Garden

[PA Mom-mom]

My DH bought a red colored bird feeder, because he thought it would look great in the snow.

Well, no birds would eat out of this feeder! They would land, but take off right away and go to another feeder. So, yesterday he painted it grey. Guess what? The birds LOVE it! Has anyone else had this experience?

[luvmybeetle]

I have not heard of this before.  The bird feeders we have are clear.  Just the top and bottom have colors.  Mine are green.  That's a very good thing to think about.  

[Annabellethecat66]

I have bird feeders all over my uncovered part of my back porch.

I've always read that birds (most) don't have much sense of smell or taste.

Here's what I read from one website:

Bird Sight

Eyesight is a bird's most critical sense and the one it relies on the most for flight, evading predators, and finding food. Birds have a thicker retina than humans, and their eyes are larger in proportion to their head size. They have much denser rods and cones, the "seeing" cells, packed on the retina, giving them superior vision in both black-and-white and color. The range of colors birds see is not much greater than humans, but some species, such as hummingbirds, can see ultraviolet colors.

Where birds' eyesight truly excels is in the perception of motion and detail. Birds can see small motions or tiny details 2-3 times better than humans, which can help them find food more easily or see the stealthy approach of a predator. In many birds, the eyes are positioned further apart on the head, giving them a wider field of view than humans. Birds with eyes on the sides of their head, such as most songbirds, can nearly see directly behind themselves, which can be useful for detecting predators and evading attacks.Because their vision is so critical, birds have an inner nictitating membrane that helps protect their eyes and cleans them frequently. During a fight birds often spread their wings to protect their eyes, and when attacking, they know instinctively to go for the eyes of their adversary.

I put out suet cakes for mainly the woodpeckers.  They weren't eating the new one's I'd put out.  (I buy the hot one's from Amazon by the case).

I was upset because the woodpeckers were not eating the new one's.  Then it dawned on me that I'd put out a new small suet case with a small cover over them.

I think the birds couldn't get to the suet (not enough room with the lid).

I also have a suet holder that is just on a big stick.  They love that one.

But I bought the one with the little top because the rain was washing away so much of the suet.

I decided to give the one with the lid to a friend...maybe he can make it work better.  As for me, I'll just keep living with the rain melting the suet (it's not too bad) because I love watching the huge woodpeckers eating from it.  They are huge.

[goldensrbest]

Never heard of that ,i do have a feeder that the birds do not like though,but not red.

[Mindy D]

If you go go to the research paper, you will see that the colors vary by bird species, but that red and yellow were less preferred overall. British robins prefer black feeders. House sparrows prefer green, blue, silver and black. Most species in the study were types of ti  ts. 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0172422

Rothery, L, Scott & Morell LJ. (2017) Color preferences of UK garden birds at supplementary seed feeders. PlosONE 12(2):e0172422

“7,535 individual visits to the feeders from 11 different species.”

“What color should my bird feeder be?”, Lesley Morell, Jan. 27, 2017, The Morell Lab.

[PA Mom-mom]

@Mindy D  Thanks for that info! That explains why they are loving the new grey color! Who knew?!?

[on the bay]

That is very interesting! Great to know!

[depglass]

Every hummigbird feeder we've ever had was red.  Go figure.  We do keep the syrup clear, though.  Winter feeder was a weathered brown wood.