No birds

perhaps put one into a tree away from the wall and see if that makes a difference. I have found a few sultanas in a visible dish on the ground often encourages ground feeders in.

at least you are getting starlings even if you are not keen on them. I'd be more worried if you were getting none at all.

sorry that isn't much help.

There must be some distraction going on that makes the birds feel unsafe. A cat, dog, people too close, hawks or owls maybe that you can't see. I have a single tube feeder and my garden is like Grand Central Station - sometimes it's a little embarrassing with all the noise and fluttering about they make - hundreds of them. However when the blue jays show up, the rest are gone like smoke. The blue jays are larger and aggressive towards the smaller birds and they show up in gangs.

I wonder if putting some seeds, say sunflower seed hearts on top of the wall might attract them & alert them to the fact that food is on offer in the area. If they take it they might be then enticed into the garden by stages. It's worth a try. Good luck.

Sorry, Arbuthnot, but I've just realised that it's the wall of a house, so not a feasible idea. What us at the front of your house? Have you a garden there?

I have a nut feeder hanging from my pergola, Arbuthnot. It’s sort of secluded and fairly safe from cats, especially my cat! Plus, like Eileen mentioned, can you put a seed feeder in one of your trees, hanging in a sort of safe, discreet way?
I’ve a seed feeder at the top of my bund steps. It’s on a stick of sorts attached to the fence. Just enough height so as not to be at danger from cats - saying that, a hawk could swoop down. It’s all about taking a chance I guess in the safest way possible.

I think large mature trees and shrubs are most helpful as they give the birds somewhere to hide between visits to the feeder.

Since you obviously love birds I hope you'll forgive this slight digression. My neighbour has a beech hedge and, yesterday, I saw a sparrowhawk sitting on top of it and a blackbird hiding in the middle. The sparrowhawk tried a number of times to get at the blackbird and then a crow came down and 'buzzed' the sparrowhawk.

Eventually, the blackbird made a dash for the shrubs in my garden and the sparrowhawk took off after it only to get knocked off course by the crow. After sitting on my fence for a couple of minutes, the sparrowhawk took off and flew along the gardens and the crow, its work done, took off across the field.

We are surrounded by bird feeding neighbours so the birds here are so well fed that they do not need to visit as often as we would like.
Wonder if that is what is going on for Arbuthnot?

Well, Owd, that’s the conclusion I’ve come to although none of my immediate neighbours appear to have feeders.

However, there has been a cat, mostly unseen by me, who poos on both front and back lawns. I think I may have deterred it by the use of curry powder but I don’t know for sure. As for hanging a feeder in one of my small trees, I tried that and, at first it seemed to work, as did putting only nyger seeds in another feeder but the novelty seemed to wear off and I now only see the odd blue tit or blackbird. We are though in an area where red kites flourish but since I make certain the feeders are protected I feel it’s unlikely that birds of prey are the problem.
I’ll persevere and keep hoping.
Thank you for all the replies and suggestions.

Sparrowhawks are swift and powerful raptors. They would have no problems catching whatever they wanted. They only kill for food, not sport. They visit my bird feeder occasionally, but not for the seeds

I think its the red kites. I did a little research and red kites are birds of prey and they are very territorial which apparently includes your bird feeder. They eat small birds and mammals. Anything in their territory is fair game, That's why you get no birds to your feeder. They don't want to be breakfast.

We have red kites here but have only seen sparrowhawk(s) and kestrel(s) hunting birds (although we don't spend all of our time watching).

The RSPB site says red kites eat:
Mainly carrion and worms, but opportunistic and will occasionally take small mammals.

hmm that's interesting. We have sparrowhawks but I never see them coming-they are so swift and cunning. All I see is a flash and one little bird is no more. I guess that's nature's way of keeping everything in check. I don't hate them - they also eat mice, rats and that sort of thing. I know better than to have a fish pond in my back yard.

I’ve seen that, too, Bathgate. One just swooped and plucked a starling from the feeder and started to pluck it. The feeder was one of those free standing ones which we had positioned in the middle of the lawn. It was pretty soon removed!