Bird Tables needed that only small birds can use
Jan 16th, 2008 by Birdy Trish
I’ve heard from another birding enthusiast who is having trouble with large birds eating all the food from the bird table. It’s great to hear from people who are interested in birds and to share our problems and hopefully find a solution.
He, like me, agrees that you get a great view of birds when they are gathered on a bird table so doesn’t want to stop putting food onto birdtables.
I’d like to explain that we don’t want to feed the small birds just because they look cute. There is a good reason why during the day in winter it’s important that smaller birds get their fair share of the bird table food and aren’t bullied away. They die if they don’t.
All birds need to be healthy and strong to see them through the winter. The winter doesn’t have any mercy and birds cannot escape from the cold weather. Birds face the elements 24/7.
In the cold winter smaller birds such as wrens, sparrows, blue tits, dunnocks die if they do not each enough food in the day time to keep their energy levels up throught the night
Small birds need to eat almost their own body weight every day to help them survive the cold, dark night and stay alive. These smaller birds depend on getting food in a morning to give them enough energy to see them through a winter’s day.
Large birds don’t have the same problem.
I have bought a meshed ground bird feeder and this has solved most of the problem for me of keeping large birds away from bird food.
I have two open bird tables and don’t want to spend any more money on bird tables even if they do have mesh round, but I have been looking at what there is on offer just in case I change my mind.
Here are two really good bird tables to keep large birds out.
Meshed bird table to keep out larger birds
Hanging bird table that keeps out large birds
The problem is that those two meshed bird tables will keep out thrushes and blackbirds as well. So for the blackbirds and thrushes we need to keep -
- open bird tables and
- open bird feeding areas
(sadly this often means starlings as well).
Hope that gives you some ideas. If you have any other solutions to helping smaller birds survive the large bird menace share it with me. I’d love to know.
Me- complaining about woodpigeons
Tags: bird-food, bird-table, blackbirds, blue-tits, body-weight, groundfeeder, mesh, sparrow, thrushes, winter, woodpigeons, wren, wrens
