Problems with the starlings, grackles, blackbirds, and even crows. (1 Viewer)

[GracieAllen]

I've looked at other entries in here and they just recommend switching from sunflower seeds to safflower and/or using a cage feeder.

Not working... I'm watching the starlings and grackles eating the safflower off the feeder with a platform rin right now. And I've tried putting the sunflower seeds in a caged feeder, and the cardinals won't eat it - the appear to only eat from the feeder with a platform. They also won't eat from the vertical feeders (the tubes with small holes and perches).

The starlings and grackles and blackbirds however, WILL happily eat the sunflower seeds from the caged feeder.

And with all these nuisance birds, I'm getting very few backyard birds at ANY time (essentially NONE) 'cause they constantly get chased away... Almost NO cardinals, chickadees, house finches, etc. Even the woodpeckers get chased away, and I'm getting no goldfinches at all.

What I read says the starlings CAN'T eat the safflower, and the grackles don't like the taste, so they WON'T eat it, but they're all out here eating. I've quit putting peanuts-in-the-shell out 'cause the crows eat all those, so there are no blue jays. At the MOMENT, there are a half dozen grackles sitting on the branches by the feeders and at least another half dozen on the ground.

So, nobody is eating from the tube feeders, the birds I DON'T want are eating the safflower, the only thing I'm seeing is one house finch that stops by to eat grape jelly.

I've got no nice backyard birds to photograph.

And much as I'd like to, shooting them isn't an option.

 

[maplekong]

They are only trying to survive. The same happened to me with starlings. I would suggest taking the feeders in for a while, then re-establishing them.

 

[GracieAllen]

I switched out the only feeder with a little platform for a caged feeder. So, I'll lose the few cardinals and others that like the platform. I"m already not putting out peanuts or loose seed on the branches, or even suet in the log feeder (the woodpeckers like the hanging log), so there's not going to be much left for the nuisance birds to get into...

Do I just need to remove everything so there won't even be anything dropped on the ground or do I just want to make it impossible for the bullies to get at the feeders? And how long does it usually take for the problem birds to stop coming?

 

[maplekong]

I would suggest moving them to dense cover. Moving feeders to dense cover is not great for photos, but will keep the nice birds around. The problem birds will take as long as they like, sorry!

 

[JoanP]

I've looked at other entries in here and they just recommend switching from sunflower seeds to safflower and/or using a cage feeder.

Not working... I'm watching the starlings and grackles eating the safflower off the feeder with a platform rin right now. And I've tried putting the sunflower seeds in a caged feeder, and the cardinals won't eat it - the appear to only eat from the feeder with a platform. They also won't eat from the vertical feeders (the tubes with small holes and perches).

The starlings and grackles and blackbirds however, WILL happily eat the sunflower seeds from the caged feeder.

And with all these nuisance birds, I'm getting very few backyard birds at ANY time (essentially NONE) 'cause they constantly get chased away... Almost NO cardinals, chickadees, house finches, etc. Even the woodpeckers get chased away, and I'm getting no goldfinches at all.

What I read says the starlings CAN'T eat the safflower, and the grackles don't like the taste, so they WON'T eat it, but they're all out here eating. I've quit putting peanuts-in-the-shell out 'cause the crows eat all those, so there are no blue jays. At the MOMENT, there are a half dozen grackles sitting on the branches by the feeders and at least another half dozen on the ground.

So, nobody is eating from the tube feeders, the birds I DON'T want are eating the safflower, the only thing I'm seeing is one house finch that stops by to eat grape jelly.

I've got no nice backyard birds to photograph.

And much as I'd like to, shooting them isn't an option.

I have been having the same problem - and I have lots of juvenile birds I'd love to see/feed but the grackles are just too mean and glutenous. The grackles I see seem to be very possessive over the food and will kill other birds as well as chase them off. I don't have a perfect solution but I'm seeing some improvement. First, I bring in all my feeders at night so at dawn, the "scout" morning grackle can't tell his BFF where the food is. In the morning after about 30-45 minutes of light, I put a very scant amount of safflower only in my open/platform feeders. By scant, I mean a tablespoon of safflower in each feeder. I purchased an upside-down feeder for the woodpeckers and the grackles try to get under it and steal some food, but it is a lot of work for them. I purchased a roll of 1.5x1.5 inch vinyl mesh and I am in the process of wrapping some of my other feeders in the mesh. I'm very cautious to make sure nothing I manufacture can cause any bird to be trapped. I see lots of little birds easily make it in and out of the 1.5 inch mesh including juvenile bluebirds but I have not seen an adult bluebird make it in yet or try. With hanging feeders now covered with mesh, I had to remove the stick perches because the grackles were using the perch to tip the feeder so food would fall to the ground. The food has to be far enough inside the mesh cage so that the grackles can't reach it with their beaks. The only way I can think of to still feed Bluejays is to set out a few peanuts and sit outside near enough to watch them eat it but also to scare the grackles away. For the Cardinals, again, I put out very scant amounts at a time of safflower. I still get a few grackles during the day but a week or so ago, I had lots of them all day long. So yes, they will eat safflower but try making it such a small amount that it's not worth it for them to stop by.

