{"id":14616,"date":"2012-10-31T10:05:28","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T17:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=14616"},"modified":"2012-10-31T10:19:19","modified_gmt":"2012-10-31T17:19:19","slug":"tweets-to-keep-garden-birds-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/tweets-to-keep-garden-birds-happy\/","title":{"rendered":"Tweets to Keep Garden Birds Happy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Treat your garden birds to get more tweets (I mean treats).<br \/>\n<strong> &#8216;No mess&#8217;<\/strong> bird feeding helps keep your garden relatively clean and provides high energy nutrition to your favourite birds.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Bird feeding fledgling by Adrian Midgley, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/midgley\/4613433806\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3553\/4613433806_6df4a67391.jpg\" alt=\"Bird feeding fledgling\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>No Mess Mixes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Pre-mixed selections<\/strong> are now available from most suppliers. They are formulated for dispensation through a hanging feeder and attract a range of birds. Kibbled (ground into small pieces) maize, hemp, millet and sunflower hearts are amongst the usual ingredients.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mealworms<\/strong> are the favourite of starlings and robins and not a crumb will be left. Put in a small dish.<\/li>\n<li><strong>High energy mixes<\/strong> are best reserved for cold winters. They include peanut granules, pinhead oats and sometimes mealworms. Use on table feeders and in hanging baskets.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kibbled (ground into small pieces) maize<\/strong> is a cheap feed for sparrows, pigeons and doves. Usually taken from the ground.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Niger seed <\/strong>is very fine, small thistle seeds from a special dispenser. It is especially loved by siskins and goldfinches. Dunocks may also like a few sprinkled on the ground<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sunflower hearts<\/strong> attract the wides range of birds including tits, finches, and goldcrests. There are no husks to leave behind<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fat balls and suet <\/strong>mixed with seed can attract a range of birds including woodpeckers. Good for cold weather.<\/li>\n<li><strong>For fruit<\/strong> loving birds like thrushes and blackbirds you could try a few soaked raisins. Try out in cold weather when there is little alternative food available.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B003ZYLS40\/richardpettin-21\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/B003ZYLS40.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg\" alt=\"Book Cover\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Traditional Feeds<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Black sunflower seeds<\/strong> are so popular with tits and finches so it was worth giving them a mention despite the mess the husks can leave.<br \/>\n<strong>Peanuts <\/strong>are protein rich but blue tits may leave a little debris on the area below a feeder.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bird food <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/s\/ref=sr_pg_2?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Abird+food&amp;page=2&amp;keywords=bird+food&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1351701564=richardpettin-21&amp;index=blended&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738\">from amazon<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;<\/p>\n<h3>Happy Bird Tips<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Platforms and ground feed stations attract more species of birds than hangers.<\/li>\n<li>Little and often is better than one over stocked feeder.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid cheaper mixes that contain a lot of filler (it wont fill the birds so it is just left or discarded<\/li>\n<li>Clean your feeders regularly and resite occasionally to avoid problems.<\/li>\n<li>No mess seeds are less likely to germinate if they fall in your garden<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a title=\"Bird Feeding at Sariska Tiger Reserve by Mirza Asad Baig, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/asad7874\/4247380435\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2542\/4247380435_63e9c13fae.jpg\" alt=\"Bird Feeding at Sariska Tiger Reserve\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>photo credits<br \/>\nBird feeding fledgling by Adrian Midgley CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<br \/>\nBird Feeding at Sariska Tiger Reserve by Mirza Asad Baig CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No unhappy birds  with these &#8216;no mess&#8217; bird foods and tips. Keep your garden birds chirpy and it the best of health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}