Questions about Fintel's Feeders and Water Features on 5/8/19 OLLI Class

Following are links to answers for questions raised in our class on 5/8/19. All links will take you to earlier posts on this blog.

Sources of the Wood Bark Suet Sandwich Woodpecker Feeder, plus Droll Yankee Domed Cage Feeder, and the Humzinger Hummingbird Feeder and Ant Trap,  plus the The recipe for the suet we use are all available at this LINK.

Details of our latest design for the Safe Haven Cage Feeder is available HERE

Avian Aquatics Misters and Drippers are available from Birds Choice via Amazon HERE

For details on Leaf Misting for warblers and hummingbirds click HERE 

As I mentioned in our 5/8/19 class, Avian Aquatics Bird-Creeks are no longer available, but if you search, you should still be able to find shallow water features with moving water, or you can be creative and make your own.

At this LINK you can see the amazing results of a simple shallow (1 to 2 inch deep) moving water feature on the Dry Tortugas. Even birds shown on branches were attracted to the water feature, and just waiting their turn.

Summary of Oct 18 field trip to Fintel's yard, Oster Rocks Rd, and the Cape Henlopen Hawk watch

On this field trip we observed 45 species, including a few notables such as a Rufous/Allen's type Hummingbird, and a Golden Eagle. The eagle came by the hawk watch late, so most class members had already left. Two other lesser highlights were a Red-breasted Nuthatch at the hawk watch, and a very close and cooperative Ruby-crowned Kinglet on Oyster Rocks Rd.

In the Fintel's yard we had several questions about feeders, so following are a few links:

The Wood Bark Suet Sandwich Woodpecker Feeder is available through Amazon. (click for link)

The Droll Yankee Domed Cage Feeder is also available through Amazon. Remember that the dome on this feeder is not squirrel proof, so it should be protected by a squirrel baffle. Good squirrel baffles are available locally at Ace hardware, etc.

The Humzinger Hummingbird Feeder is also available through Amazon, as is the Ant Trap.

Our favorite suet recipe is:

No Melt Bird Suet –

Sally Fintel and  WildBird Magazine,  Dec. 1994

18 oz. crunchy peanut butter

2 cups (1 lb.) lard – no substitutions

4 cups quick oats

4 cups yellow corn meal

2 cups white flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar

Melt lard and peanut butter together over low heat. Remove from heat and thoroughly mix in remaining ingredients. Transfer to shallow Styrofoam veggie or meat containers. Cover & store in refridge or freeze. Slice and use to fill suet stick, as needed. Birds love this all year round.

Safe Haven feeder and up-side-down thistle feeder

These are 2 of my favorite feeders. Blackbirds generally can not deal with either of them, but as you can see, desirable birds such as Purple Finches, Goldfinches and even White-throated Sparrows love them. Again for details on the Safe Haven feeder, click on feeders under Labels (left index). The up-side-down thistle feeders are available at most bird feeder suppliers.

The next post will be about bird baths .......that really bring in the birds....especially the birds that do NOT eat seed....like thrushes, warblers, tanagers etc.

"Safe Haven" Bird Feeder

This has been my "mainstay bird feeder" for 40+ years. It provides seed and suet for small birds, like Chickadees, Titmice, Wrens, Nuthatches, etc, AND excludes the big bullies like Starlings, Grackles and Blue Jays.

I have made many versions of this feeder, and believe the bigger the better, so I will describe my latest version, which is pictured below (pic from today, click to enlarge).

The overall INSIDE dimensions are height 16 inches, depth and width 22 inches. The wire is nominally 1 x 2 inch hardware cloth. I use pliers to squeeze every other opening to a clearance dimension of  approximately 1 1/4 inch wide. The vertical dimension remains constant at about 1 3/4 inches (less than 2 inches because of wire thickness).

The sides are 2 pieces of wire cloth. One is a single piece 66 inches long by 16 inches high, folded twice at 22 inches to make the left, back and right sides. The other piece is 22 inches wide by16 inches high, and attached to a back side by simple wire hinges (just wrap single pieces of wire to connect the front and sides in 2 places.......see left side of enlarged pic).

We usually put black oil sunflower seed and peanuts in the center floor of the feeder, and peanut butter suet (see prev. post) in the suet stick.

You will want to mount the feeder on a sturdy pole with a squirrel/raccoon baffle below it. They can't get in the feeder, but they can work it over pretty good (see gnawing on right side where a squirrel jumped over to it). Squirrels can jump horizontally 9 ft (yes I did my own measurements). So position any feeder at least 10 ft from a solid squirrel jumping point.

And then enjoy the little guys not being harassed by the big bullies.

Grackle-proof Cage Feeder

The above pic shows 2 White-throated Sparrows and a Pine Warbler inside the cage feeder, and a 3rd White-throat about to enter. Other small birds which use our feeder include chickadees, titmice, Carolina Wrens, nuthatches, goldfinches, siskins, and Downy Woodpeckers. The seed is Black Oil Sunflower, usually with some peanut halves, and the suet stick hanging in the center contains peanut butter suet. I have made and used this design feeder for the last 30 years. It allows small birds access to the food, and excludes large birds, such as grackles (hanging on back of cage in below pic).

There are some commercial feeders which use the same principal of a screen to exclude large birds, but in general, the commercial designs do not have a large enough feeding space to accommodate several small birds. In my latest design, the inside dimensions are 22x22x16 inches, LxWxH. The wire mesh is 1x2 inch hardware cloth, with every other opening enlarged to 1 and 1/2 inches wide using pliers.

Medium size desirable birds, such as Cardinals, can sometimes enter the feeder, but more often they get seed that becomes pushed to the edge (below pic). Red-bellied Woodpeckers will often hang on the feeder wire, and use their long tongues to tease a peanut half over to the edge where they pick it up with their bill.

The above pic also shows the top of commercial squirrel-racoon baffle on the pole below the feeder. Racoons gave me a challenge this past winter by climbing over a single baffle, but by placing a metal cylinder baffle on top of a metal cone baffle, I was able to stop them.

Think the Grackles are mad at me? This guy sure looks mad.