If you're not fed up with using birdseed, if your feeder has a wooden floor, how about screwing it to a piece of plywood a couple of feet or so wide in each direction and hanging it by all four corners, making it difficult for the squirrels to tip the thing? Or use some narrow boards or metal straps to reach out in all four directions.

ole joyful

I only put out black oil sunflower seeds and various flavors of suet. Sunflower seed hulls collect under my feeders because birds eat the middle of the seed and then drop the outer hull. They do not sprout so readily like millet and the other tiny grains in mixed feed do. The lawn mower scatters the seeds hulls. I guess they turn into compost. Squirrels are hard on feeders. So now I am using a bird feeder that has a flap that shuts off the feed if a squirrel tries to eat. I have 5 squirrels. I feed them in a different location in the yard. They are always hungry so they become destructive thieves.

Lately our local gray squirrels seem to have figured out our metal Absolute feeder.Maybe I can tweak the settings. Once I had thos intuitive sense that there was abird in it. Indeed! An evening grosbeak was relieved to have me open the hatch.

I put suet out every day, and when the bird babies are born, all the mothers feed them suet. I get all different vaieities and my squirrels and chippies eat it too. I also buy tons of mixed bird seed year-round.

Watching the birds come to our feeders is truly one of my greatest pleasures. I have 3 Brome Squirrel buster suet feeders, each holds 2 cakes. The squirrels try to eat it but can't. This is the first year that we noticed red wing blackbirds and cat birds coming to the feeders along with lots of blue jays, cardinals, wrens, titmice, chickadees, inches etc. And while we always have robins - this is the first year that I saw them occasionally on the suet feeders.

I wish the Brome squirrel buster seed feeders were as squirrel proof as the suet feeders. I truly detest watching those rodents climb all over them until they manage to dislodge the top or knock them to the ground. I buy no-waste bird seed which is expensive but it does help reduce the mess underneath the feeders.

I do use suet cakes and have for years used the ones with hot pepper to keep the squirels away. In winter i usually have 2 suet feeders out. I also have a couple of squirrel-proof seed feeders that are on poles with raccoon baffles that work very well. My hummingbird feeder also has a baffle. If i didn’t use these pole systems with baffles, no bird would get anything to eat, including from the suet.

I also have a small container for dried mealworms for the bluebirds that is mounted below their nest boxes, again on a pole with baffle. I have 4 nest boxes, with 2 of them having nests at present.

Squirrels eat suet! I did not know that. We have bears, mountain lion, bobcat, skunks, raccoon, stoat....what do you do about ALL those OTHER critters?

DH has 4 saucer style hummingbird feeders. Hanging under our eaves to keep them out of weather since we have year around hummingbirds. Guess who washes and fills them 😊 He does get them down and brings them to me or I'd have to get a stool - he can reach them from the ground.

As for the other birds, we haven't fed seed in decades. Not since I saw a rat in the back yard under the feeder at our former house in the night light on the carport.

DH does have one suet woodpecker feeder - it has a tail prop that makes it easy for them to use. Suet made specifically for woodpeckers. Many flickers I can watch from my kitchen sink and one pair of downey woodpeckers visit. The chickadees will eat from it. Starlings, blue jays, others are unable to hang on long enough to grab more than a bite, maybe two bites and they have to let go. That's fine with me.

There is one red douglas squirrel that will feed from it. He/She is welcome too....it's a very cute small squirrel. The suet feeder hangs from a tall shepherds hook. That darned squirrel can climb the wrought iron pole.

Nicole, my sister, a couple of hours NE of here, has had black bear destroy her suet feeders more than once. Right outside her living room window, feeders hanging in a tree. They have a somewhat extensive camera system on their 5 acres and she has some interesting photos.

They now feed ducklings in spring but in the field near their creek - no more feeders close to the house.

I was surprised that robins love the suet and fed their babies. When starling babies were born, the racket they made chirping all day long was maddening, but they went away after the babies left the nest.

Suet attracts all sorts of varmints, opossum, bear, racoons . It melts in the suns heat. It's a winter need but not summer for birds. My grocery store doesn't even stock it summers. Those birds that would eat suet in the winter can readily find bugs all summer. We too only put out black oil sunflower seeds. Their shells actually inhibit weed growth. We don't feed birds in the summer. They are 100% able to get what they need naturally all summer. We do keep a running water source for them so enjoy their antics all year round. We hang suet during the coldest parts of winter. The woodpeckers appreciate it!! We counted four different types last winter including a couple of piliated peckers who are gluttons!!! Suet is not food the song birds care for. I've never seen a blue jay/cardinal/chickadee on the suit but yes we do have a few that hang around all winter. They do love the sunflower seeds!! Beware what sort of suet you choose. Many are just not great for birds. Stay away from the bricks you buy at big box stores!!! I would agree thistle feeders are a nightmare. Can't say that ever made sense for gardeners!!!

Arcy, the suet I buy is a no-melt suet. I have no issue with it melting in our Alabama heat. But, I don’t put out as much in summer as I do in winter. Mainly just do it because we enjoy watching the birds it attracts.

We are enthusiastic bird feeders, too. We always have a thistle sock out, since we have so many gold finches that love it. It’s quite the sight when several feed at the same time. We use tall shepherd’s hooks and have baffles affixed to the pole to keep squirrels away. They solved the problem completely. Yes, we use the blocks of nonmelting suet and the woodpeckers love it. Seems like the nuthatches prefer the suet block, too. The Pileated woodpeckers are more often seen at the Bird Buddy camera feeder, where we also have assorted fruit piled up for them. We primarily use safflower seed for that feeder, which the darned cowbirds won’t eat. Dried meal worms are a huge treat, too.

