There are cages that can be put around your tube type feeders but they often make it impossible for the cardinals to use the feeders. Why can't someone invent a cage that lets the cardinals feed but illiminates the crows and grackles? Feeding safflower helps some. They tend to not like it, but will eat it if it's the only thing offered. As a last resort, you can quit feeding for a week (yikes!) and see if they move on.

Make sure you don't feed bread crumbs or cracked corn-which they love, as do vermin. Don't scatter food on the ground or feed from open trays. Hanging tube feeders should thwart them

I use caged feeders (after removing the regular tube feeders now that the Goldfinch have flown North for the summer). However, the cages are to only prevent squirrels - they aren't large cages. The Crows are still raiding every feeder! Grrrr. It's only 8:25 am and I've run off the Crows at least 20 times already. I don't have time for this! I guess I just need to get tube feeders with larger cages. :( I don't know what else to do.

I'm beginning to think that no matter what type of bird feeder or bird seed you use (or how expensive), you're always going to have these stupid crows and grackles, among a few others. I just put in some fruit and nut blend this morning and found a grackle perched on the feeder eating!! It's a tube feeder.

I don't understand threads like this, and frankly I'm sick of reading them. You are putting FOOD (yes, seed is food) outside in your yard. Quite naturally, hungry creatures are going to come to your yard and take advantage of what you have to offer. Animals do not know which species you have a particular preference for so that we can pick and choose who comes around. If you don't want crows, or grackles, or other "vermin" (God, I hate that word), then don't feed the wildlife. It's really that simple.

Crows don't usually come to feeders. Are you sure its not grackles you have?

Either way stop using any corn product in your feeders. Try switching to all safflower. Safflower is not liked by grackles, starlings and squirrels. Its called the problems solver seed for good reason.

Actually Crows keep the hawks away that will come dine on your bird feeder birds.

I thought I had crows - I'm not sure what a grackle is, but I'll look it up.

I live on a lake and have two types of hawks that sometimes try to use my feeder area for a buffet - Cooper's Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks. They try to stalk and go in for a kill. I rarely see them catch a songbird.

Feeders: sunflower chips, safflower, suet, peanut pieces, mealworms, thistle, Hummingbird nectar.

The crows have been raiding the sunflower feeders and are now targeting the suet. Gah!

A way to keep everyone happy would be to erect a platform feeder and put ONLY food on it that CROWS like. Place it in an area that's away from the other feeders, and use tube, cage, thistle, sock, etc style feeders instead of house-shaped ones.

Sounds like you have Grackles to me, too. The Grackles will love you if you make a platform feeder away from the other feeders with cracked corn on it.

Otherwise, you may have to live with the frustration.

This is not my post, but I just did a search on crows and grackles and they almost look alike. The ones I have are black and you can see some blue when the sun shines on them. I'm thinking they are grackles. Are crows and grackles the same size? How do you tell the difference?

Grackles have the iridescent head that looks blue in the sun. There is a size difference as well. A crow is way bigger then a grackle, 18" long and often feeds on road kill.

The common grackle is about 12 inches long and not nearly as big in the body or wing span as the crow.

Thanks for the description. My problem is grackles rather than crows.

I pulled the sunflower feeders in and am using one small, caged tube feeder. The poor Cardinal can't get his/her seed. :( It will have to stay that way until the grackles move somewhere else. I'm afraid if I make a platform feeder for the grackles with corn, then I'd be inviting them to stay.

I know we all have our preferences (I am not particularly fond of house sparrows), but I gotta say that I love grackles. Now, I don't have any on my feeders, and I might feel differently if I did... but they seem like such sassy, funny birds to me, and I enjoy seeing them when I'm out and about.

That said, if I were you, I wouldn't count on the grackles moving on. They'd probably be back when you reintroduce your food for the cardinals. It wouldn't hurt to try the corn. The grackles are there, anyway, so distracting them may be your best bet.

Good luck! I hope you find something that makes you and the birds happy.

I had a crow problem too but not because of a feeder. The crows around here were raiding other bird nests so I started plunking them with a low powered bb gun. Its been about two weeks and there are no crows in my yard. They are still around adjoining properties but all I have to do is walk outside and they split. There was a constant battle between them and some mocking birds that had a nest in the yard but not anymore.