To keep grackles from my seed, I give them old bread. They prefer it to seed. I like using sunflower seed and peanuts because they are so successful at attracting Jays and Cardinals . I hang my feeders on a slippery Shepard hook, greased with cooking oil. It is entertaining to watch squirrels try to get the seeds.
We used to feed a combination of black oil sunflower seed and Safflower seed. They birds ate the sunflower seed but refused to eat the Safflower INCLUDING the Cardinals. I noticed that it was only during the past several years that the bird seed companies have been pushing Safflower seed. Unfortunately, our birds hate it.
That's too bad! Finches love safflower seed so we get tons I'm just upset because starlings have started feeding and last night it ate two baby birds I screamed, played noises It only stopped when I played a starling distress call
@@happydays5989 Those starlings are horrible. They chase off all the small birds and eat up all the food. The suet that I put out for the woodpeckers the starlings will rip apart and ruin it in minutes. They are the worst here in the spring time. I bang on the window and scare them off but they are back in a few minutes. I try to watch for them though. Bird seed is getting expensive and I don’t want to feed those evil creatures. When the farmers start planting their fields the starlings will go off and bother them for the rest of the year. Starlings were brought here from Europe by some rich guy that thought that NYC needed them. What a terrible idea. They are an invasive species and should not even be here.
@@happydays5989 JUST BUY A BB GUN. Become a Pest Hunter. Make a shooting Wall with plastic cardboard from Home Depot. Put it on a window, WITH SMALL HOLES TO LOOK AND SHOOT. Shoot From the back is better. They have great vision.. Feed, and wait for the pest birds to show up. Take them out one a day. Until they leave the American Songbirds alone. The American Manly Way to deal with thieves. Starlins, Black Birds and Europe Sparrows are your songbirds ENEMIES. "The enemy of my friends are my enemy too". HAPPY HUNTING.. See videos about bird hunting too. BE A PEST HUNTER, NOT LAZY OR COWARD CUNT.
Yes all good tips for detering starlings. I like giving suet to my birds and I was using a cage supposedly starling deterrant , but they could stick their beaks and get to the edges of the suet, that was ok, but then that feeder became overrun with house sparrows which are not native so I changed that. I made an upside down suet feeder which eliminated the house sparrows and downys would still feed from it ,, ok. I would have an occasional starling hang from it briefly but they dont hang long with it.
Thanks. Blackbirds have taken over my feeder & they're running my little guys off. Pigeons, too. Detest them both. We love the little guys, & blue Jays, Robbins, cardinals...not any blackbird though. They're thugs! Pigeons are too!!!
I’ve heard that striped sunflower seeds are harder and so there’s some left for the cardinals as most other birds can’t crack it open. I’m going to try that
I haven't put in the effort yet, but I have seen videos with hand made feeders that use cut sections of metal pipe as entry points (two sides are full walls of them) too small for squirrels and larger birds.
South East Michigan….last fall I had at least 100 black birds in my yard…tried safflower and striped sunflower oil seeds in a tray feeder…if nothing else was available, they ate it…Cardinals ate from tube feeders and small “squirrel proof feeders…then I through safflower seeds on the ground Starlings ate it…but not the striped black oil sunflower seed…the starlings and grackles were huge bullies…house sparrows ate everything…except striped black oil sunflower seeds…I’ve read that These birds are drawn to large areas of water…well I’m from Michigan…we have a lot of large areas of water nearby…Now What?
Me and a neighbor put out hard cat food for a few strays we've taken care of for yrs. They eat that before the cats can. I've been feeding birds in my front yard for 20 yrs this is the worst I've seen. I have a 3 gallon galvanized bowl for water put down mainly for squirrels but birds also. So far this yr I have to change water 3 times a day because these black birds mess it up. I'm going to stop feeding the birds for awhile see what happens. I put peanuts in the shell out for squirrels and the jays like those. So at least I'll still have them. I like the morning doves also and cardinals
Safflower seed is expensive, and most of the birds that love sunflower seed, won't like it, but house sparrows and starlings won't touch it, and blackbirds won't stay too long. that and nyjer seed, really limits the garbage birds. Now suet is another problem entirely, for that you need to have special feeders.
I used to be able to sit in the backyard and read a book read my Bible and just relaxed on my back porch watching the beautiful birds at my feeder then the thugs showed up and now my life is miserable.
I agree the starlings aren't as bad for my neck of the woods as these awful grackles n cow birds n blue jays which i hate there mega food bullys n hogs n i have a bird proof squirrel feeder for my lil critters n the birds will gang up n attack squirrels n chipmunks for there stupid peanuts n trust me i have tried separating areas on my property n even scattered nuts away from the "giving tree" i call my squirrels tree but theyll hoard ever nut n then try clearing the pickle jar for the squirrels its ridiculous its gottten so bad this peanut kick my yards full of holes from the awful birds stealing all the squirrels caches instead of eating the bird food i have a pellet gun n i did get 1 bird n i felt awful but they did leave for a wk..😂
@@kennethwise7108 they really are idk medium sized birds seem to be my issue n my whole neighborhood has at least 2 bird feeders its like my house gets. The worst ones!
