Sunflower heart feeders, losing lots of hearts

Hi Welsh Viking,

That feeder above is the exact same feeder I have got, it does allow many more birds to feed with having twelve ports and I really like it. But its a good idea to stick a plant pot saucer on I will do that too, on mine, because I still loose quite a lot of seed from this one also, its worth a try if you can devise a way to fix it on securely!

Here we go Sharon, bought a universal 29cm plastic saucer from B&Q for £2.25 (link below), I then drilled a 3mm hole in the middle of the saucer and fitted a small length of broom handle with a screw which fits perfectly in the slot under the feeder. I then drilled a load of 2.5mm drain holes around the saucer to let the water drain if it rains.....Colin

http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garden-d-cor/pots-planters/external_pots/-specificproducttype-blue___green_pots/29cm-Universal-Saucer-Shallow-9297863?skuId=9307559

What a lovely lot of feeders - it must be quite a sight when all of the feeding ports are occupied!  Which birds do you get most of?

Last summer Clare i was getting 80+ Goldfinches around the various feeders (i have 18 feeders in total), this year so far i am getting 20+ Goldfinches, 15+ Chaffinches, Collared doves,  flocks of long tailed tits, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, Marsh or Willow tits (never sure which is which) and 6 redpolls which have been coming for a few weeks now. Also lots of house sparrows and a few starlings, the numbers of Greenfinches have dropped dramatically i was getting 5-6 last year but so far just the odd one appearing. The wagtails have just returned and i have a couple of robins here every morning along with a couple of dunnocks. Probably a few more breeds but at the moment my mind is blank...OLD AGE !!!

Hi Welsh Viking,

Thats a brilliant idea, solves all the problems with all the different types of feeders and trays not fitting because of wrong screw threads etc, with the ones you buy from the shops, thought about plant saucers before but could not think of a way to stick them on securely, thanks for that.

Pleased to hear you have a great variety of birds, love those sunflower hearts, dont they :)

Welshviking said:

Last summer Clare i was getting 80+ Goldfinches around the various feeders (i have 18 feeders in total), this year so far i am getting 20+ Goldfinches, 15+ Chaffinches, Collared doves,  flocks of long tailed tits, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, Marsh or Willow tits (never sure which is which) and 6 redpolls which have been coming for a few weeks now. Also lots of house sparrows and a few starlings, the numbers of Greenfinches have dropped dramatically i was getting 5-6 last year but so far just the odd one appearing. The wagtails have just returned and i have a couple of robins here every morning along with a couple of dunnocks. Probably a few more breeds but at the moment my mind is blank...OLD AGE !!!

That's an impressive variety - we get most of those, except the marsh tits and redpolls.  We've just started getting a (single) male siskin and today we had our first goldcrest - beautiful!  We do feeding trays as well so we also get loads of blackbirds, as well as wood pigeons, crows, jackdaws and a regular, but not daily, jay.  Our starling numbers are picking up nicely now and it will be totally manic here in a couple of weeks - they nest in our guttering!!  The moss is being cleaned out in earnest now.

Nice to see I am not alone in having problems with sunflower hearts. I have 2 different kinds of feeders using hearts ( the mesh kind, and the plastic port seed feeders ). For some reason the siskin and redpoll rarely touch the port feeder, and thoroughly enjoy flocking to the mesh feeders and scattering seed everywhere. Even the goldfinch seem to prefer the mesh ( to the point of hanging on to the Nyjer feeder purely to reach the sunflower in the mesh )

I'm amazed there isn't a suitable mesh feeder around. I often get over a dozen Siskin, mixed with 6-8 Redpoll. Throw in Goldfinch, Nuthatch and countless tits and there just isn't room for them. I'd love to buy a 2 foot mesh feeder that works. Also amazed RSPB doesn't design it's own. The only plus side to leaky feeders is gangs of Chaffinch walking round the grass mopping up. Oh - and badger makes a nightly visit under the feeding station to dine on the windfall.

Gosh .... am very impressed !

I am having awful 'spillage' problems too - the sunflower hearts are all over the lawn, and making such a mess .... The above feeder is a larger version of the two that I have - would the above modification work for them ??

Also - any suggestions for a Nyger seed feeder that does not leak ??

Thank you :)