I have just bought a bird feeder, where would be the best place to put it? Birds need to feel safe when feeding. Locate your feeder so as to give all-round vision to its visitors, and ideally not more than 6 feet from convenient cover such as trees or shrubs. If you are replacing an old feeder, leave it in place until the birds become accustomed to the new one. And remember, it can sometimes take several weeks for birds to have the confidence to start visiting a new feeder, but be careful not to let the food go stale. Most common garden birds are fundamentally woodland species, and they do not like straying too far from cover. If the birds feel that they can quickly escape into surrounding vegetation in the event of a predator appearing they are much more likely to use the feeder. Where cats are a problem, the ideal location will avoid low-lying cover below the feeder where ground feeding birds may well forage on spilt seed, as this reduces the chances of an ambush. There are people who successfully use window feeders on the upper stories of apartment buildings in urban areas, but as a general rule, mature gardens with lots of cover will attract more birds than gardens on new developments with minimal cover. A useful tip in gardens suffering from a shortage of cover is to plant one or more Butterfly Bushes (Buddleia davidii) or other plants which should provide