Hello everyone. New member from the High Plains of Texas and I'm new to feeding wild birds.
So about three months ago I was strolling around in the local Home Depot and I found the bird feeder section. Feeders of every shape and color. On a lark I decided I wanted to give this a try and see what kind of birds might come around. I got a couple of feeders, some mixed songbird seed, and some black oil sunflower seeds to fill them with.
I hung them up in my back yard and waited to see what I would get. Turns out, there's not much variety out here. Sparrows and Doves make up 99.5% of the birds in my area. An occasional Mockingbird comes around and I've heard rumors of Woodpeckers being in the area but I've never seen one. The only colorful birds to ever appear are Blue Jays, and they are few and far between. I saw my first Cardinal last week which was pretty neat as I didn't even know we had Cardinals.
Now for the problem. Doves. Oh my goodness they gorge until there is nothing left in the feeders and they bully all the other birds off the feeders and even on the ground under the feeders. They kind of suck. When I first put up my feeders, the Doves would empty the 4lb feeder in 2 hours. I couldn't afford to feed them. I have counted 40 Doves at one time in my yard. The feeders were completely covered in Doves and the ground below was a moving carpet of Doves. They kept every other bird away from the area.
I was going to just take down the feeders and give up. Then I saw some caged feeders on Amazon that keep squirrels away and figured out the big Doves would be held at bay also. I ordered a couple of those and replaced the feeders I had. The Doves were NOT happy when the new caged feeders went up. They tried everything for a few days before they accepted their new fate of picking around for the seeds dropped by the sparrows.
Dove problem now under control...partly. They still fill my birdbath with so much poop I have to drain it, wash it out, and refill it twice a day. It's pretty disgusting. But it stays in the upper 90's to 100's all summer here so the birds need the water. But honestly, I'm starting to see the Doves as flying rats at this point.
So, the small birds have their feeders and I do put out a ground feeder with some cheaper feed for the Doves in the evenings. (I don't hate the fat things after all, I just can't afford for them to eat all they want)
Which in my usual long winded way brings me to my current problem:
I would like to try and feed the Blue Jays and hopefully get a Cardinal or two to stop by for a meal. The Jays have never actually been on a feeder. When they come by, they stay on the ground and try to get in between the multitude of Doves that hang around underneath the caged feeders. It's pretty obvious they do not like being around the Doves and they quickly leave. The Cardinal didn't even attempt to jump into the fray. He sat in the tree and just watched for about 10 minutes before flying away. Honestly, the Blue Jays and Cardinals are the only colorful birds we have around here so I would kind of like to get them to come around more regularly. But I have no idea how to feed slightly larger birds like Jays and Cardinals that can't get into the caged feeders, without having the Doves take over again. I'm afraid anything I do will just feed the Doves and chase the Jays and Cardinals away. Plus the fact that the Jays seem to avoid the feeders and only ground feed makes it even harder to figure out how to feed them without it turning into a Dove feeding frenzy.
I've looked at the pest-off and squirrel buster feeders as a possibility. But I'm afraid the Jays and Cardinals won't use them. I read that Jays like whole peanuts in the shell, but the feeders I've seen for peanuts in the shell would be easy picking for the Doves.
If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. I am definitely trying the upside down Suet feeder this winter as I've seen a few videos where the Jays can easily use the upside down feeder, but Doves can't. I'm just not sure what else to try. Especially for the shy Cardinals.
Thanks in advance to everyone.
So about three months ago I was strolling around in the local Home Depot and I found the bird feeder section. Feeders of every shape and color. On a lark I decided I wanted to give this a try and see what kind of birds might come around. I got a couple of feeders, some mixed songbird seed, and some black oil sunflower seeds to fill them with.
I hung them up in my back yard and waited to see what I would get. Turns out, there's not much variety out here. Sparrows and Doves make up 99.5% of the birds in my area. An occasional Mockingbird comes around and I've heard rumors of Woodpeckers being in the area but I've never seen one. The only colorful birds to ever appear are Blue Jays, and they are few and far between. I saw my first Cardinal last week which was pretty neat as I didn't even know we had Cardinals.
Now for the problem. Doves. Oh my goodness they gorge until there is nothing left in the feeders and they bully all the other birds off the feeders and even on the ground under the feeders. They kind of suck. When I first put up my feeders, the Doves would empty the 4lb feeder in 2 hours. I couldn't afford to feed them. I have counted 40 Doves at one time in my yard. The feeders were completely covered in Doves and the ground below was a moving carpet of Doves. They kept every other bird away from the area.
I was going to just take down the feeders and give up. Then I saw some caged feeders on Amazon that keep squirrels away and figured out the big Doves would be held at bay also. I ordered a couple of those and replaced the feeders I had. The Doves were NOT happy when the new caged feeders went up. They tried everything for a few days before they accepted their new fate of picking around for the seeds dropped by the sparrows.
Dove problem now under control...partly. They still fill my birdbath with so much poop I have to drain it, wash it out, and refill it twice a day. It's pretty disgusting. But it stays in the upper 90's to 100's all summer here so the birds need the water. But honestly, I'm starting to see the Doves as flying rats at this point.
So, the small birds have their feeders and I do put out a ground feeder with some cheaper feed for the Doves in the evenings. (I don't hate the fat things after all, I just can't afford for them to eat all they want)
Which in my usual long winded way brings me to my current problem:
I would like to try and feed the Blue Jays and hopefully get a Cardinal or two to stop by for a meal. The Jays have never actually been on a feeder. When they come by, they stay on the ground and try to get in between the multitude of Doves that hang around underneath the caged feeders. It's pretty obvious they do not like being around the Doves and they quickly leave. The Cardinal didn't even attempt to jump into the fray. He sat in the tree and just watched for about 10 minutes before flying away. Honestly, the Blue Jays and Cardinals are the only colorful birds we have around here so I would kind of like to get them to come around more regularly. But I have no idea how to feed slightly larger birds like Jays and Cardinals that can't get into the caged feeders, without having the Doves take over again. I'm afraid anything I do will just feed the Doves and chase the Jays and Cardinals away. Plus the fact that the Jays seem to avoid the feeders and only ground feed makes it even harder to figure out how to feed them without it turning into a Dove feeding frenzy.
I've looked at the pest-off and squirrel buster feeders as a possibility. But I'm afraid the Jays and Cardinals won't use them. I read that Jays like whole peanuts in the shell, but the feeders I've seen for peanuts in the shell would be easy picking for the Doves.
If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. I am definitely trying the upside down Suet feeder this winter as I've seen a few videos where the Jays can easily use the upside down feeder, but Doves can't. I'm just not sure what else to try. Especially for the shy Cardinals.
Thanks in advance to everyone.