There are lots of different ways of observing birds including visiting reserves, and sitting in hides. But one of the best ways is when they come to your garden, as you can see them up close, and can move about inside without disturbing them. And and of course the best way to get them in to your garden is to feed Them ,but often the food will be ignored or not be noticed. so how can you optimise the birds that came in to the garden. The other day I put out some nyger seed hoping to see some goldfinches (which i often see on the other side of the house) my neighbour also put some out at the same time but not one bird was interested in the seed, I left it out in the hope of a bird noticing it, but still nothing came, and the seeds started sprouting. So my mum bought some Fat balls and I refilled the nyger seed and it wasn’t long before great tits
started eating the fat balls. And then goldfinches appeared and started eating the nyger. We were so pleased by this we gave the a fat ball to our neighbour to attract them to her feeder as well. some times changing it up a little can work wonders.
Another thing i did that worked was moving the food closer to the shrubs, you may thing that the birds wont see it if it is hidden away, but when a feeder is in the open the birds will be wary of going to it for fear of being to exposed to predators, and will only go to it for as long as necessary, and some will find somewhere else that is more hidden, so placing it somewhere they feel safe, will mean that you get lots more birds visiting your bird feeders.
something I haven’t got, but would like, is a camera to film the feeders so you could watch live, which I feel would be very useful for watching the birds, and observing their habits, I hope to purchases one in the not to distance future, so I can observe and record the birds that visit. I hope that this has been useful and good luck!!
photographing dabbling ducks 