bird suet feeders

Image by mcwetboy via Flickr

It Is Not That Easy To Squirrel Proof Bird Feeders
By Mayoor Patel
One of the problems with wanting to put out a bunch of bird feeders is that they tend to attract other animals as well. These other creatures include chipmunks, squirrels and an assortment of small rodents. Since this is not what you want in your garden you need to find a way to make them not available to these other seed seeking small animals. Therefore, what you will need for your garden is squirrel proof bird feeders. These feeders will have some type of device that makes it impossible, or nearly so, for the animals to get to the bird seed.

Some bird feeders try to solve this problem by using plastic shields on the sides to keep the seeds in. There are some problems with this method of making squirrel proof bird feeders. Despite the fact that the side pieces will keep the squirrel from eating huge piles of seeds they are smarter than you think and over time will develop tricks to get to at the food. What they learn to do is to fly at the feeder, knocking a bunch of the seeds to the ground as they go. Then, when they fall, moments later, they have a meal waiting for them. Some of the smarter

ones get very good at this and learn to take a flying leap that spills large quantities of seeds. If this becomes too much of a problem, there are other alternatives. One is buying a more expensive feeder that has been made squirrel proof by the manufactures. Although this seems to be an extreme choice if you live in area with a lot squirrels you soon find that they take over your bird feeders if you do not take drastic measures.

The other alternative is to do things that will mean the squirrels and other small animals are unable to gain access to the bird feeder. One method is to use a system that will put wire screening around the bird feeder and so prevent small animals and, unfortunately, large birds from getting the food. One other suggested method for making squirrel proof bird feeders is to hang empty plastic pop bottles on a line above the feeder. This can prevent the small animal from being able to get to the feeder and usually results in them falling off the line, where they land just fine, only to try again. Eventually when they are unable to get to the feeder they will give up.