FortMyersSteve
New member
We recently had two great crested flycatchers move into our birdhouse. I'm seeking advice about protection from squirrels. I'll describe the situation, and if upload of photos at this site are permitted will try that. I saw a squirrel poking his nose into the house a day or two before we first saw the flycatchers. I don't know if they can fit in - it's made as a woodpecker house and I'd estimate the circular opening at 2 inches diameter.
We live on a canal and there is not a lot of tree cover in general around. I read somewhere that woodpeckers want some protection from above against creditor birds. So what we did was put up a 4 inch bamboo pole - maybe 12 feet, about a yard away from one of the two tall palm trees that we have in the yard. So the palm canopy partically shelters the house from above.
But then there are squirrels and (I hear) also the possibility of snakes. I have a feeling that the squirrels cannot climb the smooth bamboo. But of course they can climb the bamboo no problem, and may or may not be able to leap the one yard across from that tree to the nest house. My wife put 2 meters of some kinds of polymer wrap around the base of the palm tree, and the squirrels can't climb that. But still, they get up their somehow.
I read somewhere that a tree house on a pole should be baffled, but a baffle won't help here because of the ability to leap from the tree to the nest box. Perhaps one could baffle the palm tree, but it's 1 foot diameter.
Does anyone have any suggestions. Are the flycatchers even at risk or the sqirrels not get through the opening on a typical woodpecker house. I have ahead of a bird house guard, but I don't even know what that is (maybe like the guard at Buckingham Palace?).
Now every time I look at the next box and don't see the birds coming and going, I think, oh no, the squirrel got them! So far, though, they always reappear after awhile, and continue building their nest.
Partially related questions - flycatchers mostly eat bugs, as you'd think. But I read that they eat small berries. How small? Like blueberries? We have a pole with a platform feeder, a peanut wreath, and a weighted feeder for the cardinals to eat safflower. I could throw some blueberries on the platform. I'd like the new arrivals to be welcome. Or when they small, do they mean small like the insects the flycatchers eat - something to small for humans?
FortMyersSteve
We live on a canal and there is not a lot of tree cover in general around. I read somewhere that woodpeckers want some protection from above against creditor birds. So what we did was put up a 4 inch bamboo pole - maybe 12 feet, about a yard away from one of the two tall palm trees that we have in the yard. So the palm canopy partically shelters the house from above.
But then there are squirrels and (I hear) also the possibility of snakes. I have a feeling that the squirrels cannot climb the smooth bamboo. But of course they can climb the bamboo no problem, and may or may not be able to leap the one yard across from that tree to the nest house. My wife put 2 meters of some kinds of polymer wrap around the base of the palm tree, and the squirrels can't climb that. But still, they get up their somehow.
I read somewhere that a tree house on a pole should be baffled, but a baffle won't help here because of the ability to leap from the tree to the nest box. Perhaps one could baffle the palm tree, but it's 1 foot diameter.
Does anyone have any suggestions. Are the flycatchers even at risk or the sqirrels not get through the opening on a typical woodpecker house. I have ahead of a bird house guard, but I don't even know what that is (maybe like the guard at Buckingham Palace?).
Now every time I look at the next box and don't see the birds coming and going, I think, oh no, the squirrel got them! So far, though, they always reappear after awhile, and continue building their nest.
Partially related questions - flycatchers mostly eat bugs, as you'd think. But I read that they eat small berries. How small? Like blueberries? We have a pole with a platform feeder, a peanut wreath, and a weighted feeder for the cardinals to eat safflower. I could throw some blueberries on the platform. I'd like the new arrivals to be welcome. Or when they small, do they mean small like the insects the flycatchers eat - something to small for humans?
FortMyersSteve
