Keep watching. Most of the birds that use the upside down feeders will be like nuthatches, chickadees and various members of the woodpecker/flicker family. If you were expecting cardinals and finches they generally do not like to eat upside down. If there is enough side space in your feeder they might eat from the side but not bottom. You might want to try haning it higher.

i better bump this post so it will start down the list

I'm so jelous!!! Jelous of the fact that your husband is game to go on bird trips and jelous you went! that's so awesome... sounds like a DREAM vacation... do you have any pics you can post? I'd love to see! thanks, april

Lucky for me starlings are only an occasional problem in my yard. Hordes fly in, stay a week or so and vanish. When they come I use a recycled recycled plastic upside-down feeder like this: (from Suet Bird Feeders) I am loving the recycled plastic over wood, it's so easy to clean and you can even use bleach against mold. Don't think I haven't done a load of bird feeders in my dishwasher. BUT it's not perfectly starling proof - one starling will always figure it out. As an alternative I have a ground table feeder for starlings like this one: from Ground Table Bird Feeders. I use super cheap chicken feed cracked corn (was about $6 for a 50lb bag) and a super cheap millet/milo seed blend ($6 a 25lb bah) that I buy at a local feed store. The ground feeder is a lot easier for the starlings to use, plus they seem to prefer the corn food, so it at least keeps them busy and out of my other bird feeders to a great extent. They don't go through my pricey seed as fast. I've found offering starlings and grackle sort of birds alternative food works pretty well since they are going to be there no matter what I do. Jays also like the ground table.