How to attract birds to a new feeder

A new feeder in a yard with no feeding history is an unmarked restaurant on an empty road. Birds locate food socially — they watch each other — so until one individual finds you, there is nothing for anyone else to notice. That is why the first two weeks are quiet and the fourth week is busy.

The four things that speed it up

1. Use the seed with the widest appeal

Black oil sunflower. Project FeederWatch calls it the preferred food item for a wide variety of birds, and a single-ingredient bag means whichever species arrives first will find something it wants. A cheap mix is the slowest possible start — here is why.

2. Make it visible from the air

A feeder tucked under a dense shrub or against a dark fence is hard to see from above. Put it in the open where the light catches it. Some people scatter a small handful of seed on the feeder tray or a nearby surface for the first week to make it more obvious — a reasonable trick, provided you use a small amount and clear up anything left after a day or two, because seed on the ground is how you get rodents.

3. Give them somewhere to retreat to

Birds will not feed in the open with nowhere to bolt for. Project FeederWatch recommends natural cover close by, with about ten feet as the compromise between escape cover and squirrel jumping distance. A shrub, a small tree, even a pile of prunings left in a corner all count.

4. Add water

A shallow dish of clean water can bring birds into a yard faster than seed does, especially in dry weather. Keep it shallow — an inch or two — put it near the same cover, and clean it as often as you clean the feeder.

What does not speed it up

• Moving the feeder. Every move restarts the discovery clock. This is the single most common self-inflicted delay.
• Buying a different feeder. If nothing has found the food, the container is not the problem.
• More feeders. An empty yard with three feeders in it is still an empty yard.
• Bird calls played on a phone. At best it does nothing; it can also stress birds during breeding season. Skip it.

A realistic timeline

If you already fed last year

Returning birds remember locations, so a feeder put back in the same spot in autumn is often found within a day or two. That is also the argument for not relocating a feeder that works.

The seasonal factor

A feeder put out during a natural food glut — a good acorn or berry year — competes with free food that is everywhere. It will still be found; it will simply be less busy until the glut ends. This is one of the most common reasons a feeder goes quiet, and it is covered in why no birds are coming. Autumn timing is in the fall feeding calendar.