My grandmother bought me a squirrel proof feeder for Christmas. It is a wide mesh wire cage around a finer mesh wire tube. The idea is the birds can perch on the wire cage and reach the food in the wire tube while the squirrels can't reach. I put the feeder up with a mixed food made up mostly of sunflower seed and cracked corn. The squirrels could not get to the food but it seems neither can the birds!! Or at least they dont' like this feeder.
I changed the food out a few days ago for a food made up of slightly larger pieces, mostly dried corn kernels, peanuts and sunflower seeds. The pieces are still small enough to fit through the mesh though. I don't know why the birds are avoiding this feeder. We've had alot of very cold weather and I would think if anything that woudl bring more birds into feeder stations. I still am getting nuthatches and chickadees at my suet feeder. If my birds don't start coming back I think I'll just have to go back to my old NON squirrel proof feeder (Never will forget the day a chipmunk got INSIDE the seed reservoir of the 'cabin' style feeder).
Sierra
I changed the food out a few days ago for a food made up of slightly larger pieces, mostly dried corn kernels, peanuts and sunflower seeds. The pieces are still small enough to fit through the mesh though. I don't know why the birds are avoiding this feeder. We've had alot of very cold weather and I would think if anything that woudl bring more birds into feeder stations. I still am getting nuthatches and chickadees at my suet feeder. If my birds don't start coming back I think I'll just have to go back to my old NON squirrel proof feeder (Never will forget the day a chipmunk got INSIDE the seed reservoir of the 'cabin' style feeder).
Sierra