The Hutch Company Fully Assembled Fordwich Black Rare Bird Table Retreat

I bought this as with my existing simple bird table (which is open, no hood) the small birds eg blue tits and robins, even blackbirds were not getting a look-in as my garden hosts a lot of starlings, two crows and several pigeons and they made sure they monopolised the table. So this Fordwich table looked ideal. It was much much bigger and bulkier than I expected - about three times bigger than expected, but in a good way. And had slats on two sides which looked like it would keep out the bigger birds. I thought it was very sturdy, and very well built and attractive. The pole/stand was quite a bit shorter than I expected so the proportions didn't seem quite in tune with the short pole and ginormous bird table on top but I've got used to it and think it looks lovely. It was easy to put together. As the table was much bigger than I expected, the two sides that did not have slats on to keep larger birds out seemed a bit odd (in fact big enough for a pigeon to get in!!) so I added extra slats across those two opening which was easy to do and only took about 15 minutes from cutting a bit of wood I found in the garage and screwing them on. With all the slats in place I put the seeds in a little container and popped it inside the fort-like table. By this time it was getting dark so no birds around. I get up next morning to an unusually noisy dawn chorus. Surely it must be a lot of blue tits and robins enjoying the safety of the new bird table!?! I look out the window and laughed uncontrollably for about 10 minutes! No robins in sight but at least 15 starlings were in or on the new bird table, babies were being fed on it, in it and dashing in and out however small the slats! So, that went well then!! But at least that meant they weren't on the other open table so the robins and blue-tits had a field day eating the food on that! Even starlings can't be in two places at once! But at least the pigeons, crows and other large birds can't get in it. I don't think blackbirds like it at all. The robins have been in occasionally when the starlings are flying manically around the garden or preoccupied elsewhere. But I give this product 5 stars. It does look extremely nice and in the winter when the starlings have hopefully moved out, it will give shelter to the smaller birds I'm sure. In short, I love it. I've named it Starling Lodge!

We are delighted with our new bird table. It looks great and is very well built and so easy to assemble. We read other reviews for different bird tables and decided to choose this one as it looked so much more sturdy and a decent size compared to others. We would highly recommend this table to anyone considering buying one. So far the birds have been visiting it regularly and we have had blue tits, great tits, coal tits, robins, sparrows and lots of chaffinches. A great buy and well worth the money.

We got this table for our new garden. It looks great, is very sturdy and was really easy to assemble. We gave it a coat of wood protector to help make it last but I don't think that was strictly necessary. Even in our windy garden it's held up well for the past 2 months and hasn't yet shown any movement. Hope it stays that way, but getting some pegs is simple enough.All the little birds seem to love it and visit regularly. The main problem is the pigeons, and I'm still at war with them...- by default the openings on either side are too big and easily allow pigeons through. By day two we had two fat ones clear out all the seed.- we tried using a strip of wood that one of the commenters on here suggested, it seemed to do the trick for a few days but eventually they found that they can just squeeze through- we tried adding an additional strip of wood going across, making a cross (+) shape. Again, for a day orso they were puzzled, but then figured out that if they perch on the edge they can duck inside. One of them was too fat to get in, but that one realised he could just perch on the edge and at least eat all the seed that's near the edgeWe're stuck there at the moment. Without making the opening too small, we're constantly battling the pigeons. We don't want to do anything that puts off the benign birds. The worst thing is waking up to find 2 fat pigeons sat in the bird house, or even worse, having flown off after clearing it out and leaving nothing for the small ones.I feel like the next step is going to be improving the cross (+) by adding some chicken wire across the bottom two squares. Hopefully that will mean the pigeons can't squeeze through or access the seed from outside, yet the smaller, lighter birds can still get in from the top two squares and get theirs. The downside to this is it then becomes more difficult for us to get the seed and other foods in.Summary: overall a lovely bird table, looks good and receives many compliments. Feels like it will last. Just a nightmare in making it pigeon-proof, the battle continues.

To be honest I was shocked at how big it was and how well made and sturdy so I was really pleased with this bird table and it came in two parts with just 4 screws with holes pre drilled so was easy to to screw in place . I couldn't wait to put it in the garden for my birds as I already have a feeder but I have pigeons and magpies and crows and seagulls too so my little birds get left out bless them also I have 5 squirrels which are now hand tame and come to me for their peanuts and they will go onto my feeder so this new bird table was just for the little ones and it didn't disappoint at all almost immediately the bluetits and robins went straight in there and because the gap is quite small the pigeons haven't attempted to go in neither have my naughty squirrels which is fantastic so I am pleased all round it looks great in the garden it does exactly what I wanted and it is really sturdy so won't blow over easily although I have bought some sturdy pegs just in case so if you are thinking of buying a bird table this one ticks all the boxes as far as I am concerned .