Robins

Hi Sea Harrier. Robins, although they sometimes use feeders, mostly forage on the ground. They will eat seed, but are primarily insectivores. Robins are keen on suet pellets. I have found that most birds seem to favour the softer variety. Wilko sell decent suet pellets at a reasonable price. Sparrows can overpower Robins through sheer numbers, so maybe leave a few suet pellets on the ground. Figure out where your Robin perches. It will have one or two favourite spots, probably a foot or two from the ground, maybe tucked away in a bush. Leave a few suet pellets near one of these spots. That might help. As far as Niger seed goes, it is a favourite of Goldfinches.

If you really want to give your Robin a treat, try getting live mealworms or wax worms. Failing that, dig over an area of soil and your Robin will soon find tasty little morsels running around. Good luck.

Hello Sea Harrier and welcome from me up in the very far north of Scotland, in Caithness. You have had very good advice from Paul (MC).  An overflow of sparrows and starlings will keep some of the other birds away. Robins love suet and mealies, dried or live, if you can handle the live ones. Keep a look out and see where he likes to perch and throw some on the ground there. Maybe you could move the feeders away to another area to give him a chance, over time they can get quite tamed and keep feeding from you. I have Goldfinches, Siskins, chaffinch that will take the Niger seed. Give it time and I am sure you will have lots of visitors. Something you could try if you like, is to make home made pastry. It is quite simple, buy shops own brand plain flour and marg, mix half the quantity of marg to flour and add seed, chopped dried fruit, suet, grated cheese, chopped peanuts. Mix this with a splash of water and keep the pastry in the fridge for a while to firm up. You can then shape and put into any type of mesh feerder, coconut shell or home made pots, you could also pull pieces off and squeeze around branches. Sit back and wait, once the birds find it, you will be making more! Good luck.

If you want to see pictures or read more about the pastry, at the top right of the screen, in the white box above chat/about, type Hazel' pastry or home made pastry and you will see lots of posts to give you ideas.

Hi monkeycheese & Catlady, Thanks for the advice. I’ve found that Starlings used to visit when they could get at the mealworms and suet coconut but since those went into a cage it’s just the sparrows there. I’ve never seen Robins go near the mealworms, maybe because they’re in the cage? Anyway, I placed the let’s call it Robin food away from where the sparrows gather; maybe I’ll try lowering the feeders for Rob, see if that helps.

Apart from the shop bought Robin feed I’ve also put a mixture of crushed peanuts, dried mealworms, sunflower hearts and bits of apple in another feeder. That was only the last day or two so it’s probably too early to tell if it’ll work.

I’ll keep a look out for where Robin comes and goes and try some suet on the ground too.

The Niger seed I’m afraid has been ignored for months, though I have refreshed it from time to time.

As for making pastry Catlady, I get the recipe book out to boil an egg :)  Maybe my other half can give that a go.

I know it’s a waiting game but I’ve never been very good at that. Fingers crossed.

Just another thought SH, do you have some trees, shrubs, bushes in the garden, any kind of cover? The birds like to have places to fly back and forth to when feeding, to flee any intrusion from bigger birds or predators, or the tits like to take food and fly to a branch to eat it. If you feed them they will come back, so maybe just some patience. Good luck.

Thanks Catlady. Some time ago we went for a low maintenance garden (age & health reasons) but there are still some shrubs and other planted areas, and the railway embankment just over the fence provides more cover which the sparrows use regularly. There's also some big trees close by so it seems the birds know where they can get cover. Only this morning I hung the Robin feeder lower in the hope that if they're on the ground they'll find it. Watching & waiting ;)

Lynn L said:

buy shops own brand plain flour and marg, mix half the quantity of marg to flour

Agree that home-made pastry is well appreciated by all the birds CL but not recommended that margarine should be used as any oils included in the blend could transfer to flight feathers when preened  ... this from RSPB advice on feeding wild birds ...

**Polyunsaturated margarines or vegetable oils. These are unsuitable for birds**

Only use pure lard with plain flour & no salt ... 

Just another thought:

What's the best height to hang a feeder if Robins are to use it? The ones I have that the sparrows like are at about 5-6ft, but I'm thinking for a ground feeder like Robins maybe 2-3ft might be better.

Thoughts anyone?

PS: heading to Wilko's tomorrow ;)

WendyBartter said:

buy shops own brand plain flour and marg, mix half the quantity of marg to flour

Agree that home-made pastry is well appreciated by all the birds CL but not recommended that margarine should be used as any oils included in the blend could transfer to flight feathers when preened  ... this from RSPB advice on feeding wild birds ...

**Polyunsaturated margarines or vegetable oils. These are unsuitable for birds**

Only use pure lard with plain flour & no salt ... 

[/quote]

Thank you Wendy for pointing out my stupid mistake, don't know why I even said margarine, when I knew it should be FAT/LARD. 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Thought it was just a typo CL but didn't want newbie Sea Harrier to be misled!

Welcome SH, sure you'll find lots of affordable stuff at Wilko's, my garden Robin much prefers feeding on the ground but I put his waxworms in a guardian feeder to stop Starlings from scoffing the lot!

Thanks to everyone for the advice. Like I said, a visit to Wilko's todays to stock up (seems cheaper than my usual supplier) then it'll be wait & see.

I guess that if I get lots of variety (feeds) I may have to invest in another cage to stop those gannets aka Starlings stealing the lot.

Thanks again all :)