Best way to feed Robins – baby or otherwise

Looking out the window at the hanging feeders, the tits are all over my seed (fnarr!), and there’s a poor Robin trying to copy them and failing to balance on the little perches to get at the seeds.

If I put anything out for him/her on a flat surface, the bastard pigeons will take it first, so what have other folk found to work for birds like Robins, preferably that don’t come at ripoff artisan prices from the RSPB website.

Cage of some sort over the table so only smaller birds can get in?

We’ve got a cage from the RSPB, it’s great for letting in the little birds, but the greedy pigeons, magpies and grey squirrels can’t get to the meal worms or seed. Look out for rats if it’s on the ground.

If you have the patience you can feed a robin from the hand.

Our robins are fine – caged feeder with perches – our Robins find these OK as well as the coconut shells stuffed with seed

If the robin is struggling to access the food you should ask for a visit by an OT* and they will assess their needs

*Ornithology Therapist

My local robin is quite happy feeding from one of those cheap pellet feeders.

It’s got a couple of pull out legs for it to stand on.

Another option is to put a stick through your other feeders for it to stand on.

You can get a cheap gabion basket from Toolstation to put over the feed to keep big birds out.
Doesn’t stop squirrels tho.

I put a seed mix out on the table every morning, and the robin is there eating the moment my back is turned and I’m walking back inside. Then come the wood pigeons, collared doves, magpies, jackdaws and subsequent feeding frenzy.

Additionally for the robin, I’ve put one of these up in the pyracantha and sprinkle a bit of seed in there. The larger birds haven’t clocked it yet, or just can’t be bothered given the table food on offer.

Would like to put hanging feeders up for the tits, long tails etc but imagine the rat would return for the fallen scraps.

Dangle your fat balls over the washing line

Toss a live mealworm on the ground when you see a robin and they will definitely be the first bird to get to it. It’s both entertaining and satisfying. With patience you should eventually be able to get them to out of your hand if you want.

It’s got a couple of pull out legs for it to stand on.

If you look closely you’ll see that really they just fold them up close to their body.

Our resident robin also fails on the seed feeder and fat balls, and barely manages the peanut feeder. He seems to rely on overspill from the other birds being “selective” with the seed mix.

A bird table wouldn’t work either as the bigger birds will snaffle everything – if it’s not covered in snow.

I occasionally spread some seed under a wee fire pit we have. It’s low enough that the bigger birds avoid it.

This is a good reminder to find another feeder though, so thanks for the thread.

Toss a live mealworm on the ground when you see a robin and they will definitely be the first bird to get to it. It’s both entertaining and satisfying. With patience you should eventually be able to get them to out of your hand if you want.

Robins or Blackbirds are both pretty bloody sharpish in my garden. Its great fun.

I occasionally spread some seed under a wee fire pit we have

Not what I wanted to read just before lunch

Robins are ground feeders, so won’t cling the same way as other small birds. Whilst the big birds will hoover up what’s on the table, smaller/finer bits are left (especially if you’ve crushed up some suet/fat balls into the mix) and robins/dunnocks will have that throughout the day.

Best way to feed Robins – baby or otherwise

Orally.

I’ve got one of the ‘I love robin’ feeders designed for them because similarly we have resident robin/s and they were always just fighting for scraps. This is adjustable and I tuck it under a shrouded tree away from the other seed feeder and away from the fat balls and it seems to work for it to either use that feeder or the discarded bits from the other birds devouring the seed.

The one robin that visits mine just waits til the rabid starlings throw food out of the feeders then sweeps it up off the ground. I got a flat landing feeder that he also seems happy with (that sticks to a window, very nice) but it seems like it’s more hassle than its worth for most of the birds, even teh starlings will land on it but don’t bother to eat out of it, it’s just their waiting room.

