Traditional bird feeders will attract blue tits
Conservationists have warned that the 42% decrease in the acrobatic little bird, maybe due to bird feeders that favour larger birds. The bigger birds scare away little blue tits, keeping all the food for themselves.
Traditional bird feeders
In the past, a lot of bird feeders were simply monkey nuts on strings or coconut halves filled with fat. The wily little blue tit was incredibly deft at utilising the nut strings, and the fat filled coconuts kept them going over the colder months.
However, these are not used as much today and the blue tit is losing the battle of the bird feeders to larger competitors.
Garden bird feeding survey
The news of the blue tit’s struggle comes from the British Trust for Ornithology’s (BTO) recent survey on garden bird feeding. The survey recorded birds visiting feeders in 250 rural and urban gardens in the UK, with the blue tit down by 42%. The survey also showed diminished numbers in other birds such as sparrows and song thrushes.
As blue tit numbers remain consistent out of the garden, the change in bird feeder fashion is highlighted as a probable cause of the lack of garden sightings.
How to help blue tits
Smaller birds like blue tits need plenty of fats to survive the cold. In fact, they have to eat a quarter of their body weight in food each day to get through the winter months. Therefore, foods high in fat and protein are their favourite this time of year.
In addition and in keeping with the survey report’s suggestions, put up a string of monkey nuts and fat-filled coconut halves to help the little birds fight back.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I hang coconut halves full of fat on a tree in my front garden and the blue tits love it! Wonderful to watch them.
Mike adams
I regularly have 4/6 @ my feeders each day along with 12/15 sparrows in my very small garden. I feed birds regularly all year and have watched parents with their fledgings being fed during the summer
Ooh, sounds as if I need to re-think our bird feeders! We do have a peanut feeder, but it has a solid mesh, which means the starlings can use it. The blue tits probably don’t get much of a look-in! We have some empty coconut-shell feeders I think I’ll re-fill these asap.
Thanks for the information – very useful. We love our garden birds and our family get so much pleasure from watching them and seeing the huge variety of birds that visit – especially over the colder months.
Last year we were “raided” by a gang of Redwings, who kept coming back until they had eaten every berry in the garden!
In May, we had blue tits nesting in a tiny hole in our house wall – it would be nice to think their babies could survive the winter because of your timely feeding advice.
I’ve wondered for years why we only got starlings, blackbirds and pigeons when I know there is plenty of other species about.
Big thanks for that