Bird feeder help

[Beth_B]

I have bird feeders in the front of the house, have had for the six years I've been here. Have dozens, sometimes hundreds of birds. Depending on the season I have mixed seed, suet and thistle. Front yard is bird central.

So I got another feeder for the back yard a week ago. Filled it with no-waste seed. It is about 50 feet from the front yard feeder, under a similar tree canopy, same distance from the ground, everything. Birds are there, I hear them cheeping and fussing, but they totally have not come near the feeder.

Why? If anything the back yard is safer for birds because the feral cats don't go there.

 

[Chuck]

I have the EXACT same feeder and I had the same thing happen. It has something to do with the perches at the base, either not large enough or something. My wife finally got so PO'd she dumped the seeds out and bought a completely different mixture of seed. Now the birds don't seem to care. I don't speak bird so I really don't comprehend what their problem is/was.

 

[Fernsdaddy]

Give them time and they will use the feeder,

 

[Beth_B]

Hmm, Chuck, maybe it's the feeder itself then? It is just a cheapie little one, the feeder out front is a multi-perch fancier job. I think I will swap them for a day or two and see what happens!

Fernsdaddy, I would have thought they'd have found it by now. But it's under pretty heavy tree canopy, there are birds all over the upper branches. So another thing I guess I can try is putting it a bit higher and more visible.

HEY! No kidding, just as I typed that last sentence a pair of chickadees came to the feeder. And now a few sparrows...they found it! Yay.

I am hiding behind a pot of petunias on the back deck but managed to sneak a photo with my crappy phone camera.