Hello, I have just joined this forum as I am new to birdwatching.
We have been feeding the birds in our garden for the last few months. It started when we had a regular Robin coming to visit us and watching us dig up the ground, so we put up a feeder in the tree and we were regularly getting Robins and Blue Tits. We enjoyed this so much we bought some more feeders for the tree and started attracting lots of Blackbirds, Rooks and Pigeons. We bought different feeders specifically for small birds and this worked but now they have been taken over by Sparrows. We looked at ways to attract the Blue Tits and Robins back as they seem to have been scared off, so we bought lots of mealworms. All of the mealworms have gone overnight, I assume early this morning and I haven’t seen any other bird except sparrows. The tree with the feeders is in between two big bushes and I can see that the sparrows are obviously feeding some babies as they constantly fly in and out of the bushes and our roof, there must be about 30 of them. I don’t have anything against sparrows, obviously, but they are not as pretty as the other birds. Is there anything I can do to bring back the Blue Tits and Robins? Also, they are eating everything very quickly the fat balls seeds and mealworms is this ok? Thank you!
Hi Melody, I too had a large population of house Sparrows coming to my feeders but was pleased to see them as they are in decline and on UK red list ... I realise that they are not so brightly coloured as Robins and Great Tits but they do need the help ... some info here
rspb.org.uk/.../issues-facing-birds
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Hi Wendy, thank you for your reply. I didn’t know that about sparrows, they definitely aren’t in decline in our garden! They are house sparrows not tree sparrows. I’ve been watching the birds today and I can’t believe how much the sparrows eat! Non-stop! Is this ok? I hope it’s not bad for them. When we move things around the sparrows fly off, and when we go inside there is about a minute before they come back. In that minute the Blue Tits and Robins come back, but as soon as the sparrows return, they fly off again. Are they scared of sparrows?
Also just noticed the the mealworms are all being eaten by the Starlings! Can I put a reserved sign up for the pretty little ones?
Know what you mean about the Starlings being greedy but that is another species in decline! If you want mealworms to go to smaller birds then you will have to invest in some kind of guardian feeder!
I’ve changed where I put the mealworms so the starlings are dropping loads when they feed and then the sparrows are eating them off the ground so that seems to ensure they all have some. Still waiting for the robins and blue tits to come back.