Suggestions?

[Cody]

For the past few months I have closed-down my feeders because it was getting too costly. With spring only a few weeks away, I am considering setting-up one or two feeders. With the high numbers of Grackles last year (I had 2000 between April 1-May 15) and the high number of House Sparrows I have (2500 in the same time frame), I found that I was refilling the feeders way too often. On some days I was refilling the Mixed Seed and Sunflower feeder 3 times an hour!

Does anyone have any suggestions on certain food that I could use that perhaps the Grackles and House Sparrows won't be interested in,  however would still attract Woodpeckers, Finches, and maybe some other Migratory birds, but also be at reasonable cost?


Cody

[Axeman]

Spring only a few weeks away?

I don't know about seed but I find that the birds that visit my feeders spill a lot of seed and if I don't fill my feeders up right away, they'll spend a day feeding off the spilled seed.

[Pat Hodgson]

I think the changes needed might be more with the feeders than the seed, although you have not said what you have.  For finches, have you tried a finch-only niger seed feeder?  Some of these even have upside-down perching needed, i.e. the little hole is below the perch, which I think neither starlings nor house sparrows can do.  There are other feeders that use metal mesh to make kind of a cage around the whole feeder that is too big for starlings or grackles to get in, but allowing chickadees and nuthatches.  This might not stop house sparrows.  One seed to try might be safflower.  Chickadees and cardinals like it but many others do not.  Most of the nuisance birds like mixed seed and open feeders, the more you get away from those the less your problems will be.  But to a certain degree you are dependent on your surroundings and may not be able to overcome that fully.

[angieinto]

I agree with Pat. We have niger feeders for our finches and use suet feeders for our woodpeckers. We only buy the pure suet, as only the woodpeckers are interested in it.

I also wanted to suggest putting some orange halfs out around the end of April, you may attract some Orioles, we've had great success the last few years using orange halfs and grape jelly. Last year they stayed around all summer instead of just passing through in the spring and end of summer.

Good luck!