Hi amesly, Thanks for the nice comments. Re: millet I work at a WBU here in VA and No-Mess is very popular around here with gardeners because of the no sprouting benefit. The millet in the photos was there because I just filled the feeder. I'm sure you are familiar with the initial runout that occurs. About 30 minutes after the photo was taken that excess stuff had already been eaten! I had some very happy native sparrows perched in the trees. The feeder doesn't have much millet in the tray now,just a nice bit at the base of the glass hopper. We have a lot of millet eaters in this area during the winter so very little of it is escapes being eaten. I switch to a less millet-y mix for the summer. I mainly feed black oil sunflower but also have thistle feeders and one big hopper feeder filled with safflower for the cardinals and nuthatches. In winter I put out suet too. "Finch and Chips" from Wally World eh? I'll have to check that out. Have you ever fed mealworms? I feed them to bluebirds but the Carolina wrens and the overwintering warblers just love them too! I have a pair of mockingbirds that insist on getting a spoonful every morning also. Oink, oink. So far these glass feeders are popular with the feathered ones. I'm anxious to see if the attraction keeps up or if it's only temporary. I'm also wondering how the feeders will weather. Time will tell. Don't forget this weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count!

What I did to discourage larger birds and house sparrows from using my upside-down feeder was attach four wires, one at each corner of the feeder, with beads (you can use fishing weights, whatever) attached to the bottom of the wires. The wires hang directly down unless there is a breeze, then they sway a bit. This seemed to work. Our downies loved the feeder until a raccoon tore it completely apart! Good luck with this. Donna

The last couple years I had Bluebirds nesting in snags in the back yard (both snags have since fallen over). I cut way down on the food in the feeders, which I usually do anyway in the summer, because I didn't want to attract House Sparrows. Would put out a little BOSS, but only put out the home-made suet nuggets if the Bluebirds wanted some. This Spring, I had a pair of Baltimore Orioles nesting in a large Pin Oak right above the feeders. Did the same thing, cut down on the food in the feeders, because the Orioles were very territorial about the tree. They were especially aggressive towards Blue Jays, Grackles, and Crows so I stopped throwing any tidbits on the ground (like old corn chips, which the Jays and Crows like). So I would favor the security of the nesting birds. During the summer and fall, there are normally abundant natural sources of food, so feeders are not critical. Birds eat a lot of insects and feed their young insects, so they are unlikely to starve if you aren't feeding them.

I built the device. It worked marvelously on the starlings, however also excluded the cardinals and larger woodpeckers. So I pulled it off and decided to try something else. The starlings would empty about a quart of expensive feed in the time between sunrise and when We got up. They liked to feed early. So I wrap the thing in foil in the evening and remove it in the morning. It's a tad high maintenance but the Starlings miss breakfast and have moved on to more fruitful opportunities when I uncover it and the regular flighted denizens of my yard and woods come for brunch and make a day of snacking