How to attract Pied Wagtails and Blue Tits back? (1 Viewer)

[skyking_comms]

I want to start off by letting you know the feeders and feed that I have got in my garden here in Gloucester

-Nyger feeder with Nyger seed which attract 5 - 10 Gold Finches every day
-Sunflower Hearts feeder which the Gold Finches seem to prefer to Nyger (Sparrows and Green Finches also eat the sunflower hearts)
- Wild Bird Seed feeder which the sparrows love. But this year im only refilling it once a week rather than every day!
- Black Sunflower seeds which I put on my bird table. I dont put the wild bird seed on it anymore as it creates too much mess and lots of the seed gets left
- Peanut feeder - Only Starlings seem to eat the peanuts

My Garden also attracts Robins, Chaffinches, Collared Doves, Blackbirds and Pigeons.
Looking around the area I always see Pied Wagtails feeding from the pavements. Is there anyway i can attract them to my garden?
I also dont seem to get any blue tits in the garden. I used to put fat balls out but the starlings would always eat them first.

I would be grateful for any ideas. Im also pleased to help anyone who dont get Gold Finches to their garden. I was very lucky, but now that I see them everyday im interested in attracting other types into my garden.

Many Thanks

 

[delia todd]

Hi Skyking-comms and welcome from all the staff and moderators at Bird Forum.

I'm afraid I can't help with your problem myself as I don't have a garden, but there'll be someone along soon to advise you.

D

 

[colonelboris]

Not sure how we ended up with a pied wagtail as a garden bird last winter, but two days of not putting bread out and it was gone.
I blame the Mrs. It was her going into labour that put a stop to putting bread out every day for a week...

 

[skyking_comms]

I also put bread out but never had a Pied Wagtail. I just cant understand why they only pick up bits of food on the street when my garden is full of food! I just thought that there may be a particular type of food that would bring them to the garden.
Thanks

 

[bitterntwisted]

I also put bread out but never had a Pied Wagtail. I just cant understand why they only pick up bits of food on the street when my garden is full of food! I just thought that there may be a particular type of food that would bring them to the garden.
Thanks

I think they are fairly exclusively insectivores, so not likely to be attracted to bird table fare? From my observations, the only trick I can think of would be to put out tarmac and rooftiles, and possibly gravel?

Sorry!
Graham

 

[Cathy H]

Welcome to the forum from me too.

I can't help with pied wagtails, any time we've had them or the grey ones they've just turned up on their own, and left just as quickly. I do think they're ovely little birds though and I'd love to see them more.

Thinking about your blue tits, we have them regularly and they eat from the seed feeders and the peanut feeders, but as you say, it may be the starlings are putting them off. We too have fat balls/cakes but to keep the larger birds away from them they're in a peanut cake guardian we bought from CJ Wildbird Foods Ltd. The cake holder is on a pole that you can put into the ground (or you can buy a base to stand it in) and it has a cage over the holder to protect the food from the bigger birds. We get chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, and robins in the feeder. We've even had long tailed tits come in the winter, and they're really cute. We've had a greater spotted woodpecker trying it's best to get into it without success - it also keeps out the squirrels. It's not cheap but it works!

If you want to check it out you can find it on www.birdfood.co.uk.

I've just looked it up in their catalogue and it promises to protect the food from starlings! Apparently you can hang it up, use it free standing or put it on a pole (like us). When you go on their website you're looking for 'peanut cake guardian'. Happy hunting. :bounce:

 

[stevetb]

perhaps, if you're prepared and have enough garden for it, a pond will attract them. If not, a bowl of mealworms on the ground might be succesful. trouble is, the starling may eat them first..... perhaps some sort of cage to keep larger birds out?

 

[skyking_comms]

Thanks for all your replies. Ive always wanted a pond in the garden, but due to having a baby on the way in march my wife wouldnt allow it. So I have 2 bird baths instead!
Im sure the starlings would eat the mealworms, they eat everything else!

I have just purchased a Ground Seed Feeder which im hoping may entice the wagtails. Ive also bought a fat ball ball holder for the blue tits. Maybe bits of the fat balls may fall on the ground for the wagtails!
If that doesnt work then i will try that peanut cake guardian

I will let you know how i get on

Thanks

 

[Cathy H]

Please do let us know what happens. With regard to the pond, we built our first pond this spring, and so far the birds have wandered near it but not even over to the edge just nearby. I don't know how long it will take before they go over for a drink but hopefully it won't be too long. It has a gentle shore line so the birds and other wildlife don't get into difficulty.

Just a thought, if you can't have a pond due to your new addition to the family (congrats by the way), have you thought about having a water feature in a barrel or half barrel? I've seen frog spawn and the like in puddles near me so they may well use a barrel too!

 

[stevetb]

within the first year of building my pond, the birds were all over it. if you wanna cheap way to protect feeders and food on the ground, there is a cheap way. http://www.wildlife-gardening.org.uk/default.asp?ftr=Features\Projects\teresa-leech.xml perhaps a bowl of mealworms with the hanging basket over it would entice wagtails and deter starlings? also a peanut cake or feeder in a hanging basket cage should deter starlings and attract blue tits.

 

[rogerscoth]

In addition to the two or three occasional Pied Wagtails that visit our garden, most birds are seen on the rooftops, on the road and footpaths, and in the large field at the bottom of our back garden. This field was recently seeded, and while the large number of Gulls followed the tractor, over seventy Pied Wagtails were spread over most of the remainder of the field.