(it’s a whole happy family, the crows shred the fatballs and fight the cats and seagulls, the starlings drop the suet pellets, the coaltits drop the seeds, then the obese pigeons and robin and the mouse that lives in the shed hoover up the mess. All I need is a hedgehog to eat the slugs. I do worry that if I ever forget to fill the feeders I’ll come back to some nightmare scene of murder and starvation after about 2 hours.)

I had a robin follow me as I was clearing up a Biffa skip load of leaves at one end of the car park, its up against a Laurel hedge and he was having a feast on worms and grubs. In the end he stood on my shoe and kept looking up at me as if to say “go on clear that bit”

Made my day TBH

We have an old round garden table we use (filigre, does that sound right?). We sometimes get takeaway arrive in round containers, mebbe six inches across and an inch deep – cleaned and cable-tied one to the middle of the table, bought a cage to stop bigger birds getting ito it (magpies can JUST squeeze through, the gits – pigeons are too fat), mix cheap, hot curry powder in with your mealworm to put squirrels off, et voila – nigh-on blackbird and robin perfection. 🙂

The robin in our garden follows us around like a puppy, it’s superb. Always behind you when you dig, rake or move something. And I don’t blame him, there are always grubs to be had.

Last year they nested in some old clay pipes under the bushes, was a ballsy spot but pretty well hidden and hard to access through brambles

A covered feeder might also mean that the sparrowhawk has a bit more work to do 🙂

My Robin has sussed the feeder with the sunflower hearts in that the goldfinches normally go to, but he’s also sussed the feeders with suet pellets in, and the one with the fatballs as well; I’ve been him actually hovering in front of feeders to snatch food, and he’s perfectly happy to potter around under the tree for things like calci worms the starlings that descend in a squabbling horde and drop half of what they eat on the patio.
The tits go after the fat-filled coconut shells, sunflower seeds and suet pellets, and the magpies particularly like the feeder I put the fatballs in, because it’s got large oval holes and the maggies can grip it and peck away at the fatballs, sometimes upside down. I’ve had a wren around, a pair of chaffinches, for the first time in years. The pigeons can make do with whatever they can pick up off the ground, I’ve managed to configure the feeders so they can’t reach them from any of the branches, there’s more than enough for them on the ground.

I have put out a feeder with regular mixed bird seed, but none of the birds seem interested, which might be for the best – the starling horde are eating a kilo of suet pellets a day, and I’m buying 5kg bags of calci worms every month and a couple of dozen fat balls a month.

Handful of porridge oats on a step or ledge. Ours live it 🙂

Sadly not so much food out last couple of years, because of diseases spreading around.

The robin in our garden follows us around like a puppy, it’s superb. Always behind you when you dig, rake or move something. And I don’t blame him, there are always grubs to be had.

There’s a robin in my Mum’s garden that does this too. Every time I’m down at hers I have to do a fair bit in the garden, she’s far too frail to manage but I enjoy the clearing out and the robin will always appear within a few minutes. It follows me around eating the grubs that are disturbed and then the blackbirds and thrushes join in to eat the slugs.

The robin and blackbirds in our garden have learnt to feed from the actual squirrel proof feeder.

In our garden the robin feeds from the regular seed feeder – just muscles in and frightens off the tits then eats to his little heart’s content.

This seems like a good way 🙂

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGd6WCknL/

All I need is a hedgehog to eat the slugs.

They’ll hoover up suet pellets that the birds drop, which is how I discovered they were regular visitors in the garden. They would go after mealworms as well, until I discovered those aren’t good for ‘hogs, so I but calci worms instead. In bulk.

I get lots of slugs when it’s wet, but the ‘hogs ignore them – if you knew what slugs eat, would you eat them given other choices? Currently there’s three that I know of visiting the garden.

I have seen the male blackbird whose territory includes my garden taking food from feeders, and he’s a fair bit bigger than a robin! So are the magpies, and they manage well enough; they’ll hang upside down. Robins are smart birds, they figure out pretty quickly how and where is the easiest way to get food.

I’ve seen my Robin on this feeder with fatballs in, because there’s plenty for him to grip onto.