How do you control chaos at the bird feeder?

10 years ago

I just hung up a bird feeder that has been attracting hoards of birds, mostly sparrows. It's a lantern style with a large central reservoir so it holds a lot of seeds. The birds can clear it in a day and they knock out half of it on the ground where it eventually gets eaten. Should I get another type of feeder that keeps the seeds off the ground and maybe rations them out a little more slowly?

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claireplymouth z6b coastal MA

10 years ago

My philosophy is that if you have hoards of hungry birds, then you need more feeders. You can try different types of seed in another feeder(s) - nyjer/thistle seed for the goldfinches and safflower seed for the cardinals and such. Peanuts for the blue jays and titmice. Deliberately placing seed on the ground will please native sparrows that aren't great at perching on feeders (white-throats and towhees and song sparrows, etc). Then there's suet for the woodpeckers and other birds.

This can escalate, of course, and you may end up with a small forest of feeders in your yard, but in the winter you'll have a whole lot of grateful birds to watch.

And don't forget the birdbaths - water is really important, particularly in cold weather.

Claire

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Comments (17)

rochesterroseman
Original Author
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
I went out and bought a tube style feeder with 6 individual feeding ports. It seems to be a big improvement. Although the crowds of birds has not lessened, the seeds are no longer being dumped on the ground and it looks like they will last a lot longer. Yes, I do want to try other kinds of seeds to get more types of bird. Now I mostly get sparrows and a few blue jays. I love the chickadees and finches. I would like to see more of those. Woodpeckers would be nice, too.
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lgmd_gaz
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
My experience is that if you put seed out, they will come. Different seed and different feeders just attract more and more hungry creatures. If you buy quality seed, someone will eat what falls on the ground. Don't buy the cheap stuff, it usually has a lot of golden millet, red millet and flax seed that few birds will eat.

I have black oil sunflower, safflower and thistle seed in the hanging feeders, plus one with a quality mixed seed. In the ground feeder I put the mixed seed along with a scoop of cracked corn. Many birds like the cracked corn, including turkeys.

Suet cakes appeal to a lot of birds besides woodpeckers. And water is a must.

As I said if you put seed out they will come. Here are a few of my recent 'dinner' guests
rochesterroseman thanked lgmd_gaz
rochesterroseman
Original Author
10 years ago
What kind of feed, other than thistle and suet, will be appealing to birds but not to sparrows, if there is such a thing? I am over run with sparrows!
lgmd_gaz
10 years ago
Sparrows don't seem to spend much time on the safflower or the thistle. This is the first year that sparrows have showed an interest in the suet cakes. I don't know if I just happened to put out a kind that appeals to them or what. I don't stick to just one 'flavor' of suet. There are many to choose from and the next I put out will be different from what the sparrows are eating now. Threw away the wrapper, so I am not sure what is out there now.
rochesterroseman thanked lgmd_gaz
claireplymouth z6b coastal MA
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
The term "sparrows" is way too broad and refers to too many different birds.

The "sparrows" people mostly complain about are House Sparrows, an introduced species that travel in flocks and sometimes monopolize feeders.

There are a lot of native sparrows that people overlook because they tend to lurk in the brush and feed on the ground, not on feeders - many of them have feet that are made for walking and scratching in leaf litter and they don't cling well to feeders, although some will try if they're hungry enough.

These are "sparrows" that I've photographed in my yard:

House Sparrows, non-native

White-throated Sparrow, native

Song Sparrow, native

American Tree Sparrow, native

Fox Sparrow, native

Chipping Sparrow, native

Savannah Sparrow, native

Swamp Sparrow, native

Sorry for the rant, but I hate to see well-behaved sparrows getting bad press. I have to admit that House Sparrows aren't a big problem in my yard since the Cooper's Hawks love them and keep the population down.

Claire
lgmd_gaz
10 years ago
claireplymouth, thank you for drawing that line between the non native English Sparrow (or as we usually call it, "house Sparrow") and the native Sparrows. It needed to be clarified. Many desirable types of Sparrows visit feeders. I guess it is just that when someone complains about sparrows and chaos at feeders one assumes that they are talking about the English or House Sparrow without giving thought to the others that we enjoy at our feeders.
rochesterroseman
Original Author
10 years ago
Those are beautiful, but I guess I am overrun with house sparrows. There are so many that it intimidates other small bird varieties from using the feeder. I never like bullies!
User
10 years ago
I have a small window feeder that only allows one bird at a time in, and it's saved me a lot of money on feed!

I had a platform feeder that worked great, but the darn doves would sit there all day and eat.
rochesterroseman thanked User
User
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Hi rochesterroseman ! It's good to hear you added a tube feeder. I use to only use the cheap $10 plastic hopper style feeders but I noticed a lot of waste underneath the feeders so I started adding tube feeders as well. My little birds love the tube feeders and I don't notice as much waste. I also just recently bought "seed trays" that attached to the bottom of the tube feeders that help catch the seed - which the birds will gladly eat from there as well.