The camera feeder has been a joy. I have been able to watch several bird species that I didn’t know we had in the backyard: Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Buntings, and some cute sparrows of different species. The titmice and Carolina chickadees hang out together, a very lively combination. Cardinals and grosbeaks will pick up several meal worms at once and fly away to feed their babies.

The camera has captured lots of sweet couples behavior….feeding, preening, and squabbling PLUS we have been able to watch the fledglings, screaming to be fed even though they are sitting right there at the feeder!

We also provide cracked corn and whole peanuts a distance from our feeders. Squirrels, chipmunks, grackles, and occasional crows take advantage of it.

I don’t get that Arcy has problems with Nyjer seed socks. They aren’t messy, birds easily cling to it, and the seed seems to last for several weeks at our house, replaced easily when depleted. Not a nightmare (!!!!). I had to borrow a few explanation points from her, she used up the daily quota again.

Nicole, if we had bears I wouldn’t be putting out any food at all. They would be destroying any feeders to get to it, so it just wouldn’t be practical. A few years ago there were several reports & photos of black bears wandering fairly near us during mating season. Some of the photos showed the damage to bird feeders. I took mine down for a while until that scare was over and done.

A few years ago I had an additional hummingbird feeder on a shepherds hook near our front door (no baffle). One day the feeder was in the yard and emptied. A raccoon had found it so I never put it there again.

Good to keep suet out until babies have fledged as parents use it as a good food source. Of course, we seem to be in a new climate patterns because for the past many years, we seem to go from cold temps to summer heat with only a few lovely spring days which means the suet melts. Sigh .

Outside, what is put in no-melt suet to keep it from melting? I cannot imagine that is such a good thing.

I've never paid attention to birds but for those who have bird feeders, I'd be curious to know if doing so causes an accumulation of bird droppings.

I have a downy woodpecker feeding her baby today and also blue jays and chickadees. . My suet does not melt, and I keep it all year long. Raccoons, opossums, and bears are NOT varmints.

I only have a hummingbird feeder

and we mostly have Costas hummingbirds, which live here all year but have a range that is very limited - mostly southern California desert, but also northwest Mexico.

We have ducks, doves, black Phoebes, and mockingbirds visit our pool, but the mockingbirds do not go in it, unlike the other birds. The black Phoebes catch insects that fall into the pool, but we have very few insects here, although there are quite a few butterflies now.

Elmer, I suppose that if the feeders hang over human made surfaces, the droppings would be noticeable. I have never had any kind of an issue at all.

My husband just told me that he could hear some peeps coming from the blue bird house we put up earlier in the spring. We’ve watched a couple settle in right away and have checked on the contents a couple of weeks ago…..four beautiful blue eggs.

Thanks rhizo.

I asked because we have an above-grade deck just outside our kitchen/breakfast table area. That side of the house has a large window with a sliding door section and an interesting view we enjoy. The railing at the end of the deck (not quite 15 feet from the exterior wall) is a conventional railing with a Trex faux wood decking material top piece. Birds tend to perch there and leave droppings both on the Trex and below on the deck. My apologies to you bird lovers but we tend to put objects there that deter the birds from landing, to keep the mess down. When they get too accustomed to what's there and resume landing, a knuckle tap on the window or getting up to open the door to shoo them away becomes necessary.

It's a spot visible from the kitchen but I wouldn't want to attract birds there. Because the deck is above grade and there's a hedge next to it, we can't see directly down into the yard from inside(though only a 4 foot drop at that point). A different location for a feeder wouldn't be very useful. But as I said, we don't pay much attention to birds so for us it's fine

Elmer....me too. We had Great Horned owls that stashed their two fledgling chicks on our roof overhang. When they grew up & flew off....we started our no-owls-on-the-house campaign. They regurgitate their food, throw up onto our trex deck....and white poop that splatters when it hits below! We got tired of the massive clean up. It was NASTY! We'd go out and clap our hands every time they'd show up. Within a week they ONLY land in the trees....whew.....sooooooooooo gross.

Cyn, this is what I’ve used for quite a few years. It’s a well-known brand here and I’ve seen it in bird stores. What makes you think it is harmful?

Nicole, a standard step for us in advance of having guests come over, since the deck view is something all are attracted to, is that I need to get out the hose and clean off the bird droppings from the railing and the deck below. They're a nuisance.

A quick funny story. When trying a variety of devices to discourage away the little birds, my thought turned to times when I'd seen statues of predators used in that way. I went to the garden center at our local Home Depot and, being the general dunce about the animal kingdom that I am, asked at the counter whether they had any three dimensional objects to discourage small birds from getting near. "What do you mean", I was asked. "You know, like statues of eagles or some other predatory bird to scare away smaller birds", I said. "No, we don't have anything like that" she replied. "If you did, where would they be?", I asked. "Over on Aisle 15 or 16, but there are no eagles there". I thanked her and thought I'd look for myself.

I walked to the indicated spot and burst into laughter. She was right, they had nothing like eagles. No eagles were there to be found. But there were a few dozen hawk figurines, life-size, on the shelf. I bought two and they lasted a good while until they'd fallen off a few too many times and were broken beyond repair. I need to get a few more.

No eagles.

I used to use solid suet from the butcher, but I haven't found any for years. With the cakes, I think the ones specified for woodpeckers disappear quicker, but I'm not 100% certain of that.

I had to stop feeding the birds this year because of the threat of bird flu from migrating birds to my daughter-in-law's chickens across the road. This threat has been increasing every year. I was sooo reluctant to quit feeding, but finally realized I had to. I'd been feeding the wild birds at this location for 50 years. 😢

I just grow flowers that attract birds. Zinnias, red honeysuckle, hot pink salvia, sunflowers, Cardinal vine, Brazilian verbena, chicory, fennel, and I don't have any right now, but thistle.