[SallyintNorth]

BH has come up with the idea that, as we are having some refurbishment in our cattle shed, we should take the opportunity to put up some bird feeders to make sure the little birds have every chance of getting through the winter.

We get birds moving in anyway, of course, we keep hay and straw in there and there're seeds, grains, cattle cake, sheep cake come lambing time, etc.

He hasn't seen chaffinches in there for a few years and would like them back.  We do have sparrows and he doesn't want to be feeding them and attracting hoards.  We also have about 4 Jackdaws who have sussed out who gets fed what, where and when - you can tell whereabouts on my morning round I am by where they are sat, bibs on, ready and waiting...

So I am detailed to source bird feeders to attract and feed chaffinches but not sparrows, pigeons but not jackdaws.     His plan is that we would hang the feeders above the cows' heads under the platform which holds the water tanks.

Any advice on types of feeders and food that would attract the birds he wants and not be overly welcoming to - or if poss, not usable by - the others?

[tizaala]

you need something with an overhanging lid that has perspex side walls so smaller birds have to fly up and in, the jackdaws can't do that.
 We have a large population of Goldfinches and a few Bullfinches, but we don't feed them because of our killer cats, one of them takes swallows on the wing....

[Fleecewife]

Hi Sally - he's set you a bit of an impossible task    It's funny because here we have thousands of chaffinches (a slight exaggeration  ) and hardly any sparrrows - an improvement on none at all until 2 years ago.  So we are very happy with our little flock of a couple of dozen sparrows; sparrows are now far less numerous than when I was a child when there were always huge flocks around the farm.  We also quite like our jackdaws because they are so intelligent and full of character so we put up with some of their other habits - such as enjoying sheep coarse mix    We keep an eye on the pigeon nests to make sure they are safe but then I chase the birds away when they come after my brassicas  
One thing to beware of is that alot of feed will be spilled from any type of feeder - chaffinches are very good at clearing that up, hopefully before the rats get there.  Feeding birds will also produce a lot of droppings so perhaps best not to have them right above the cattle.
Peanut feeders will attract those little birds which can cling on such as various tits, woodpeckers, siskins, and so on, although chaffinches and sparrows can use them perfectly well too. Seed feeders will attract the rest - sparrows, chaffinches, yellow hammers, jackdaws, etc as well as the tits .

I wish we could do something about the wrens.  I believe they are still very numerous but here we haven't seen one for two years because of the bad winters.

As well as providing food year round to encourage the birds, it is important to provide nesting sites (hedgerows, trees, buildings) and wild feeding sites such as lawns (for blackbirds), and seed producing plants, maybe in a field edge which can be sown with a wild bird mixture and left for seed and cover, and hedgerows with a variety of seed and fruits.
Everything you can do though is great to help protect our birds  .

Roll on our new wildlife section here on TAS  

[HappyHippy]

Hi Sally,
I use these things round my hanging feeders http://www.birdfood.co.uk/product_details.php?area_id=2&group_id=17&nav_id=147&prd_id=1637 (you can also buy a similar thing for bird tables - great for ground feeders like robins. blackbirds etc) It keeps big birds out and lets little ones in.
The website I've linked to above is GREAT for all things birdy and have specially blended seed mixes to attract certain species (they also do a great cataloge which gets thumbed through on a regular basis  )
The trick for winter feeding of small birds is fatballs - they can get by on fairly small quantities of them compared to seeds/nuts etc because of the high levels of fat. And fatballs are really easy to make 
My favourite thing is to get some bits of log and drill fairly wide holes in them all over(20mm or so) then stuff the mix in the holes and hang them up - woodpeckers love them ! Just don't hang them too near a window or the log rattles off it as they peck 
Good luck and let us know how you get on,
Karen x 

[Fleecewife]

Hi HH I like the holes in a log idea 

[SallyintNorth]

Thanks for all the ideas guys n gals.  I've sent off for the free handbook, thanks for that link Karen.  I think I can fashion a weldmesh 'filter' to keep the bigger birds out - great plan.

I printed your post off for himself, fleecewife - and your voice added to mine has convinced him we maybe shouldn't site it above the cows' heads, so thank you very much!    

Fat - now, where can I get fat ....  !!!  Can do!

[Hatty]

Hi HH I like the holes in a log idea 

Ditto