 

[GracieAllen]

At the moment I've only got two feeders out - one tube with mixed seed and one caged feeder with sunflower seeds. Which means no cardinals 'cause they won't eat from the caged feeder. And no blue jays because they want peanuts-in-the-shell and the nuisance birds always grab the peanuts first. Even a fer-real peanut feeder doesn't work 'cause the starlings and crows will EMPTY the slinky-style peanut-in-the-shell feeder.

For the woodpeckers I've suspended a limb with holes in it so the suet is on the bottom. Worked for a little while, then the grackles figured out how to hang ALMOST upside down and get into the suet.

AND, I have a jelly feeder for the baltimore orioles. THE *&^%$# starlings will empty the thing in an hour. I had NO idea starlings even ATE grape jelly!

I may try doing what you're doing for the platform feeder. Only put it out a while after sunrise and hope the problem birds stay away.

 

[maplekong]

I've watched starlings eat chicken before. And starling have emptied my seed feeders in around three hours.

 

[GracieAllen]

It took a while before the number of nuisance birds dropped off to nothing, but I've now got a couple feeders out, including the one the cardinals will eat from, and SO FAR, no nuisance bird invasion. Numbers are still WAY down but some of the regulars are slowly coming back.

 

[Jo Morton]

I've looked at other entries in here and they just recommend switching from sunflower seeds to safflower and/or using a cage feeder.

Not working... I'm watching the starlings and grackles eating the safflower off the feeder with a platform rin right now. And I've tried putting the sunflower seeds in a caged feeder, and the cardinals won't eat it - the appear to only eat from the feeder with a platform. They also won't eat from the vertical feeders (the tubes with small holes and perches).

The starlings and grackles and blackbirds however, WILL happily eat the sunflower seeds from the caged feeder.

And with all these nuisance birds, I'm getting very few backyard birds at ANY time (essentially NONE) 'cause they constantly get chased away... Almost NO cardinals, chickadees, house finches, etc. Even the woodpeckers get chased away, and I'm getting no goldfinches at all.

What I read says the starlings CAN'T eat the safflower, and the grackles don't like the taste, so they WON'T eat it, but they're all out here eating. I've quit putting peanuts-in-the-shell out 'cause the crows eat all those, so there are no blue jays. At the MOMENT, there are a half dozen grackles sitting on the branches by the feeders and at least another half dozen on the ground.

So, nobody is eating from the tube feeders, the birds I DON'T want are eating the safflower, the only thing I'm seeing is one house finch that stops by to eat grape jelly.

I've got no nice backyard birds to photograph.

And much as I'd like to, shooting them isn't an option.

I live in the UK, and have experienced the same problem when experimenting with bird food, particularly sunflower hearts , which all the birds seem to love. The starlings don't bother with black sunflower seeds, which are more trouble, but we wanted to attract smaller birds.
We first tried the hearts in a tube feeder, and I photographed two goldfinches enjoying the feast, but the starlings soon took over, so we now tried a squirrel proof feeder. This would undoubtedly deter squirrels, but had no effect keeping off the starlings, who are very agile and slim. However, we eventually had success, finding a caged feeder with wide 'shoulders' which kept those pesky interlopers out! The starlings do still take advantage of some fat balls which I have placed to one side , and they come for an occasional snack, but by no means all the time, so they don't deter smaller birds

 

[Jo Morton]

Here are drawings showing the sunflower heart feeders we tried....
1. Tube mesh feeder filled with a favourite food.
2. A squirrel-proof feeder which didn't deter the starlings!
3. Success! Smaller birds can now feed in peace!

 

[GracieAllen]

Yeah, so far, the birds I don't want appear to eat just about anything that can get at.

 

[Jo Morton]

Yeah, so far, the birds I don't want appear to eat just about anything that can get at.

It took us a lot of time, hard work and persistence before we eventually found a feeder made by Gardman that does the trick!