How can I keep feeder visitors safe from hawks and owls? (1 Viewer)

[Engineeringtech]

My home has very few vantage points to view feeders, and I have vision problems that can't be corrected. So I have a shepherds hook mounted on a bracket from my back deck, about 7 feet from the kitchen window. I either hang a suet cage from it, or a hopper feeder. If it weren't so close I'd never see the birds.

Problem is there is no cover for the birds near the house and I think this is why I get so few birds - that and a rumor of Great Horned Owls in the neighborhood. I cut most of the trees in the back yard down a few years ago. I have some very difficult health problems too, and can't find people / kids to hire to rake leaves and mow. I was raking up a foot of leaves first before each mow. That's a lot of bending over. So I cut down all the 100+ year old maples. Hate myself for it.

I won't live long enough to see any new trees grow. Was wondering what I could close to the deck and house to protect the birds. I accumulated a bunch of tough cardboard tubes of various sizes over the years. Wondering if I mounted some of them on the deck railing near the feeder, if they would offer the birds a place to duck into, to avoid a raptor. Thoughts on this? Can I do anything to the hopper feeder to protect the birds?

 

[Elkhornsun]

In the USA there are a number of fast growing shrubs and trees that are very bird friendly. I planted native blue hopseed and Pacific myrtle in my yard a year ago and they are already attracting birds. The hopseed is drought tolerant and deer will not touch it and it is very fast growing.

 

[Engineeringtech]

In the USA there are a number of fast growing shrubs and trees that are very bird friendly. I planted native blue hopseed and Pacific myrtle in my yard a year ago and they are already attracting birds. The hopseed is drought tolerant and deer will not touch it and it is very fast growing.

Thanks for the suggestion. They are nice but I live in zone 5A, and my google search indicated they won't grow well here. I had a suggestion from a local nursery a couple years ago when I was just looking to block the view of a neighbor's house. I don't know if the plant was an evergreen or bird friendly. So I will have to dig out that recommendation. In the meantime did you have any thoughts on my idea to build some sort of structure on the deck which the birds could duck into for protection?