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.