Homeowner Wonders Why Birds Aren’t Visiting Their Feeder — then People Spotted a Major Mistake
In the fall of 2024, a homeowner, u/Lots_Loafs11, bought a brand-new bird feeder and installed it on the front door of their townhome. On the very first day, their camera popped 91 notifications with ravishing footage of titmice, chickadees, blue jays, and others. However, the delightful experience of watching colorful birdies flocking to their feeder to eat and sip soon turned into a disappointing episode. Soon after installing the feeder, they filled it with Woodlands Wild Bird Feed Mix with black oil sunflower seeds, millets, peanuts, and lots of corn. All of a sudden, their camera screen went blank. The birds just disappeared.
Their abrupt disappearance jolted the birdkeeper into a cesspool of puzzling thoughts. Did the birds not like the bistro they had set up in the feeder? Or did they get swallowed up by a giant bear? Maybe, all the birds were now perched on another gourmet feeder, or perhaps, they were living on a diet of cicadas. To unravel this clump of confusion, they took to Reddit to ask fellow users to guess the reason for disappearing birdies. “Why aren’t birds coming to my feeder anymore?” they captioned the post.
A picture beneath the caption showed a turquoise-colored Kadymay Solar-powered Bird Feeder with an HD camera and Smart Wild Watching Birdhouse, mounted on the hinge of a door that opened into the garden. The second picture was from the bird camera that had captured a fuzzy grey bird eating from the tray filled with assorted seeds and corn kernels. “I am new to bird watching and just got a feeder with a camera about a week ago,” the gardener shared. They added that every three days, they replace the uneaten food with fresh food, also cleaning the feeder regularly. “Not a single bird has come since the first day.”
“I’m worried it’s too close to the house, and that’s why they aren’t coming. It is next to a sliding glass door, I have left the curtains open and closed, and it doesn’t seem to make a difference,” they said, wondering whether the reason for disappearing birds was the feeder's location. They also contemplated whether the choice of bird food was not appropriate. “It seems grains, corn, and black oil sunflower seeds. It does look like the birds ate all the black oil sunflower seeds and left all the corn,” they wrote in a comment.
But as it turned out, Reddit users had simpler explanations to describe the vanishing birds. “They are getting suspicious that they are being watched,” Reddit user u/bearsheperd guessed. u/yasposta said that the birds did not consent to be photographed by strangers, and therefore, they refused to visit the feeder to dine out. Whereas, u/JocastaH-B said it was quite normal for the birds to disappear at this time of the year. “I find visits from garden birds drop this time of year.”
Several users offered better food suggestions that could help the birder attract birds to their feeder. “Pennington fruit and nut mix is the best. My flock loves it. I have gold finches, and other little finches, indigo bunting, bluebirds, blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers, tufted titmice, and a lot of other species,” suggested u/leafcomforter. u/Ercokat shared, “I added mealworms to my feeder and saw more songbirds.” u/desertdarlene recommended hanging the feeder on a plant stand instead of installing it on the door. It seems these tips worked, because lately, they’ve been posting clips of surreal cardinal couples, goldfinches, and other birds captured by their bird cam as they nibbled seeds and nuts from the feeder!