Why aren’t wild birds eating my suet?
March 3, 2010 by
Filed under Solar Bird Baths
I started feeding wild birds this summer (or in the spring actually, but didn’t really start eating anything until summer). I have a pretty good crowd, and enjoy it.
Mostly they seem to like the black oil sunflower the best, I go through the most of that, maybe 5lbs in a couple weeks. I also use some safflower, they like it OK, seems the ground feeding birds like it more than the birds using the couple hanging feeders I have around. I also have a bag feeder with thistle seed that gets used a little by some finches.
I also have some simple water trays out, which will be tough to try to keep unfrozen this winter (although I want to help them, I think a heated birdbath is more than I want to spend, both for the bath and electricity, any tips on keeping them watered cheaply? Anyone ever use one of these “solar” birdbaths?). My real question, is I bought a suet feeder and have had suet out for a few weeks now, but has hardly been touched. What gives? They’d rather have the seed?
Andrew:
I’m in Wisconsin (USA) and temps here will get below zero (F). Yeah, if it’s not heated it’ll freeze. Unless this solar thing will work, or at least create open water during the day if the sun is out. I can’t see keeping the water heated at night in the dead of winter. One person I talked to says she just empties her regular birdbath in the morning and fills it with hot tap water (not boiling hot) and the birds, she says, are smart enough to know they need to get water before it can freeze up again?
Check the bag for the suet, they usually list birds that eat it, some birds eat mostly seeds others eat other things also.
Fussy little buggers!! I have a “bird cafeteria” I have 6 different hangers from a bird house, and I spend a fortune!! I find that they prefer the cheapest seed, from the market stall. I bought a really good seed from my garden centre, it contains dried insects, and meal worms, and cost me £4-00 for a kilo bag.Believe me, they don’t touch it, and yet a cheap bag which cost £2-00 for a 2 kilo bag, has to be topped up every other day. As the weather gets colder, they will peck at your suet feeder, it isn’t really cold enough for it yet. I have suet balls, in a 4 ball feeder, and they have just started pecking it.Honestly, you do not need a heated bird bath, a good deep one, that will not freeze over will do the job.
It may take them a while to figure out the suet. All you can do is make sure it is in a visible place near the rest of the feeders. Woodpeckers (Downy and Hairy) like it, as well as chickadees and nuthatches. Finches and ground feeding birds tend not to go for it, so maybe most of the birds you have now aren’t into suet. Before too long, something will find it though.