A question Friends as you know I love to feed the birds, BUT Why do the birds flick most seed to the ground in stead of eating it. First I thought it was the type of seed BUT they flick EVERYTHING off the feeder. I just cleaned up 2 cups of good seed and refilled the feeder. Is it possible the birds are spoiled??????? This is driving me crazy,and I'm thinking of going back to suet,although that causes a mess. I NEED INFO PLEASE ed
I think they are digging for choice morsels. Most birds don't eat the cheap fillers that are put in the mix. My chickens clean up all the wasted bird food on the ground. Maybe you need a couple of pet chickens Ed. There are chicken diapers made just for indoor chickens, too. You can see these awesome contraptions on the Meyershatchery.com site. What a hoot. Chicken diapers. I wonder what someone can think up next to part people from their money.
Hi Ed, my birds have been driving me crazy for years doing the same thing. I buy the expensive food and they still do it. So I just buy what I buy and the racoons seem to come and pick up the ground. I had been keeping my container outside, but I stopped that pretty quick when the coons started robbing me. If you find a trick...please post it. Good luck!
I think we all have the same type of problem when it comes to feeding the birds Ed. However, over here in Scotland, we have Dunnocks and Robins that love to clean the fallen seeds up, They get fed and I don't have to pick the seeds up which can only be a good thing.
Ed, there are ground feeders and there are top feeder birds. We find that the cardinals eat what is in the feeder, but the sparrows toss out a lot, then eat off the ground. Our doves wander around and pick up the bird seed off the ground, but the chickadees refuse to eat anything that isn't in the feeder. What we have here is a failure of communication (did you ever watch the movie Hud?)--birds don't know they are supposed to be neat eaters!
I have three feeders set up and try to keep them filled. They can toss and eat or not eat 'til their hearts content. I purposely toss extra seeds on the ground for the Mourning Doves though. I'm lucky, I guess, that I have the space for their messy-ness.
Naturally I have had this problem too. I looked into it a few years ago and found a UK site that explained that different birds have preference for different seed types. Actually I had noticed this through the years but somehow did not think of it when I was researching it. I get a fair variety in my garden where I feed the birds and luckily what the blue tit casts aside the robin, doves and hedge sparrows clean up...so it works out. Still when I am sitting and watching them, I do find their selective eating annoying. hahaha.
You do have to watch what is inside of your package of seeds. I switched finch mix and I don't have half of the waste as what I once did. I could keep it cleaned up all winter. Most of what is on the ground gets cleaned up by the ground feeders or squirrels and I just have shells left. The companies like to fill your bag with things that birds don't eat (cheaper things or fillers) and they still charge you as if it was the good stuff....
