How much bird food do you get through a day?

Just wondering whether our birds are taking advantage of our good nature

We seem to get through an extraordinary amount of bird feed a day. This is happening both when we are at home and when we are out, plus we have a metal pole feeder so squirrels shouldn't be able to climb up it, so I can only assume that it is just the birds.

Our seed feeder must be about 30 cm long and we are filling it on a daily basis. There were four small fat balls in the fat ball feeder and these had gone by lunch time. The only thing that they eat slowly is the peanuts from the peanut feeder.

We do have a lot of birds around including some gorgeous doves but we never used to get through this much food. Is this excessive compared to what other people get through?

I was saying the same thing only this week! I scatter seeds on the ground, put 2 fat balls out every day and I make suet blocks, so one of them every day too. I also put seeds and peanuts in feeders and soaked bread and scraps on the bird table.
I have a flock of doves/pigeons that sit on the roof every morning waiting for food They are the 1st to arrive, quickly followed by the magpies and crows. The food is gone in about half hour.
Then in the afternoon the small birds arrive to eat from the feeders.
Oh and the starlings! They seem to have gone the last 2 weeks or so but they used to arrive en masse and fight and squabble over the food.
They have rewarded me though....the blue tits, sparrows, starlings and today the crows have all brought their babies to show me. They all sit on the fence shouting to be fed by the parent birds......I could watch them for hours.
So yes, I seem to spending a fortune on seed every week too.

At least it's not just me then Fortunately we have a wonderful farm who produce bird feed, at a really good cost. We don't go there all that often as they are a way from us but we stock up when we do get there.

Those starlings, they really squabble don't they, I've never heard anything like it

Same here they are eating it like it is going out of fashion.

We get the wood pigeons, doves, sparrows by the hundreds starlings, blackbirds and a greater spotted woodpecker two sometimes. They love the suet blocks. Sadly not so many blue tits or great or coal tits this year.

Yes, here too. The seed feeder gets filled every day and also the nyger seeds for the Goldfinches. The peanuts last a bit longer but I've got 2 peanut feeders at the moment because we are feeding a whole family of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, mum dad and at least 3 babies.We also get greenfinches,chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, long tailed tits, robin, collared doves loads of sparrows and a lot of greedy jackdaws. There is a kestrel hovering in the fields behind us and yesterday I found a load of feathers on the ground near the feeders so I think the kestrel might have caught one of the little birds.

Expensive but well worth it.

Mine are eating 20kg of sunflower hearts a week. I also feed suet pellets. It is costing a small fortune at the moment!! Anyone know of any cheap suppliers? Please let me know if you do xx

I don't feed them (encouraging birds into my garden with my dogs and cats would unfortunately be signing their death sentance!), but the amount we sell at my work is staggering...some of my customers go through a good £50 worth of it a week.

Sounds like you get a lovely selection of birds Lynn

Yesterday was the first time that we have had a little bird killed . The feeder is in the middle of the lawn so there is no way a cat could have snuck up on it I wouldn't have thought. I think it was some bird of prey that took it.

Blimey Ness!

This is where we get our feed from, I don't know how that compares to what you pay? We visit them but I know that they do mail order also.

http://www.eyebrookwildbirdfeeds.co.uk/

We are quite lucky that the cats mostly keep out of our garden and Max only half hearted bounds towards them from time to time. Yesterdays was the first bird we have had killed The chickens do sometimes chase some of the bigger birds though.

We live in the centre of town in a small old terrace house with only a small backyard but we still get through about a 13kg bag of Sunflower Hearts every 3 weeks. Its mainly Goldfinches that eat them. the stuff that falls out of the 3 feeders (Which get filled every day) we get Pigeons, Doves, Robins, Blue & Great Tits. Blackbirds. Quite a selection for such a small yard. We get our feed from
https://www.brinvale.com/
The service is brilliant - Next day free delivery. & the price is quite good too.

Mine have been getting soft foods at the moment, grapes, sultanas and raisins coz I have lots of blackbirds who are very busy feeding their young so I'm hoping this kind of food will be useful.

I stopped feeding the live mealworms coz I had so many birds out there, a sparrowhawk zoomed along the hedge at 90mph and took one of my blackbirds out, it upset me so much, I stopped attracting them with the food, but started again this spring coz of the dry weather.

I use sunflower hearts up at the van coz I know the little birdies up there love them, but I'm only feeding the blackbirds here for the time being.

I stopped feeding the fat balls, when I noticed I was having to put a new one out each day, coz I then saw the reason why......rats! I thought we're not supposed to be feeding the fat at this time of the year due to the young fledglings though? Could be wrong, but I'm sure there's a reason we shouldn't have the fat out at the moment?