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How to discourage White-winged Doves? (1 Viewer)

Pat E

Member
Help! I am being eaten out of house and home by the doves. I live near Houston, Texas and a friend lives in San Antonio, Texas. We both have White-winged Dove infestations at our backyard feeders. I just feed wild bird seed and sunflower seeds. Not sure what he feeds but I think similar.

When I had a grackle problem a few years ago, I transitioned all my feeders to safflower and the grackles went away. After a couple of weeks I transitioned back to the regular seed with no problems.

Now the pest is the ww dove. They clean out my feeders in just a few minutes and run off all of the other birds.

Is there any type of seed that will discourage the ww's while still appealing to some of the other birds (mostly N.Cardinal, B.Jay, House Finch, Carolina Chickadee, Sparrows?)

Appreciate any hints, ideas, thoughts, just anything that I can try short of the BBQ pit idea my dh came up with.:eek!:
 
I'm sure someone will come along with the right (wrong) seed for the WW Doves. I resorted to a different feeder that could be set to the weight I wanted. I've set it to hold birds up to Cardinal size, but when a White-winged gets on the perch is forced down by their weight and closes the seed holes. I've seen others with cages around them that only let in a certain size of bird. Might be worth a try.
Oh - I still feed the Doves just in a separate area with the Quail - I can control the amount I put on the ground and they have to make do.
 
I live in Houston and have the same problem. Frankly, if it weren't for the white winged doves and house sparrows, I'm not sure my feeder would have any traffic at all. Those doves are nearly as aggressive as squirrels.
 
Thanks Lisa, I've seen the weight adjustable feeders and hadn't thought of that. Great idea. I will give that a shot. I even have an old feeder that has the smaller opening cage around it. I found that most birds seemed afraid to go into the cage, but I might drag it out and try it again too.

Brookie, They try to chase off the squirrels in my yard and are sometimes successful. They really are aggressive.

Pat
 
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