Shop by Bird
Most people do not start by wanting to buy sunflower hearts. They start by wanting to see more goldfinches, or wondering why the robin never goes near the hanging feeder. These pages work the other way round from the rest of the shop: pick the bird, and we will tell you what it actually eats and how it prefers to take it.
Two things matter as much as the food itself. The first is how you present it — a robin will not hang from a mesh feeder and a goldfinch will rarely feed off the ground, so the same seed can be a success or a waste depending on where it goes. The second is patience. A new feeder can take a fortnight to be found, and which birds turn up depends on your garden, your county and the time of year. Everything on these pages is a guide to what a food is usually taken by, not a guarantee.
If you would rather shop by product than by bird, the whole range is in Shop All.
- Robins Mealworms and suet, put low down — a robin will not use a hanging feeder.
- Blue Tits & Great Tits Sunflower hearts, peanuts and suet. The easiest birds in the garden to please.
- Goldfinches Sunflower hearts, a hanging feeder, and a fortnight of patience.
- Chaffinches & Greenfinches One feeds on the feeder, the other feeds underneath it. Serve both.
- House Sparrows Not remotely fussy — but they only ever turn up as a group.
- Blackbirds & Thrushes Ground feeders. Everything goes on the table, the tray or the lawn.
- Starlings Fat, in quantity — and a plan for keeping the other feeders usable.
- Woodpeckers & Nuthatches Peanuts and suet, on something they can cling to.
