Hi Scottish Robin welcome to the community.
I had the same problem as you a few years ago in my case it was the Goldfinches making a mess and wasting food, I tried buying smaller hearts thinking the wouldn't waste as much but in the end I had to put trays under each feeder where some birds will some of the dropped seed.
Greenfinches, Chaffinches and Bullfinches will eat the black sunflower seeds, so will eat these from a table rather than a hanging feeder, so if you have room n your garden you could try a big table or a few smaller ones.
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In reply to Alan:
ta for that :) I'm not keen to encourage the finches into the table and a hanging tray that I've got, as when the feeders have emptied before they've ended up on both of those and demolished everything in their wake, leaving nothing for the tits or robins :/ at the moment they're much happier on the feeders than the table/hanging tray, I suspect because the table is a covered one with sides and guardians covering it and the tray has a guardian over it (to stop the pigeons, magpies and squirrels) and I think they prefer to eat where they've got more visibility.
Re
In reply to Scottish_Robin:
Sorry I cannot help, but I sincerely empathise with your situation. I myself have a 'resident' fat wood pigeon who bullies all other birds (save the crow, and instead cowers in fear :-)) from under my seed feeder as if he lives here. Also, my tits and nuthatches are extremely wasteful too on the seed feeders, chucking out seed randomly. But then again, I mix both black and sunflower heart varieties in two big feeders, so expect they're looking for what they want. I suspect the small birds get used to being so well fed and get complacent. It's a nuisance and frustrating, so sometimes I am not so diligent filling them. If they see an empty feeder I let it remain so, for they'll survive on the other food provided. (Yes, it's hard to do, but the more I bend over backward to accommodate the birds, the more frustrating it is to see them feeding a pigeon). Also, my birds have changed from frantically feeding to all hoarding and hiding food all over the garden.....The behaviour seems natural though, wild though they may be, they grow comfortable seeing filled tubes of free seed.
It's not so bad I agree since the seed is still being eaten, though mine feeds a mammoth pigeon (I know their lives are wild and hard, but they don't even bother looking for wild seed anymore like they're pets). Now I put sunflower hearts on the pigeon proofed ground table (not too much), and this is gets cleared by all the seed eating birds. This may a better way to provide seed to them and others who can't access it since the pigeon permanently lives under the feeder. I find the birds prefer to come to the ground table too and if you don't mind your birds mixing, increase seed fed there and your feeders won't empty/be wasted so quickly. And leave a pigeon a bit famished too.