My Peanut Feeder is left now untouched by birds

Question

Hi there 
 Has anyone noticed that whole peanuts are not the in thing for birds now (other than Great Spotted woodpeckers and Squirrels) 
 I have got to the point I feel I do not want to refill the Peanut feeder at the nesxt house 
 Any else noticed the same thing? 
 Regards 
 Kathy and Dave

Dunnock · Accepted Answer

A few months ago I would have said the same. I was having to empty out mouldy peanuts on a regular basis. However, in the cold winter the starlings took to them so I left them out. They are now finished off regularly by jackdaws, starlings, GS Woodpeckers and occasional greenfinchesand LT Tits. Some young birds have recently had a try as well. They are, of course, in a protected wire net feeder so the birds can't get them out whole. They have to nibble out bits with the end of their beaks. I certainly think they're worth trying for a while. You might get some interesting peanut lovers at your new place.

Am · Answer

I have to say we don't bother with peanut feeders any more. It was months and months of never being touched. Same with the suet balls (though the suetblocks were always another matter). The only one who tries to get the peanuts is the squirrel -he's welcome to them but it would mean leaving them out whole and I dont want birds suddenly trying to eat them whole! o.O

Hunnymonsta · Answer

This might sound a little daft (or maybe a lot daft, come to think of it!) but has anyone given any thought to the possibility that birds may be avoiding feeders because they think they are dangerous? 
 I happened to glance out of my kitchen window this morning to see if the swifts were still around and I noticed a gang of bluetits taking berries from the bushes. All well and good there... but they were also hanging onto the outlet vents of the central heating flues on the wall of the property opposite. 
 Now, while a blast of heat from one of these things firing up would likely scorch a few feathers and leave a small bird with a lasting fear of small, cage-like objects, there is also the possibility of the unlucky few actually being blinded. And a blind bird is a dead bird, right? 
 I don't know if you've ever accidentally come into contact with one of these outlets? The gases that they pass off are extremely hot. And the problem that I see is that they are no longer - in our cost-cutting society - caged in if they are above a certain height. I'm not sure that hi-rise ones ever were as there have not been many small children floating about above ground level since HMG clamped down on E numbers. So, there has been a lot of time in which small birds could either be blinded by sticking their heads in to investigate for food, just as the heating fired up, or could get away with a burned backside and a resolution not to go near one of those things again. 
 And to a bird, one cage-like object probably looks just like any other. As far as I know, birds do not have the reasoning powers to consider the difference in location of the safe and the unsafe. 
 That'll be tuppence please.

Anne H · Answer

I think that the birds have common sense and know to avoid them. 
 The squirrels are having a whale of the time, but also eating my fat balls