@@kennethwise7108 bro, some times theres alil too many ppl too..lol!🤦♀️🤣💩 i hear yah idc either my property my $$ i go thru so much .5lb peanut bags n not to mention winter x im feeding 20 wild turkeys n i luv them i stopped seeing them when spring came unlike these lazy fat birds man there pests!!
Hi, I can provide you with great advice for stopping this behaviour. Invest in an Air Arms S410 1:77 cal' carbine, ATN day/night scope, some JSB super Jumbo pellets and Trigger stick. Zero the rifle at a distance of your choosing. Shoot from the comfort of you home from a window. Enjoy hours of fun, slotting the little buggers. It's great and the whole family can join in.
Safflower is for Cardinals only. Their beaks are tailor made for safflower. That's the beauty of safflower, if you are in a place where cardinals thrive. Sparrows will try and eat it, if there is nothing else available but you can tell the shells chewed by the sparrows are not opened efficiently and they thus waste most of it.
My cardinals and grossbeaks love it. The chickadees, finches and titmice will eat it occasionally... but the morning doves love these seeds as well and gobble them all up whole!
For blue Jay's I'd get a squirel proof whole shelled peanut feeder. The Jay's love grabbing a peanut to go crack open. Even though grackles love peanuts too, they aren't a fan of having to crack the shell open
For the same reason it's legal to kill house sparrows and starlings... because they're aggressive non-native species that are out competing and killing off the native bird populations
To keep grackles from my seed, I give them old bread. They prefer it to seed. I like using sunflower seed and peanuts because they are so successful at attracting Jays and Cardinals . I hang my feeders on a slippery Shepard hook, greased with cooking oil. It is entertaining to watch squirrels try to get the seeds.
Humans can barely process bread properly from so much processing.. I can only imagine what it's like for the birds.. probably not a good idea...
We used to feed a combination of black oil sunflower seed and Safflower seed. They birds ate the sunflower seed but refused to eat the Safflower INCLUDING the Cardinals. I noticed that it was only during the past several years that the bird seed companies have been pushing Safflower seed. Unfortunately, our birds hate it.
That's too bad!
Finches love safflower seed so we get tons
I'm just upset because starlings have started feeding and last night it ate two baby birds
I screamed, played noises
It only stopped when I played a starling distress call
@@happydays5989 Those starlings are horrible. They chase off all the small birds and eat up all the food. The suet that I put out for the woodpeckers the starlings will rip apart and ruin it in minutes. They are the worst here in the spring time. I bang on the window and scare them off but they are back in a few minutes. I try to watch for them though. Bird seed is getting expensive and I don’t want to feed those evil creatures. When the farmers start planting their fields the starlings will go off and bother them for the rest of the year.
Starlings were brought here from Europe by some rich guy that thought that NYC needed them. What a terrible idea. They are an invasive species and should not even be here.
@@happydays5989 JUST BUY A BB GUN. Become a Pest Hunter. Make a shooting Wall with plastic cardboard from Home Depot. Put it on a window, WITH SMALL HOLES TO LOOK AND SHOOT. Shoot From the back is better. They have great vision.. Feed, and wait for the pest birds to show up. Take them out one a day. Until they leave the American Songbirds alone. The American Manly Way to deal with thieves. Starlins, Black Birds and Europe Sparrows are your songbirds ENEMIES. "The enemy of my friends are my enemy too".
HAPPY HUNTING.. See videos about bird hunting too. BE A PEST HUNTER, NOT LAZY OR COWARD CUNT.
Yes all good tips for detering starlings. I like giving suet to my birds and I was using a cage supposedly starling deterrant , but they could stick their beaks and get to the edges of the suet, that was ok, but then that feeder became overrun with house sparrows which are not native so I changed that. I made an upside down suet feeder which eliminated the house sparrows and downys would still feed from it ,, ok. I would have an occasional starling hang from it briefly but they dont hang long with it.
run them off, I keep mine near my window where I can tap on it and if they persist I chase them around the lawn until they leave.
haha idiot. I wish i was you neighbor so i could laugh at your dumbass
Me too
Thanks for the suggestion to use Safflower seed. Grackles here it comes.
Did it work?
Thanks. Blackbirds have taken over my feeder & they're running my little guys off. Pigeons, too. Detest them both. We love the little guys, & blue Jays, Robbins, cardinals...not any blackbird though. They're thugs! Pigeons are too!!!
I’ve heard that striped sunflower seeds are harder and so there’s some left for the cardinals as most other birds can’t crack it open. I’m going to try that
I haven't put in the effort yet, but I have seen videos with hand made feeders that use cut sections of metal pipe as entry points (two sides are full walls of them) too small for squirrels and larger birds.
Unfortunately Pigeon and Doves Love Safflower...any help to stop that?
