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Hi Everyone Has anyone else seen Goldfinches down on the shore line ? I live in the Wirral and occasionally see Goldfinches pecking about in the rocks and seaweed down in the Estuary. As seed eaters, I wondered what they were after down there ! Got any ideas ?

Hi all, I live on a houseboat on the Medway estuary, Kent. Yesterday we noticed our resident mallard has a new broad of 7 chicks, unfortunately though last year we only saw the chicks for a couple of days and each day it was distressing to notice the number of chicks get less and less :( I'm wondering...

I have a nest box in my garden with a fitted camera. For the past fortnight a bluetit has been incubating 8 eggs in it. This morning 3 of the eggs hatched. Unfortunately, there has been no sign of her partner for the last week or so & I am concerned how she is going to feed them on her own. Any advice...

Great pictures and an interesting question! Birds are creatures of habit in many ways and it is often possible to predict a birds behaviour. The goldfinch for example will often feed first thing in the morning, spend the middle part of the day singing, preening and resting in the tree tops before...

ratty Are some birds able to cope better than others without liquid water? All of our garden birds need to drink every day and bathing is also very important, they have to keep their feathers in tip-top condition in order for them to be effective at keping the birds warm and dry. Wozatmz, i don't...

Heya I live in Chippenham and used to have loads of blackbirds visiting our garden, but we haven't seen any since around Spring, and even then we didn't see many young as we usually do. Is there anyway we can attract them again? We get some other birds like long tailed tits, blue tits, crows...

Dear Everyone, Thank you so much for all your replies. Wow ! So nice to now there are so many ordinary bird lovers. I perhaps need to explain the situation here a little better. When I say I have too many starlings, there are 3 separate flocks at the moment (there was only 2 when I first wrote for...

Hi Pipit - this is a fairly commonly asked query on the Community - you should get some good ideas from this thread - http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/forums/p/4033/29866.aspx#29866 Good luck! LRB

Hi Lyndsey, What spoilt birds! This all sounds delicious, but there is one thing that I should point out though - fat from cooking is potentially bad for birds. The problem with cooked fat from roasting tins and dishes etc, is that the meat juices have blended with the fat and when allowed to set...

Hi all, Hope you can help! I've just recently started feeding birds in my small urban garden. But I'm unsure how often to change the food i put out. I'm using: Peanuts, Seed Cake, Fat Cakes, Half a Coconut with Fat and Mealworms, and fat balls. Any help would be appreciated as...

I've recently started feeding birds in my small urban garden. I've put peanuts into a plastic feeder which looks like this one http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/p/BirdFeeders/RSPB_Classic_seed_bird_feeders.htm Blue tits and great tits have been visiting, but.... The Great tits especially discard...

I find that most of the activity on my feeders happens between 10.30 and 12 - annoying as during the week I am at work at this time! I do sometimes see the odd blackbird or robin eating from the ground before I leave for work at 7.30/8, but not many and I never see birds on the feeders at this time....

Yep absolutely - it is a 'feature' of doves and pigeons to use the crop as a pre-digestive store - here, the seeds begin digestion by being moisturised before going off to the gizzard - it is a common feature in many (but not all) seed-eating birds, but most prominent in pigeons/doves. When they...

Pigeons are opportunistic feeders and will eat a wide range of foods - while they mostly eat 'vegetarian', such as grain, seeds, leaves and buds etc they will turn to other foodstuffs, particularly in bad weather. They'll eat insects and even peck at carrion if need be. The suet pellets won't...

Hi Madpenguin It looks like your garden is developing nicely. One thing that might put some species off is the lack of lawn and hedging. Gravel and paving prevents ground feeding birds from foraging on the insects and worms that live in the soil and some ornamental evergreens don't have much wildlife...

Hi, I have three dogs, a cat thats always trying to get the birds in my garden, I also have gulls landing and feeding in my garden, but I get lots of other birds as well, they all fright but most of the time they just feed. Sparrow is right you need to put out the right food, try not to put out white...

Since the cold weather started in December, I've noticed a dramatic reduction in the number of birds visiting this suburban Cheshire garden. In fact, in spite of seeds, nuts, home made fat-blocks, commercial fat balls, bacon rind, ham fat and granary bread being available there's scarce been...

hi, like loads of other people, I now have a fieldfare in my garden. He originally came with about 6 others, but seems to have lost his friends. However, unlike other people's mine is not bossy - the opposite actually - the little birds are bullying him :-( . As suggested, I have put food away...

Hi All. I live near the gravel pit lakes at Rickmansworth and have noticed that the birds seem quite keen to find out if I have food - even Moor Hens (normally fairly shy in my experience) have taken to following me around a little when I'm close to the lake (which is mostly frozen over). My question...

Hi Mr Birdy, As sparrow said It is very nice that you should think of the birds like this and as for your problem:... I would suggest feeding the birds slightly less everyday and when you get back put the food out again. NOTE: When you put the food back out the birds may have moved away and...

Hi there, I hope you don't mind me resurrecting this old thread. I've been feeding birds in our garden for several years, have quite a few hanging feeders which seem to be fine. I also have a mesh ground basket / table for feeding the ground birds. A problem has arisen this week - we've...

Hiya Paul, The birds that visit my garden hoover up any type of baked product, from fruit cake to stale doughnuts!! I always ensure that there is fresh, clean, water available. I also find they like Bananas (peeled) and Apples which are going rotten. The latter I put on the ground then stamp on them...

Thanks, Coal. It's been there around a year now so they should be used to it. They don't seem scared of it as they sit on the top and feed from a seed holder not a foot away. I've made some "fat balls" out of lard, nuts, raisins and seeds tonight, shaped in yoghurt pots, and...

Many thanks for the suggestion, but alas I have to spend most of my life in this upstairs room, and really would like to see the birds I feed - hence the suction-cup window feeders. Someone suggested putting a wire cage over the window (!) which might be my only line of defence against these clever...

For various reasons my bird feeders have to be mounted onto a window - and I was happily feeding all members of the small birds in our area: all the tits, finches and sparrows for a couple of years - then we were noticed by the gargantuan appetites of the collared doves and the jackdaws. They scared...