![]() Personally I beleive the amount of conflict depends upon the prevalence of food. While many people complain about Starlings and Hosps hogging all the food, I have noted as many as 10 species all feeding at the same time with no noticable conflicts. Although they are known to be in this area, I have yet to see a Pileated Woodpecker but I have a Flicker that freqently lands on the pine tree, then drops down and takes seed on the ground under the hopper feeder. I get a lot of Red Bellied and Downey Woodpeckers on both the suet feeders and the seed feeding stations, and I have twice seen a Red Headed Woodpecker. ![]() When I first put the suet feeders up it was about 8 or 10 days before I saw any activity, but now it is not uncommon to see 3 or 4 woodpeckers there at the same time. to date I have photo documnted 97 species in our yard. I fill all the hanging feeders, the pour some additional seed on the ground for those birds that prefer to feed on the ground as well as scatter dried bread on the ground.Īccording to my book, "Wild Birds of Ohio" there are 413 species of birds native to the state of Ohio. I then wanted a feeder in a bit closer to the window but lacking any suitable means of support I stood an old pipe garment rack about 12ft outside the window and hung both a mixed seed and a niger seed feeder on the rack, plus an old bucket lid tied to the top of the rack to make a flat tray feeder of sorts. In this manner I can take closeup pictures of the birds by means of a 300mm lens, and I can pan from the hopper to the suet feeders without changing focus. I then mounted two suet feeders on the tree trunk at the same height. I began by handing the hopper feeder on a low limb on the Maple tree, which placed the feeder about 5ft above the ground. ![]() The Maple tree is about 40ft out from the window and although it cannot be seen in the picture, there is a 50ft high pine tree about 20 feet to the right of the feeder, and another 50ft pine about 30 feet to the left. This probably will not be necessary if your feeding stand has hangers at staggered heights - hang the cage above the others.I guess by some peoples standards I have violated all the accepted rules for locating feeding stations, however, I took up nature photography as a hobby about a year ago and I located my feeders where I have a direct line of sight from my bedroom window, where I have my camera set up. I have done this with a piece of wood, hose clamps, a picture hanging bracket, and a small carabiner. Finally, hang it separately from other feeders, or modify your feeding stand so that the cage hangs further away. Then use a champagne cork or similar to fill the central hole in the base (otherwise squirrels can gain access from underneath). Use zip ties to anchor it centrally in place. You may need to trim the top/base of this with wire cutters to get it to fit. Remove the internal fat ball holder (which is too big anyway - 10 fat balls will potentially spoil in certain weathers, plus the birds can actually land on the fat balls themselves because of the size of the mesh and the large opening, which I imagine is unhygienic for them) and replace it with a tube-shaped 3-5 fat ball holder. Otherwise, prepare to be disappointed, as they will likely figure out how to gain access.įor those who are willing, the changes I have made are as follows: ![]() So, I would say be prepared to make some changes to this product once it arrives, if you have squirrels in your area. It is now very effective and only accessible to small birds. This feeder could be completely squirrel proof with some changes to the design, which I have done myself through a series of alterations. Additionally, this cage caused my other squirrel-proof feeders to become ineffective, because they would hang from this cage with the majority of their weight, and reach into the seed feeder without activating the spring mechanism which normally keeps them out. Squirrels will hang from the underneath and reach into the fat balls, scratching off large chunks and either hang upside down to eat, or drop to the floor to eat what has collected there, and repeat. Out of the box, this product is large bird proof, but is not squirrel proof.
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