Birds and Squirrels

If you have a birdfeeder in your yard, you may have dealt with “bully birds”. Bully birds are usually blackbirds, grackles, house sparrows, and pigeons who want the birdseed in your feeder or on the ground and will chase away your favorite birds so they can inhale it all.

Bully birds are usually bigger than the birds you are trying to attract with your feeder, so try to limit accessibility of the feeding ports and keep the area under the feeder as free of seed and suet as possible to discourage pigeons. It can also be beneficial to eliminate favorite bully bird foods from your bird feeding area-they seem to prefer bread, corn, wheat and sunflower seeds.  Finches prefer hanging thistle bird feeders, while safflower seeds in hopper or tray feeders will appeal to cardinals, nuthatches, and chickadees.

  When attempting to attract Goldfinches to your yard sometimes less is more. Just plant some of their favorites like Marigolds, Zinnias, Cosmos, or Cornflowers and don’t bother to cut off the tops, Goldfinches love them. You don’t even have to weed out the dandelions these also are favorites. What a great excuse to get out of weeding!

 Of course you’re also going to want to put up some thistle tube feeders, since other than the plants you’ve planted for them they eat seed almost exclusively. Even to the point of bringing partially digested seed to feed their brood. And if you want to keep them around all year you’ll want to keep those feeders full. To keep them from competing too much over the feeder you can always put up some extra inexpensive thistle sacks. That way you’re sure to keep these golden beauties close to you with their delightful songs and charming flights.