Bird seed cake for winter birds – but which ones?

January20

This is the rich birdseed cake I put out before the snow came this week. It’s melted lard combined with pumpkin seeds, birdseed, sesame seeds, and some old sunflower hearts from the baking cupboard. I hung slabs of the fat cake in the tree next to the birdseed feeder which is frequented by blue tits and finches. I was eager to give these small birds a treat — especially the blue tits, which take care of my greenfly problem — but they don’t seem to like the cake. The starlings and blackbirds love it though…who knew?

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posted under Garden wildlife

“Bird seed cake for winter birds – but which ones?”

1. On January 20th, 2013 at 11:06 pm sandra barnes Says:

   I mix broken digestive biscuit crumbs, currants and grated cheese into my fat cakes for the birds. The blackbirds seem to love apples cut in half. I get robins visiting every day but they seem to like the special robin food.

2. On January 21st, 2013 at 8:53 am The StopWatch Gardener Says:

   Sandra thanks – I had forgotten about the cheese, I could have added some. I’m going just play around with the recipe and see what pleases them!

3. On January 21st, 2013 at 2:26 pm sandra barnes Says:

   So pleased to see a woodpecker visiting to-day – it was feeding on a fat square with peanuts in.

4. On February 7th, 2013 at 7:10 am Dino Pittman Says:

   In a paper in the journal Oecologia , it was reported that feeding of blue tits and great tits with peanut cake over a long time period significantly reduced brood size. This was driven by smaller clutch sizes in both species and lower hatching success rates for blue tits.

5. On February 8th, 2013 at 8:02 pm The StopWatch Gardener Says:

   Is that so? Mine appeared to be ignoring it anyway – and at any rate, there’s no peanuts in it.