Hi Shelley, it's difficult to say for certain without a photo or idea of your garden area as to why the smaller birds are not frequenting your feeders even though you've done the correct thing in trying to reposition the feeding station elsewhere. I have my feeding stations about 8 - 10ft away from fences, shrubs, etc., but not too far out in the open as birds like to have somewhere to dive into should danger present itself; the reason for the 8-10ft distance (or around 3 metres) from fence lines or shrubs/trees, etc., is to prevent any would be cats or other predators from reaching the feeders and birds. As for bird food, I find on the whole that the sunflower hearts are the seeds of choice for a lot of birds and also suet pellets which you have already supplied. You can try kibbled peanuts too which go down well with the birds and a lot of us on the forum make homemade raw pastry (no salt) just by mixing plain flour with lard, binding with a little water and adding a few seed and suet pellets to it or even some grated mild cheddar cheese which a lot of birds like. Just ensure the raw pastry is not too sticky; you can place bits of the uncooked pastry on the twigs and also place it inside a fat-cake or fat-ball feeder.
I tend to avoid buying mixed seed which has wheat in it as birds tend not to eat the wheat and it is discarded by them making a mess on the ground. Sometimes it proves more economical to buy the no-mess seed mix which all gets consumed. Its lovely that you are providing a feeding station for the birds and hope that in the near future your feeders are full of the smaller birds. Good luck.
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Regards, Hazel
I wonder if it could be a bit late in the season to attract birds to new feeders, as they are starting to think about their nesting territories, and relying on food sources they already know. Perhaps just put one seed feeder out for now, and when birds have young to feed, they may start to look for new food sources. As more birds start to appear, then you can increase the feed.
Hi Shelley,
I would recommend purchasing a Bird Feeding Station and hanging up all different types of bird feed. See what bird feed attracts certain birds and then remove the feed that attracts the birds you wouldn't like. It sounds like a long process but its really interesting and and surprisingly enjoyable!
You can read a really good article here on the the top 3 Bird Feeding Stations here, they've given a variety of choice depending on your specific needs;
thebirdfeedingstation.co.uk/.../the-top-3-best-bird-feeding-stations-you-can-buy-for-your-garden-in-2016