I will try this I have a grackle swarm… which I like any birds… But I’d like to see more of the Cardinals etc.
South East Michigan….last fall I had at least 100 black birds in my yard…tried safflower and striped sunflower oil seeds in a tray feeder…if nothing else was available, they ate it…Cardinals ate from tube feeders and small “squirrel proof feeders…then I through safflower seeds on the ground Starlings ate it…but not the striped black oil sunflower seed…the starlings and grackles were huge bullies…house sparrows ate everything…except striped black oil sunflower seeds…I’ve read that These birds are drawn to large areas of water…well I’m from Michigan…we have a lot of large areas of water nearby…Now What?
What a load of Bull.. Starlings eat ANYTHING !! Little bastads even eat putty out your windows !!!!
Me and a neighbor put out hard cat food for a few strays we've taken care of for yrs. They eat that before the cats can. I've been feeding birds in my front yard for 20 yrs this is the worst I've seen. I have a 3 gallon galvanized bowl for water put down mainly for squirrels but birds also. So far this yr I have to change water 3 times a day because these black birds mess it up. I'm going to stop feeding the birds for awhile see what happens. I put peanuts in the shell out for squirrels and the jays like those. So at least I'll still have them. I like the morning doves also and cardinals
Safflower seed is expensive, and most of the birds that love sunflower seed, won't like it, but house sparrows and starlings won't touch it, and blackbirds won't stay too long. that and nyjer seed, really limits the garbage birds. Now suet is another problem entirely, for that you need to have special feeders.
I used to be able to sit in the backyard and read a book read my Bible and just relaxed on my back porch watching the beautiful birds at my feeder then the thugs showed up and now my life is miserable.
youre life was miserable before you just complained about something else., punch yourself in the crotch
I removed all food from them, hoping they leave. I'm replacing my feeder with a finch feeder.
THEY'RE WAY OVERPOPULATED AND NEED TO HAVE AN OPEN SEASON ON THEM!!!
I agree the starlings aren't as bad for my neck of the woods as these awful grackles n cow birds n blue jays which i hate there mega food bullys n hogs n i have a bird proof squirrel feeder for my lil critters n the birds will gang up n attack squirrels n chipmunks for there stupid peanuts n trust me i have tried separating areas on my property n even scattered nuts away from the "giving tree" i call my squirrels tree but theyll hoard ever nut n then try clearing the pickle jar for the squirrels its ridiculous its gottten so bad this peanut kick my yards full of holes from the awful birds stealing all the squirrels caches instead of eating the bird food i have a pellet gun n i did get 1 bird n i felt awful but they did leave for a wk..😂
@user-dk5vj2br1o yeah, I'm a die hard bird fan but some are out of control
@@kennethwise7108 they really are idk medium sized birds seem to be my issue n my whole neighborhood has at least 2 bird feeders its like my house gets. The worst ones!
@user-dk5vj2br1o people think I'm an as$hole for saying that too but oh well
@@kennethwise7108 bro, some times theres alil too many ppl too..lol!🤦♀️🤣💩 i hear yah idc either my property my $$ i go thru so much .5lb peanut bags n not to mention winter x im feeding 20 wild turkeys n i luv them i stopped seeing them when spring came unlike these lazy fat birds man there pests!!
Hi, I can provide you with great advice for stopping this behaviour.
Invest in an Air Arms S410 1:77 cal' carbine, ATN day/night scope, some JSB super Jumbo pellets and Trigger stick.
Zero the rifle at a distance of your choosing.
Shoot from the comfort of you home from a window.
Enjoy hours of fun, slotting the little buggers.
It's great and the whole family can join in.
safflower is so expensive tho..
It's not so expensive once you realize how long it lasts because the starlings aren't gobbling it all up
I tried safflower and the grackles and starlings would not eat it ... but none of the other birds would eat it either.
Safflower is for Cardinals only. Their beaks are tailor made for safflower.
That's the beauty of safflower, if you are in a place where cardinals thrive.
Sparrows will try and eat it, if there is nothing else available but you
can tell the shells chewed by the sparrows are not opened efficiently
and they thus waste most of it.
My cardinals and grossbeaks love it. The chickadees, finches and titmice will eat it occasionally... but the morning doves love these seeds as well and gobble them all up whole!
Will the blue jays eat safflower? The blackbirds are chasing my blue jays away.🐦
For blue Jay's I'd get a squirel proof whole shelled peanut feeder. The Jay's love grabbing a peanut to go crack open. Even though grackles love peanuts too, they aren't a fan of having to crack the shell open
I bought s birdcage like suet feeder.
Get a pet Eagle 🦅 he will help thanks for the viewing time today
And the squirrel dont like it eather
If you're feeding birds,why try keep some out.Bird Feeders,get it?
primitive morons
The grackles run everything else off, so if you have lots of grackles that’s all you have. Some of us want diversity
For the same reason it's legal to kill house sparrows and starlings... because they're aggressive non-native species that are out competing and killing off the native bird populations
use a shotgun