Upside Down Suet Feeders (1 Viewer)

[amkid247]

Well i have a huge problem with starlings and sparrows eating all my suet before my woodpeckers get a chance to have even a bit. and then my woodies have to puff up and fight the other biirds to snag a few bites. so im wondering do upside down suet feeders really work? i heard that sparrows and starlings cant hang upside down but how readily will the woodpeckers take to an upside down feeder? Does anyone have and experience with this?

 

[DownyWP]

Starlings and HOSP have no problem eating from the upside down feeder that I tried.

 

[amkid247]

really?! darn, so theres no way to get rid of them then...?

 

[young ian]

really?! darn, so theres no way to get rid of them then...?

Don't despair! I had two squadrons of starlings (young-uns)
all day-everyday for the last eight weeks or so. But they
are now drifting of to pastures new. My wife informs me
that they may be getting better service else where!!!

Kind regards,
young Ian.

 

[Transformer]

This is my main problem as well - the house sparrows are downing suet like crazy this summer. I can't stand those freakin birds. I put out sunflower and they hog it, along with the monk parakeets. By the time the blue jays and cardinals come along, the feeder is empty.

I had a suet house which I removed early this morning, before the birds were even awake! It was too easy for the sparrows to use it, and they were attacking the downies. I replaced it with the regular old suet basket, and the sparrows seem wary. For now. The downies are fine with it, but I had also wanted to try the upside down feeder, and have been going crazy the last few days trying to find one at a decent price. (Seriously, $25 for a feeder is ridiculous.) Some of the prices I'm finding online are decent ($15) but everyone gouges on shipping.

I'm going to try this setup for now. Maybe come fall, when stores are stocked for winter feeding, I will find something reasonably priced and try it. For now, because of the sparrows and parakeets, I only fill small feeders a couple of times a week. Those brat birds will make me go broke!

 

[Transformer]

An update.

You have to see the fights that go on over this single suet feeder! The chickadees have screaming fights with the woodpeckers and other chickadees. The downies fight amongst themselves and the aformentioned chickadees. This morning I saw two blue jays pecking at each other over it.

I don't know what has happened this year, but I have never seen such ravenous behavior over suet before.

I continue to shoo away the sparrows.

I have changed my feeding schedule. The sunflower seed feeder goes out from 6pm until 12pm the next day. Then I remove it. This seems to be ridding the plague of monk parakeets and the sparrows do not get to empty out the feeder like pigs. But these summer hours are perfect for the cardinals and jays to feed. I may do an altered version of this for the winter as well. It seems crucial to feed them before they retire to the nest, and in the morning.

Come winter, I will put back the house with 2 cakes. I expect less fighting.

 

[amkid247]

yes fighting is a problem... although ive never seen the sparrows attack one of my downies, in which i case i would go right out to the store and buy myself a bb gun b/c downies and kin are my most favored birds, i have seen my downies fight them, its nice to know they can pull there weight tho...
during the winter months i dont get much house sparrows at my feeders, they dont come out after snowstorms, of if its too cold ive noticed, but theres just less of them around.
ps. maybe the fighting over the food means that there natural food has been depleted somehow?...

 

[DownyWP]

i have seen my downies fight them, its nice to know they can pull there weight tho...

ps. maybe the fighting over the food means that there natural food has been depleted somehow?...

I get Downy, Hairy Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers and Pileated Woodpeckers at my feeders, but they are easily chased off by starlings and their fledglings at the moment...

 

[Transformer]

although ive never seen the sparrows attack one of my downies.

'Round these parts, the house sparrows are vicious and regularly chase off most other birds, including downies, from feeders, except for the birds much larger than they, like blue jays.

 

[amkid247]

right now the only native bird at my feeders are some grackles, the sparrows are going crazy and eating everything along with their starling friends... i really got to do something about them....

 

[woodpeckerfeeder]

I may have an answer to the problem of starlings eating all of the suet. I have been working on a feeder for a number of years now (had many failures along the way) and I have a design that works great for woodpeckers and keeps starlings from eating everything before my woodpeckers arrive.

 

[amkid247]

so what is it? ive figured out that if i smear some suet on the verticle side of a tree (cause we all know some trees bend or w/e) or even on a side that forms less than 90 degrees with the ground, that the woodpeckers will eat it from there throughout the day, but the starlings and house sparrows, really cant cling to a tree, i mean sure eventually the'll figure it our just like any other time but right now it seems to work...

 

[woodpeckerfeeder]

Hello! The design is a vertical feeder (which woodpeckers prefer), but my "feeding ports" are drilled upward at a steep angle. The objective is to eliminate clinging and feeding opportunities for starlings, yet maintain a natural environment for my woodpeckers. If you want to see it and get a more detailed explanation, I have a website: www.woodpecker-feeder.com. Let me know what you think.

 

[amkid247]

o wow interesting. ive also seen a woodpecker seed feeder available on a website where it is designed much like yous only i dont the ports go up... well done job!

 

[woodpeckerfeeder]

Thanks, AMKID. My earlier designs had larger horizontal holes in them, but I had one very smart starling who was able to hang on with one claw and clean all my suet out. I have spent the last year working on the style I have now and, even if I encounter a smart starling who can flutter in front of the feeder, the angle makes it nearly impossible for him to wipe the feeder out. This way, there is always something for my woodpeckers. So far, this is working out great!

 

[Transformer]

OK, I cannot help with the starlings and grackles, but I can tell fellow sparrow-haters that I have successfully chased them away from the suet. It was by accident, actually, that I decided to use a suet feeder with more narrow, rectangular openings rather than the square-type, which is the norm. The sparrows can only eat from it if the suet is a brand new cake, and after that, they cannot fit their big heads in to get to the rest. The woodies and nuthatches are able to get to the suet due to their long bills, and also from behind, when the cake is almost gone.

 

[thewrensnest]

I've used an upside down suet feeder with great success to keep starlings off.
I also have squirrel proof suet feeder. It is the typical suet holder in a cage. If you made one yourself where the cage was too far from the suet for the starlings to reach and holes too small for them to get in, the other birds will pop right in the cage and have a feast.
There are house sparrow traps available, but if you have a large population it may be difficult to control.
I had a pair of HS try to move into my nest boxes, i kept evicting them till they moved on. I also changed to feeding just BOS and nuts and the blackbirds, starlings included and sparrows have disappeared.

 

[Coverts]

I've had modest luck by creating a secondary exocage made from baskets used for stationary or napkins or ???. I use bailing wire to attach two baskets together and suspend the suet cage inside. Mine is somewhat hinged and still allows for easy replacement of the suet block. Here's a pic.

I found my baskets at the local Goodwill or St. Vincent DePaul so it probably cost less than $5.
Most of the wires on the baskets hang vertically with few cross bars and it seems the starlings cannot easily hang from them but the bushtits and woodies tend to manage. It is only somewhat effective and I still have to shoot the starlings with a soft-air pellet gun occasionally. (It's a cheap gun and the rare occasion I have actually hit a bird it did nothing other than shoo the bird away....temporarily at that.)
$0.02

 

[amkid247]

ive turned my verticle square feeder on its side so its horizontal and covering the top and sides with aluminium foil. works fine lol

 

[Guzano]

Found this idea on the net !!!! Should be sparrow, starling and squirrel proof !!!

http://md.fpemad.com/i2/WPfeeder3.JPG