Hunt for bargains and birds won’t go hungry

A RETIRED couple who are regular readers of this page have sent me a long email about the pleasure and satisfaction they get from feeding the birds in their garden.

However, the email also mentions they are attracting so many birds they’re having difficulty affording the feed. I can see how this could be a problem. Peanuts are actually quite cheap if you shop around and buy in bulk. But niger seed costs about €10 a kilo and although my feeder only allows two birds pick out the tiny black seeds one at a time the goldfinches and siskins can easily get through a kilo in a week to ten days.

Niger seed, which is sometimes wrongly labelled as thistle seed, was developed as a human food crop in the highlands of Ethiopia. It is very high in both proteins and oils, which is why it’s so popular with wild birds. Its size makes it particularly popular with goldfinches and siskins because both these species are finches that specialise in eating small seeds.