoys OH. She keeps devising feeders which prevent them from hopping on. They are happy with what falls to the ground though! I call them drama queens as when I walk into the garden nowhere near them, they dramatically flap around and rise up.
My OH says the sunflower hearts are really popular Daisy.
A squirrel seems to think the food is for it as well.

Fishfingers Nan2, I would never have thought of that.

[Daisy]

Nanto - we'd probably get every seagull within a hundred miles after fish fingers! I'm sure the birds in your garden thought they were a feast. We don't get as many starlings as we used to, and the thrushes seem to have disappeared.

Gem - yes, the sunflower hearts are popular with our feathery visitors, and the pesky squirrels. Two came together yesterday - both looking sleek and well fed with really bush tails. They've obviously got one of our neighbours well-trained because both Eva and I chase them off! Very slim pickings for them here, but it doesn't seem to stop them hoping.

We do get a lot of pigeons and they do make a great big flap. I don't mind them though.

[Oma]

We get birds different time of day
Smaller birds like Tits Robins etc early morning ,
Then Pigeons and then the bully boy Magpies come screaming in .
Not only do they chase the other birds but any cat around .
Such a noise and not afraid of anything ,

[Plantaholic]

Considering we back onto woodland, we get very few birds. Blue tits, great tits and a couple of male robins have been on the bird feeder. The pigeons feed on the bits that drop. Huge black coloured birds drop in sometimes. the squirrels are a nuisance, they had taken the lid off a bucket of fat balls I had foolishly left outside the patio door under cover.

[Grauntie Mag]

Next door has a line of tall conifers and it seems pigeons and magpies nest there. I have two bird feeding stations which I had hoped would encourage small birds. Some do come but it’s mainly the big jobs. We do have a green woodpecker who visits regularly to dig up the lawn. A neighbour over the back cannot resist feeding the seagulls even though we are asked not to. I hope they cr*p on her windows as much as they do on mine. 😬

[Daisy]

Grauntie - the seagulls can be a real problem. We only get them occasionally - usually when there's bad weather on the coast. They are so noisy and frighten other birds. To say nothing of the mess they seem to make.

[Plantaholic]

No seagulls here, too far from the coast but we do have Red Kites soaring around on the thermals but only come down for food, they must have amazing eyesight. A neighbour puts food out at times and there will be about 10 arrive, they fold back their wings and dive like an arrow. We are not supposed to feed them.