Hi Wren Garden, and Welcome! My favorites are the House Finch, and I've seen JOY and some sandness over the past several years. One thing for sure, you CAN get excellent advise right here, from people who are SO knowledgeable. They sure helped me from the get-go ... when I first started to love birds! One year, I really screwed up, and put out watermellon! The grackles came, with a vengence, and killed adults to win the territory! That taught me to NEVER put out a banquet when nests are active. Also, I leave very LITTLE food out that would attract other species. One thing the grackles HATE is safflower seeds. (Hard, pearly white.) I've seen them actually KICK their feet in it, with ANGER! And, I leave NOTHING near my 'nesting porch' house-side! I play it down! Never leave a chair, or stool, or anything that a squirrel can jump (leap) with! (Yep, they rob and eat eggs, babies, and adults too.) And, the ravens rob nests here like WILD in the spring. I say .. "It's a bird eat bird world out there ..." It makes me SICK but I continue to try and protect when I can. I've been heartbroken several times ... it never gets easier. But, the bottom line is ... nature will win over 'us' most of the time. I don't get into discussing which birds I could EASILY live without! LOL People always have arguments ... and we'll always have our 'babies' !!! Take care, stay strong, and do keep them in prayer. How could "Mother Nature" PS: If you have any leftover cherries, your ROBINS will love them! (Just wait 'till FALL to give them some!) Also, I LOVE to blast the grakles with a squirt gun! Tee Hee! Note: It's MOST important to feed the birds when their natural foods (seed, etc) is burried in snow! Birds seldom freeze to death, but in the harsh winter, they often starve!

I use tube feeders hanging from a double shepherd's-crook. On the ground around the pole, I have wall about 8 inches high and about 7 feet in diameter to contain the fallen seed. (The squirrels and ground-feeding birds tend to swish it around.) When grackles and starlings show up, I put a cover over the "seed circle" (which I made in two semi-circular pieces) for a week or two. The best material for this cover is 1/4-inch wire mesh (called 'hardware cloth'). It must fit snugly so that small birds don't sneak in and get trapped. Click on the picture below for a photo gallery with details: Back Feeders Usually, grackles and starlings find it awkward to use the tube feeders. (The shorter the pegs, the better.) But if there are a few that have learned how, I find that a "sparrow spooker" will also deter the grackles and starlings. I make my spookers with stiff wire (rather than string or fish line) hanging vertically around the tube feeders, because the string can tangle, and may even snag a bird. Birds with larger wingspans don't fit between these vertical wires. And house sparrows feel trapped if they can't exit the feeders in any direction; that's how I think they are deterred.

The boat tail grackles began coming to this area a few years ago (& most of the starlings-thankfully- then began to leave!). I do think they are beautiful & laugh at their 'look at me!' demeaner & take over our 50 ft. red cedar tree for their noisey 'conferences!but I don't like their aggressive behavior towards other birds! The ones here have black beaks. Am told they rob other bird's nests, eat the eggs, kill & eat the baby birds so am wondering when I see them fly with a small object in their beaks if it is the mosquito eating minnows that we keep (they are live bearers) in the small fish pond. I see them stand on the edge of the pond on rocks to drink & bath so guess when they see one of the top swimming (not to 'bright!) minnows they could catch one? Now we are putting netting over the small inground pond to be safe! Guess we can hope for a new variety of bird to come in when (? if) the grackles move on to an other area of the U.S. Odd, how here we seem to have these migrations of different varieties of birds! Few years ago we had ONE pair of mourning doves in our area.... now they are all over! Then the starlings came & took over for awhile but are a lot fewer now since the grackles arrived. We had one pair of curved billed threshers (orange eyes) three years ago & now our yard has dozens & some build nests in our cactus & seem to be not afraid at all ... even chase the resident squirrel! Now the influx of so many toads to our yard & pond ... THAT is another mystery! They are not afraid & seldom move away & don't seem to be of interest to any of our dogs even when the dogs sniff them at the pond... do they have no aroma or maybe it is offensive to the dogs? Now the blue tail lizzards keep the dogs in a perpetual/fruitless chase!! What a blessing of on-going 'fun' in our small city lot in the high desert!

Do your grackles stay year round - sometimes just taking the feeder down for a few days will push them to give up and move on - I have to do that with starlings at the suet feeder in the spring - otherwise your feeder and seed mix would certainly be appreciated by the jays and cardinals.