Bird feeding: how do you stop starlings from eating everything

[Epona]

Me or miss direct? I think we both have only one undesirable bird each?

miss direct I really don't know because magpies are so clever and determined. I think you just have to make friends with this set of magpies.

Sorry, I didn't see your post until just now - also was only meant in humour not a serious dig or anything.
Love to all

I did straight up see a magpie kill another one last Friday though! No joke, very unpleasant.

 

[polly]

Sorry, I didn't see your post until just now - also was only meant in humour not a serious dig or anything.
Love to all

I did straight up see a magpie kill another one last Friday though! No joke, very unpleasant.

Oh no, I didn't take it as one, I thought you'd confused us is all! I don't have a magpie problem. I would like one!

 

[Epona]

They are beautiful creatures, intelligent, glossy, apparently also murderous little fuckers!

 

[polly]

The gorgeous chattery thugs are emptying any sized amount of expensive buggy nibbles from our feeders last few days Poor old crippled Alan Blackbird is starving!

My thugs pick the seed out of the thug-proof feeder and chuck it on the ground until they get to the mealworms Anyway this feeds the blackbirds.

Pretty unhelpful for you I expect, sorry

 

[Epona]

I wonder if it would help to have the mealworms in a different feeder somewhere, so the finches and others can still get the seeds?

Also I know I have said this before but please please wash your bird feeders in either boiling water or antibacterial solution once a week, trichonomaisis parasitic infection is absolutely doing a number on finches right now, especially greenfinches and they are under threat because of this. So please wash your feeders regularly.

 

[polly]

I wonder if it would help to have the mealworms in a different feeder somewhere, so the finches and others can still get the seeds?

Also I know I have said this before but please please wash your bird feeders in either boiling water or antibacterial solution once a week, trichonomaisis parasitic infection is absolutely doing a number on finches right now, especially greenfinches and they are under threat because of this. So please wash your feeders regularly.

Thus feeder slows them down and I think the small birds do fine. I don't get finches but thanks for the reminder. It is overdue a clean.

 

[miss direct]

I was friendly when it was just one or two coming, but now it's a whole hoard and they're just too greedy. Think I have to stop putting food out. They are pooing on my tulips.

 

[bcuster]

 

[Epona]

That's fucking brilliant!

Mynah birds which are also really good mimics and probably one of the best mimics of human speech in the avian world (due to the way they learn calls and the shape of their syrinx) are related to starlings btw, they are both sturnidae

 

[Epona]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

That's fucking brilliant!

Mynah birds which are also really good mimics and probably one of the best mimics of human speech in the avian world (due to the way they learn calls and the shape of their syrinx) are related to starlings btw, they are both sturnidae

There used to be a resident mynah bird in the local pet shop when I was a kid - it was very sweary.

 

[tim]

If what I have seen recently is anything to go by, the magpies will just kill one another if there are too many in a particular area.

They can never let the one with the secret never to be told live.

 

[polly]

I give up, they can have all the food

 

[Epona]

I give up, they can have all the food

They are fucking lovely birds - very intelligent, excellent mimics, and even their natural witterings and whistles sound amazing.

There are a whole flock that congregate in the roof and rafters of North Greenwich tube/bus station - sounds absolutely amazing with all the whistling and chattering noises they make.
I mean you do have to hope you don't get shat on when you come out of the tube, mind

 

[Epona]

I don't know if I mentioned it already, but they are red status in terms of conservation - worrying decline in numbers in the UK.
We get a lot of starlings that arrive here in the autumn to spend winter here so it may sometimes seem that there are a lot of them around late summer/autumn, but their situation is critical.

 

[Epona]

And despite being well into nature conservation, I still wonder whether you could teach a starling to make Darth Vader breathing noises

 

[pug]

We see loads of all different sorts of birds by having water avaliable for them.

 

[polly]

I don't know if I mentioned it already, but they are red status in terms of conservation - worrying decline in numbers in the UK.
We get a lot of starlings that arrive here in the autumn to spend winter here so it may sometimes seem that there are a lot of them around late summer/autumn, but their situation is critical.

I mentioned it in the op! Where I grew up in London there was a big tree where they would roost and I remember their murmurations from childhood - they've totally disappeared there. It's why I indulge their naughtiness on the feeders.

