Spiral tube feeders or window feeders...do either thwart grackles? (1 Viewer)

Grackles have taken over my feeders. So much so that they empty my big solar feeders in 2 days and are costing me a great deal of money. Worse, they've chased away all but a few housefinches and one brave boreal chickadee. I haven't seen my dozens of other birds in over a week.

I bought a Heritage Farms squirrel-proof feeder that is supposed to work on grackles as well. It didn't. Even on its most sensitive setting the grackles still feasted merrily while my finches sat on the fence watching.

I'm going to save up to order a caged feeder online so only my little birds can possibly get in to feed, but that will take me a bit (budget is pretty tight at the moment). In the meantime, I was wondering if window feeders discourage grackles because they are so shy of coming too close to the house? Do those tube feeders with the spirals running the length of the tube instead of perches work? Or can grackles grip the spiral perch easily?

Thanks in advance!

It must be grackle season. I just posted a very similar question. I will be watching this thread as well.

i too and having a hard time with grackles they dont leave my feeders alone and all i have now visiting my feeders are house finches and a few cardinals.

My few brave finches were outside the window looking for their feeder (I took down my feeders and shepherd hook until I can figure out a solution). It made me so sad to see them buzzing the window over and over again.

So I ran out and bought an Opus Dine Around window feeder. It has the select-a-seed option: by turning the base you can select the large opening for sunflower or mixed seed, or you can select the tiny opening for nyjer seed. It has perches so I imagine the grackles, if they brave coming this close to the window, can hold onto it so I have the feeder set for the nyjer seed. I bought a seed mix called Finch & Chips. Love that name! It is nyjer seed and tiny bits of sunflower hearts.

So I'm hoping that, even if the grackles try this feeder, they won't be able to get their beaks into the tiny holes for the seed. If they do, and my finches take to this feeder, I'll switch to pure nyjer seed until I can get the caged feeder. Hopefully I don't have to make the switch to nyjer because at least with this seed mix my boreal chickadees should still visit!

We'll see how this works. So far, no visitors. But I'll keep you posted!

I managed to thwart the grackles! The Opus Dine-Around window feeder was a bust because the grackles could feed from it, and the way the feeding ports were designed created swimming pools for the seed when it rained. Not good!

So I bought a Yule Hyde/Perky Pet window feeder. It is acrylic, and shaped like a little house. And it is too little for grackles! The roof is too low to allow a grackle to perch, and the bottom comes up too high so the grackles can't hang on, avoiding the roof, and pick at the seed. They can't use this feeder at all! Hurray! But the other birds took to it faster than I ever imagined! By the next morning, they were using the feeder happily.

I thought I'd won, until my cat entered the equation. My hanging feeders were only a few feet away from the window, and the cat just calmly watched the birds. Now that the window feeder is there, he seems to feel it's his duty to launch himself bodily at the window and scare off my birds.:C There's not a window in the house that he can't reach, either! ARGGG!

So I guess I'm back to saving up for that caged feeder.:-C

But for those of you who don't have a cat on bird-security duty, this feeder works great to thwart those grackles and other large birds!