Regards, Roger

 

[Sue Wright]

Just a thought, if you can't have a pond due to your new addition to the family (congrats by the way), have you thought about having a water feature in a barrel or half barrel? I've seen frog spawn and the like in puddles near me so they may well use a barrel too!

A warm welcome to the boards skyking!

Leading on from Cathy's post - any small amount of water, especially if it's running will entice Birds more easily. We have a pond and into that runs a 6' x 18" shallow stream that my husband made....and the Birds LOVE it! You don't necessarily need anything like that though (and certainly not with the little one coming along) but as Cathy suggests a water feature is the next best, especially if it's gently running, though running into something shallow is best. Good luck with your Wagtails though they'll possibly turn up quite incidentally one day when you least expect it!

 

[Sleeper]

Hi
I don't know if this has been mentioned but without doubt I have found the best FOOD that you can attract Pied Wagtails with, without the expense of mealworm, is simply grated cheese.

I have regularly put the cheese around the lawn and it is sought after by a few Pied wags.

If you do try this let us know how you get on.

 

[Zoe B]

I want to start off by letting you know the feeders and feed that I have got in my garden here in Gloucester

-Nyger feeder with Nyger seed which attract 5 - 10 Gold Finches every day
-Sunflower Hearts feeder which the Gold Finches seem to prefer to Nyger (Sparrows and Green Finches also eat the sunflower hearts)
- Wild Bird Seed feeder which the sparrows love. But this year im only refilling it once a week rather than every day!
- Black Sunflower seeds which I put on my bird table. I dont put the wild bird seed on it anymore as it creates too much mess and lots of the seed gets left
- Peanut feeder - Only Starlings seem to eat the peanuts

My Garden also attracts Robins, Chaffinches, Collared Doves, Blackbirds and Pigeons.
Looking around the area I always see Pied Wagtails feeding from the pavements. Is there anyway i can attract them to my garden?
I also dont seem to get any blue tits in the garden. I used to put fat balls out but the starlings would always eat them first.

I would be grateful for any ideas. Im also pleased to help anyone who dont get Gold Finches to their garden. I was very lucky, but now that I see them everyday im interested in attracting other types into my garden.

Many Thanks

Good morning

I find that pied wagtails prefer to be in our local car park searching for food there rather than in my garden which is constantly supplied with an aray of food! I find that they are just not garden birds, but I sure some would disagree with this.

We have a family of blue tits that visit, they seem to like our peanuts in a feeder and in the summer months they used to love siiting on a rather large rosemary bush! They also like sitting in a silver birch tree.

About the goldfinches- I would love to have these little colourful visitors but can not seem to attact them- some of your advice would be great. I have a feeder that just holds Nyger seeds, but they are not interested! It is hanging off the corner of my shed, maybe that is not in the best location?

 

[Zoe B]

Hi
I don't know if this has been mentioned but without doubt I have found the best FOOD that you can attract Pied Wagtails with, without the expense of mealworm, is simply grated cheese.

I have regularly put the cheese around the lawn and it is sought after by a few Pied wags.

If you do try this let us know how you get on.

I like that idea- I'll try that and see if it worked here too! How often do you put it on your lawn?

 

[Sleeper]

I like that idea- I'll try that and see if it worked here too! How often do you put it on your lawn?

Hi

I just put it out as and when really. Finely grated is the best I find...good luck.

 

[buzzard12]

Lard. Lots of Lard.

 

[BobC]

I also put bread out but never had a Pied Wagtail. I just cant understand why they only pick up bits of food on the street when my garden is full of food! I just thought that there may be a particular type of food that would bring them to the garden.
Thanks

Hello Skyking-comms,
Exactly the same thing in my area, the birds are always about in the road just outside my house, once in blue moon in my back garden, plenty of food in my garden? also I have seen a decline in the birds visiting my garden, used to get Blackbirds/Greenfinches/sparrows/starlings/few goldies/dunnocks etc, but now few and far between, have noticed on the forum lots of folks having this type of behaviour from the birds ie dissapearing

 

[Stephen C]

bluetits

Hi

The only solution I found when I lived in LOndon was to use a feeder that stopped larger birds eg starlings getting to it (fat is best I think).

Pied Wagtails prefer open spaces generally so unless you have an area of lawn you'll probably continue to have difficulties.

Good luck though

 

[skyking_comms]

Yesterday morning we got a Pied Wagtail... well it landed on our Garage Roof (which is located at the end of the garden) It followed all the other types of birds that landed in the Garden.. but decided not to venture in like them.

I like the gratted cheese idea.. i will give that a try.
I also like the idea of putting a hanging basket over a bowl of food.

Now that the weather is getting colder you should see alot more birds venture into your gardens. Because its been so mild recently most of them have stayed in the woods where theres plenty of food!

As for the Goldfiches. I attracted them first by putting out a 'Gazebo Wild Bird Feeder' filled with Sunflower hearts. Immediately we got GoldFinches and Green Finches..both of which had never been seen in our garden before. Then i put a nyger feeder out which has kept them coming every day for the last year!!! Although they do prefer the sun flower hearts

A water feature sounds like a great idea. One of our bird baths has a solar powered fountain. Now the sun has gone its a waste of time, so we take that out and have a normal lid for the bird bath.
Ive just been looking at a solar powered water cascade feature. Its got 4 terracotta bowls stacked above each other. Im sure it could be adapted to have mains power connected to it for over the winter. Would this type of thing be any good for birds?
Im also considering putting a silver Birch at the bottom of our garden as we dont have any trees. The birds use the neighbours trees instead!

Once again thanks for all the replies!