Feeding waxeyes

I used to watch a flock of about 20 crested cockatoos that flew over regularly.
They looked magnificent but sadly DOC got rid of them.

Hi, we feed the birds here, fine wild bird seed, an extra for the Wax Eyes is a banana or two each day slit in half lengthways and place the skin side on top of a fence paling, we do this at the end of July, to feed the mums to be, then when the little ones are taught by their parents to feed they bring them to the bananas, so they can stand on the fence while the parents put pieces of the banana into the young one's mouth while they are trying to balance, then the little one then learns to fly and feed themselves, it is so beautiful to watch. When they are bigger and they start flying around to other places, we stop the bananas, so they can learn to look after themselves.
Sometimes I put out a strung up meat thing for feeding the birds, and meat scraps, all types eat this.
I started feeding the birds many years ago when we once had a dry and windy hot spring, which blew a baby Thrush out of the hedge who couldn't fly, and I watched a full-grown Sparrow beside it throwing seeds into its mouth, I also placed water and food out, though sadly not long after this it died.
We live near a park, and now have so many different birds visiting, the Wax eyes are now numbering between 30-40 when they come back for breeding every year, plus many others, we can get about sometimes well over 80.
I do have lots of fruit trees that the birds also eat, though feeding them the seeds they tend to leave the fruit alone, they eat the fruit that I can't reach or is rotting so they come in handy.
The local resident's Cats are always around, though the birds have learnt to be wiser than them, which inturns the cats then keep the mice and rats down that come from the park.

Dripping/fat left over from a roast.Let it go hard, and then put it out in a bird feeder. They just gorge on it. Most of the above fruits as well get eaten.

Great idea with the banana.

Loved reading this!

Loved this!

I feed the birds with everything but meat. I have a large fig tree that I have never eaten a fig off. I let every type of bird devour them all.

we put out fruit and sugar water every day. wax eyes love banana. Tui drink next to them so its an Aussie Kiwi thing going on.

all Birds are pests to primary industries, so some people hate them, hits them in the pocket, oh dear

Some people forget that animals own the land as much as the human "homeowner" owns it. Sad way to live eh.

I always thought waxeyes were cute & harmless, then my jaw hit the floor when I watched one absolutely tear apart a praying mantis - brutal!

We have a pair of blackbirds who come into the porch and eat cat kibble that the stray cats have left behind. The birds first perch on a handrail to check no cats are around, then fly down to the bottom step, hop onto the next one up and eventually (after more looking around for cats) into the porch.
The cat biscuits are about 8 to 10mm in size and the blackbirds just swallow them whole. A CCTV camera pointed down catches all the action, as well as letting me know when one of the cats wants in.