 

[polly]

My birds have to deal with my kittens in the garden now. I've got them collars with bells and don't let them out till well after sunrise and take them in well before sunset. I've moved the feeders up higher and into cat unfriendly places (my neighbours must think I'm a total weirdo as I have to get the step ladder out every day to add seed ). I still feel horrible though, like the witch in Hansel and Gretel, fattening the birds up for the kill However the birds have very quickly figured out that these are bad cats, unlike my old one who they recognised as zero threat, and have changed their feeding patterns accordingly. Anxious times!

 

[iona]

They are fucking lovely birds - very intelligent, excellent mimics, and even their natural witterings and whistles sound amazing

At my new place one of the noises they often make sounds like a cat miaowing, which is quite annoying when there are also cats who regularly miaow to be let inside.

 

[Epona]

My birds have to deal with my kittens in the garden now. I've got them collars with bells and don't let them out till well after sunrise and take them in well before sunset. I've moved the feeders up higher and into cat unfriendly places (my neighbours must think I'm a total weirdo as I have to get the step ladder out every day to add seed ). I still feel horrible though, like the witch in Hansel and Gretel, fattening the birds up for the kill However the birds have very quickly figured out that these are bad cats, unlike my old one who they recognised as zero threat, and have changed their feeding patterns accordingly. Anxious times!

Take this whichever way you want, but I am not sure that bells on collars is fair to cats - imagine if you had really really amazing hearing like the ability to hear frequencies beyond human range of hearing, and then had something attached to your neck that made a sound every time you moved? I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but that might be worth having a think about.

(I have horrendous tinnitus and can only imagine it would be a bit like that)

 

[polly]

Take this whichever way you want, but I am not sure that bells on collars is fair to cats - imagine if you had really really amazing hearing like the ability to hear frequencies beyond human range of hearing, and then had something attached to your neck that made a sound every time you moved? I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but that might be worth having a think about.

(I have horrendous tinnitus and can only imagine it would be a bit like that)

I imagine it's not very nice for them, but they love being outside so much that I think it's still a net gain in terms of happiness for them, and I can't live with the destruction of other wildlife.

 

[polly]

I know it's is a bit dog in the manger to be sad but my starlings haven't returned this year Anyone else?

 

[Epona]

I know it's is a bit dog in the manger to be sad but my starlings haven't returned this year Anyone else?

I've missed most of my autumn/early winter birdwatching and walking due to illness, so I hadn't noticed tbh (not having a garden nor bird feeders)
I'll keep an eye out next time I'm out, which hopefully should be as soon as it stops fecking raining long enough to have a dry afternoon. I normally love walking at this time of the year on a sunny day where it is low in the sky, bright and dry and chilly.

 

[cesare]

I know it's is a bit dog in the manger to be sad but my starlings haven't returned this year Anyone else?

Not as many, perhaps one or two. But since we needed the rat catcher we have been a lot more careful about the food we have put out.

 

[Aladdin]

Loads of rooks seem to have taken over here.
They are huge.
So its them and the little garden birds who are vying for the food I leave out.
I decided to put big pieces of left over foods out for the rooks and little pieces of nuts and chopped up rinds for the small birds. So far..its going ok.
The little birds come down after the rooks have argued and flapped about and gone.

The rooks appear as soon as they hear the back door squeaking oopen.They watch me at whatever I am doing in the garden. They scratch their beaks on the wall and squawk at me if I don't produce the goods.

Not a single starling since September.

 

[polly]

Those are your rooks now, Aladdin

 

[geminisnake]

The rooks appear as soon as they hear the back door squeaking oopen.They watch me at whatever I am doing in the garden. They scratch their beaks on the wall and squawk at me if I don't produce the goods.

I have bolshy robins that cheep at me when I'm hanging out washing and they want fed

 

[Epona]

I have bolshy robins that cheep at me when I'm hanging out washing and they want fed

I saw a Robin a bit up our road earlier and although it didn't want to come right up to me, it was definitely soliciting for food, hopping towards me then away again.
Someone dug the borders on our housing estate a couple of days ago which will have raised interest in human activity I reckon!
Bold little things, it's no wonder they are so well recognised and loved