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how to get rid of mourning doves? (3 Viewers)

SquirrelOsO

Well-known member
im swamped with mourning doves, 26 to be exact.
the problem started a few months ago when i bought a hopper feeder on a pole and kept it filled with a basic seed mix.
plenty of birds visited this feeder but it brought in too many doves.

the doves would empty the hopper feeder in a few hours, mainly by just dumping the seeds out.
i then filled it with boss hoping the doves would move on, but sure enough they dumped most of it while eating some of it.
i now have a boss garden beneath this feeder.

so i had no choice but to remove this hopper feeder entirely (what a waste of money)
since then ive replaced the hopper with a caged triple tube feeder which is working nicely, no more doves on it.
but this hasnt solved my problem, now the doves moved on to my bluejay feeder which has a nut n' berry mix. they pick out a few things and dump the rest, but at least im now down to 10 doves a day.
i can always go back to just feeding the bluejays whole shelled peanuts in that feeder, but, then i have another problem, the ground feeder which is filled with a mixture of nut n' berry mix and suet nuggets for the chipmunks and squirrel. the doves are now in this feeder too scaring flocking around like freaks scaring everybody away.
i used to have titmouse, chickadees and several species of woodpecker, since the doves they are all gone and i havent seen them in months.

so now i wanna know, what WONT doves eat??
should i try striped sunflower in the ground feeder for the chipmunks?
do you think doves will eat that? there has to be a food out there that they wont eat :-O
 
my mourning doves all just clean up w/e falls to the ground. they eat anthing that falls out and keeps that seed from growing. they also like to be under the suet feeder and eat w/e scraps fall. my doves cant eat from any feeder though. i have tube feeders that have perches so that they cant even stand on the feeder to eat. they do try every once in a while though =]
 
i think that was my problem, the hopper feeder. it had a large landing area that the doves would nestle on and eat all day. it was a perfect fit for them. i also had a fly through feeder that was big enough for them also, and a platform feeder on the ground.
so they had three large feeding areas to feed from for a very long time. long enough to build up 26 doves, just imagine 26 doves all at once? its not a pretty sight.
well its been a few days now since i took away the big feeders and got rid of the seed mix. i got down to 10 doves and now today i only had a few.
sad part is taking away that feeder mix means i have sparrows looking pretty lost. theres a baby cowbird crying on my lawn and no one is coming to feed him, i blame the sudden lack of seed mix for this.
so to help out this baby i put out some seed mix this afternoon hoping his parents will come for him. his parents must be a sparrow since hes running and screaming after them trying to find his ma and pa...its like a disney movie lol
im also losing my cardinals, they dont like the new caged feeder.

good news is yesterday i had some chickadees and one titmouse. they must know the "coast is clear" and decided to come out :)
 
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