How to attract birds to NEW feeder
To setup a brand new bird feeder can never be a better time, come rain or shine, birds will be attracted to it all year round.
How you attract birds to a new bird feeder is to ensure its located in an easy to spot, easy to access location. Use more then one feeder but to hang it off a bracket on a bird feeding station will be more inviting. Offer bird food they need such as nuts, seeds or suet - but be sure to cater to birds who can't use feeders.
To attract birds to a feeder would require attracting them to your garden, the site where your hanging feeders would be of course.
Its can be extremely easy with no effort other than where you hang the bird feeders, but it can require more work than you anticipated.
Announce your brand new bird feeder by simply hanging it up in a centralized location, so its accessed with no restrictions and where it can be spotted at all times. In the middle of the lawn or patio would do then.
But a single hanging bird feeder to hold seeds, nuts or suet won't always do it, so it must be hung off a bird feeding station on a pole, or a hanging platform if needed.
Birds come to depend on bird feeders so believe me when I say they know what either one of these things are in your yard.
To attract birds to a single bird feeder might not be enough, so use up to 4-5 containing seeds, peanuts and suet in fat ball, pellet or suet cake/block form can do the trick.
Centralize feeding area
How to attract a whole series of common birds to your backyard to feed off a brand new bird feeder, is making it a large, easy to spot feeding area.
What that entails in a large bird feeding station with feeders offering up all types of feed, or if you like a bird feeding platform, central to the lawn or patio.
Once you are out of the way, it hopefully won't be long before birds find the new bird feeder - but it can be difficult, so make no mistake about it.
In making use of a bird feeding station, make it one that uses up to 4-5 brackets for hanging corresponding feeders, designed to hold all types of backyard bird feed.
Hanging off these brackets must be at least one peanut feeder, two seed feeders; but be sure to use a fat ball or suet cake feeder which can attract birds to it, no problem at all.
Seriously think about hanging a nectar-filled hummingbird feeder elsewhere, like on a lonely wall or fence bracket, with an option to utilize an isolated bird feeder pole just to keep hummingbird feeders out of the way of other bird feeders.
To use a bird feeding station or bird feeding platform, the idea is to make it big, so its easy to see from above but still accessible to all backyard birds.
Correct Bird Feeder spot
Its probably safe to say a centralized feeding area may not apply to many of us as our backyard landscape may not make it possible.
On the otherhand you may have to decide if to put the feeding platform or bird feeding station on the lawn or patio - or anywhere in-between.
Patio location near to the house is going to be seen less, whereas a position on the lawn that is much further away from the house, can possibly be seen more.
If your backyard landscape doesn't allow for a centralized bird feeder position, then you can site it where it works best for you.
It could be central still but over to one side. If the side of the yard has a hedgerow, then absolutely be sure to position bird feeders up to six feet away.
Never put a brand new bird feeder under natural coverage such as a trees as its harder to spot as birds fly above.
What you must do is focus more on bird feeders being seen from above, while making it accessible at all times.
Focus on the BIG three
Did you know to hang a single seed or peanut bird feeder off a tree branch or bracket, while attractive to birds, it can only cater to a handful.
Birds who feed off bird feeders only feed off certain feeders which contain the food they include in their almost exclusive diet.
So, to only offer a seed bird feeder may only attract seed feeding birds only, such as Houses Finches, among many other species.
One way to overcome that is offering multiple brand new bird feeders rather than just the one. It must include a peanut, seed and suet feeder of any kind - but the bird feeder design can vary, and so to how the bird food is made.
Focus on one peanut feeder, up to two seed feeders, with an option of a suet feeder.
These are the most common bird feeders for sale in the US, with all of the above sold in supermarkets or department stores, for a low price.
You can upgrade for use of a bird feeder for mealworms, providing you continue to offer up the most used feed in their corresponding feeders.
Feeders NOT always needed
Well, as it happens it doesn't take much to feed birds in your yard, because what's really needed is a good supply of mixed wild bird food.
No feeding equipment, equals no fuss with replenishing them or cleaning out bird feeders every once in a while.
What you can do then is cater to mostly ground feeding birds intent on feeding off the lawn, or more so a patio if that is what you have.
You can throw over peanuts or suet pellets, but be sure to use more wild bird seed mixes to cater to more bird species.
Feeders are not always needed but they will if you have a rodent problem; never throw bird food over the lawn if you are in a mice or rat infested area.
So to should you never feed backyard birds on the ground if cats are praying on them.
To feed common backyard birds in a more organized way, you can certainly benefit with a brand new ground platform bird feeder - to position be anywhere you feel is a safe location.
No visits, wait until later
How you attract birds to a brand new bird feeder, as I've outlined thus far; can bring instant, positive results right away or need more time to attract a host of birds to it.
Its therefore imperative you are patient with your quest to attract birds to a bird feeder you only just bought and setup.
How easy is it to get fed up so soon with no early interest, to only then pack it all in.
Its absolutely a common thing to see new bird feeders not be used for several days, or up to a couple of weeks.
If its the first bird feeder you have hung up or sited in your yard, common backyard birds simple need more time to find it then, as to begin feeding off it.
To not receive any visitors after a couple of weeks is unusual, but it could be there's not enough feeders, or the feeders are not within sight.
What you must decide for yourself is if your backyard is a quiet, undisturbed one; as oppose to a noisy, busy with activity backyard - in which can indeed deter birds rather than attract wild life to it.
Go along with my advice as outlined above, but be patient as good things come to those who wait.
Conclusion
How you attract birds to your new bird feeder is making sure its seen, so making it as big as possible is vital in attracting birds to it.
Now, that doesn't mean buying a large bird feeder so to speak, but more so referring to the item its hanging off.
It would suggest making use of a bird feeding station as a way to hang a single bird feeder, or an area to hang more as you upgrade later.
Attract birds to a new bird feeder by making sure it holds the food they crave or need, so a feeder for nuts, seeds or all types of suet should do it.
Make your backyard more inviting by locating the hanging bird feeder within a tree, or push the bird feeding platform or feeding station over to a bush or hedgerow as to offer a way for birds to dive for cover when needed.
You can hang up the bird feeder then but you can also cater to birds who can't use it, by offering seeds or nuts on the ground. Any bird that can use a feeder may then decide to jump up to the feeder, such as robins on rare occasions.
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