Nyjer Seed

Saw this pair pecking at the nyjer seed. do these birds just eat anything, like pigeons. I thought it was just a gold finch that found these tasty.
Any info on this? I know it's not the best photo in the world

Black collared doves.... they are a bleedin' nuisance!

They do seem to eat anything, I've got one feeder that
they can get at and it's emptied within hours of filling it

They are called Turkse tortels here. Not as much of a nuisance as their bigger cousins the wood pigeon, at least not round these parts.

Put a metal cage over the feeder - that stops the blighters.

Wonder what are they like with a pie crust over them

Yum! Yum! do they taste like chicken

The feeder is a circular mesh tray with a clear plastic
lamp shade type cover, it's quite well made and can be lowered.
I thought I'd lowered it enough to keep them out, but it doesn't
seem that I have.

Quite a good feeder because the birds get inside it and look
like they are driving a boat

Bony. Not much meat on them - go for wood pigeons, or even a rock pigeon (aka flying rat), much meatier birds.

Like all pigeons/doves they breed all year round given a good food supply (read nyjer seeds:roll.

Photograph please

So more than 4 and 20 would be required? Ref Blackbirds in a pie(Olde English Recipe)

I haven't taken any photos of them.... I'd have to
rig up the camera on a wireless remote to get anything,
but the feeder is this one...

link

Quite well made no rust after about 3 years use. You can see
the thumbscrew that clamps the dome to whatever height you
want.

Robins and tits seem to like it and get inside. You can also
put fatballs in it.

-

Collared Doves will eat almost any seed, we get between 4 and 8 of these in the garden plus as many Wood Pigeons.

What I do is put enough food on the ground for the Doves and Pigeons and only have feeders that the smaller birds can sit on, the one in your photo is not designed for nyjer seed they are completely different.

Another thing you could try is to remove the tray on the bottom of the feeder so they have no where to perch.

I must say I enjoy all the birds that come into our garden even the Doves and Pigeons, that's why I have 20+ feeders in our garden (which is only 20 by 35 feet) the way I look at it is there all birds and they all need to feed to survive and in return give us so much pleasure.

I enjoy all the birds in my garden too, well maybe not the magpies so much, but I couldn't afford the food for 20 feeders .

We have a fairly tame Jay who comes calling quite often, and will eat from our hand which is lovely.

What I have done is to have 3 or 4 bottles of wine less a month so that I can afford the bird food, although I must admit I do see twice as many birds after a few glasses of wine.

Perhaps I should complain to the RSPB because the feeder is designed by them specially for nyjer seed, and was labeled as such. It was a lot more expensive than I really wanted to pay, the other type with just very small slots was less than half the price but less than a quarter of the quality too. I don't drink so no further savings to be made for extra feeding stations.

Just looked on the RSPB site Stan and see what you mean, all the feeders I have for nyjer seed only have very small slots in them. Although I must say mine are not from the RSPB, I purchased mine from the local hardware shop, and they are of the aluminium and strong perspex type which I got for half price (£9.99) at that time and have had them for over 8 years now so they have lasted very well.

I like these birds - due to the size, colour and plumage sometimes when I grab a photo of them they help create the illusion that I may have a clue - in the right light they seem to photograph well giving plenty of detail

We only hang up fat balls from the washing line and that leaves our garden almost exclusively to the house sparrows and our resident worm munching blackbirds.

I put fat balls in a cage and watch the starlings doing battle Still trying to snap a 3 way bout in a flight fight.