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?

posted under Garden wildlife

5 Comments to

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

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.
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!
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.
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.
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.