Birds clearing the gutters?
Char74016
Posts: 78
Slightly curious as to why a group of the tiny birds I feed seem to have gathered in the gutter to have a clear out earlier today?
I always provide fresh water but also don't think they were there for that as they were all scuttling around in a line, tiny bits of dust and dry paint flecks falling all over as if they were clearing my gutter out (thanks birds!) They don't live or nest there 
Thank-you
P.S. from pics on the internet, I'm sure there are little sparrows but haven't managed to get a decent pic in the 3 months I've been feeding them (
) as they're just so skittish at every noise/movement!!
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looking for food, lots of seeds and insects in gutters.
I had a flock of Starlings in mine the other day, probably looking for grubs / insects. Before I cleaned out the gutters last year I used to get loads of moss raining from the skies.
Sheps...
Magpies and craws are the main culprits here for the 'moss chucking'
Hmmm @nut, I mentioned on your post about feeding the birds, the pigeons that have hijacked my yard and I have noticed the little ones don't seem to be here as much lately.. at least 1 of the pigeons is in the yard pecking away or perched on 1 of the rooftops opposite pretty much all the time in the last few days.
I hope the pigeons haven't frightened them off from feeding in my yard! They bully each other quite a lot - real funny to watch but can imagine they'd harm a little one quite badly if it pecked hard enough
@Sheps, hope my birds also found a tasty treat up there
Char
Could anyone ID these birds from the very blurry pic? There is lighter brown / beige slightly slimmer ones and little chubby ones with a dark band around their chest or heads...
Sounds like female and male house sparrows
https://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/h/housesparrow/
Thank-you Dove .. I'd say a definate positive I.D.
.. fab website with the audio of their chirps and videos too!
They all come out from overgrown hegding that runs down the side of the train track! Only 20/30 meters away from my house though, will they be here all year round and require food through the Winter too? :-)
They're resident in Britain so you'll see them regularly.
If you have bother with pigeons, try using good quality feed - the cheap stuff is bulked out with barley which they love. If you use one of the cage type feeders, that allows the smaller birds to get plenty of grub before the big ones snaffle it all!
The bigger birds and the ground feeders will get the stuff that falls out of the feeder.
lBeware of cheap mixes which contain mainly barley which is too large for many of the smaller birds and which just gets discarded on the ground where it germinates and grows as weeds in your garden.
House sparrows are becoming so rare - in my childhood they were really common, nesting beneath the roof tiles on our farmhouse and the old farm buildings, and having dust baths in the dusty dried mud of the farmyard on hot sunny days.