The easiest thing to add after black sunflower seed is suet in my opinion. It's cheap too. You can buy a suet holder/basket for $2-$3 bucks and the suet cakes cost as little as a $1 each. Or if you're fancy you can make your own suet by asking your local butcher for fat from meat that is usually thrown away. I haven't made my own yet, but I've thought about it :) Suet will attract the woodpeckers. I see them all day long.

I also feed thistle/nyjer but it requires a special feeder - usually tube, but with very small openings. This stuff costs a lot more though so it was a bit of sticker shock the first time I bought it. Make sure the seed doesn't go bad, birds wont eat nyjer if it's not fresh.

I also feed a wide array of mixed seed, nuts, fruits, etc. I put only about 1 cup out each morning. This stuff isn't cheap. I'm stock piling now for winter (busy season)!!

Be careful, I started with one bag of bird seed, putting a little out each morning on my deck rail... Birds came, and then more and more so I got one feeder. Then more birds arrived so I got another feeder. A couple years later I have over a dozen feeders lol. I don't use them all at the same time. I like to rotate them as I wash them out.
User
10 years ago
Also, I've always read millet, whether its white or red is fine to feed. It's MILO you want to stay away from. If you see seed mixes and MILO is listed, especially first or second, then don't buy it. But millet is fine.

Oh and cracked corn is good to throw in the mix too. Cardinals love it. I usually buy 50 lb bags of black sunflower seed from my local feed mill, then I add in a little bit of millet and cracked corn, but I like to keep the sunflower seed at 80-90% since that's usually the birds first choice.
rochesterroseman
Original Author
10 years ago
Mrsshayne, my adventures in bird feeding has been a disaster and I have brought in all my feeders for now. I tried different types of feed (sunflower, mixed, suet, nyjer) and different feeders (cage, tube, hopper) but the house sparrows have inundated them all and eaten everything. Probably not as much of the nyjer seed, but they definitely ate there also. They are aggressive and overwhelming and keep away other birds. If I can find a way to discourage them, I will put my feeders back out. But for now, I have to stop.
User
10 years ago
I'm sorry to hear that. The bird I don't welcome is the cooper's hawk. And I almost had to remove my feeders recently too...
lindac92
10 years ago
In my many many years of bird feeding, it's the 'unnamed small round seeds" that get kicked out. I used to put a row of feeders, tube platform and lantern at the edge of a garden that got lettuce and tomatoes in the summer. Every spring I would shovel out easily an inch of wet moldy icky seeds that had been kicked out while they were digging for the seeds they like.
so now I only feed black oil sunflower, niger and suet cakes....with a handful of cracked corn tossed out now and then if the going gets hard....deep snow, long snow cover.
Sparrows have a purpose, if only as Cooper's hawk food to keep them from murdering the cardinals.
It is also my experience that most "new to feeding" bird feeding people mistake everything that isn't a cardinal, blue jay, chickadee or woodpecker as a "sparrow". Gold finches in winter garb are often called sparrows. Pine siskins are often called sparrows, rosy finches are often called sparrows....as are all the native sparrows which are labeled as nuisances.

Rochesterroseman, it's pretty cruel to put out feeders and then when birds become dependent on them, take them in. If you have no feeders out, you will have no birds. Either you feed birds, sparrows, starlings and all or you don't. Not feeding because you have sparrows tells me that you have nothing that is favorable for birds other than sparrows, no open water, no fruit bearing trees or shrubs, no dense stands of shrubbery, no evergreens to shelter birds during the winter. and you are feeding seed that doesn't attract the birds you want to see.
get some place for the birds to hide, feed a variety of foods....and wait. You can't expect to put out some suet and sunflower seed and a week later see cardinals and woodpeckers. It takes weeks and in some cases months for the birds to find the food source.
Feeding the birds is fun....keep trying! They will bring a lot of joy to your winter days....and if you feed in the summer too, your winter population will be larger.
Pat Z5or6 SEMich
10 years ago
Claire, thank you for your comment about deliberately placing seed on the ground for NATIVE sparrows that aren't great at perching on feeders. Now I know why I have no NATIVE sparrows in my yards -- the birdfood that drops out of my feeders is eaten by my 2 or 3 friendly squirrels. I will now put birdfood that NATIVE sparrows like in a certain spot outside. Thank you.

I also should mention here that i now have 3 black rubber water dishes for outside, thanks to you last year on this Forum.
Pat Z5or6 SEMich
10 years ago
And regarding doves: In my yards, they only eat until they have had enough for the day and then they leave. They cannot help that they are bigger than most other birds, so naturally the smaller birds come second. That doesn't make them bullies. That's nature -- big trumps small. My smaller birds just wait in the trees and bushes, out of the Cooper's Hawks' view, until the doves leave. I don't understand the dislike of the gentle doves.
Pat Z5or6 SEMich
10 years ago
By the way, I put water out for the Cooper's Hawks year round. They thrill me to pieces. The birds know when to disappear and my feeders are strategically placed with regard to the Hawks. The other day a Cooper's flew overhead with a shrew in his/her mouth. Hopefully the same shrew that has been eating my Hosta roots. They also hunt mice.

Get a life!