Starlings taking all feed from feeders

Hi Angler -

Starlings are incredibly opportunistic feeders and can find food just about anywhere - which makes one wonder why they are in such a steep decline. They need feeding, too, but do tend to scarf up what you put out before the other birds have had a chance.   I have a couple of suggestions.

1.  Feed your other birds very early in the morning and near dusk at evening as starlings seem to start feeding later and stop earlier.

2.  Not all mesh cages are equal.  Find one which has a smaller grid or one which you can adjust the size of the mesh.  The RSPB sells both.

3. Get an enclosed meal-worm feeder.  Try Vine House Farms, Soar Mill Seeds,  CJ Feeds, Haiths, Wiggly Wigglers [though they tend to be expensive].  I think LiveFoodsDirect also has the enclosed meal-worm feeders.  You might also google meal-worm feeders.  As starlings are devilishly clever, you'll have to very slightly bend in the entrance holes - the little beggars have managed to wiggle their way into mine!

Hope this helps.

Cheers - Ann

I find that the starlings concentrate on the obvious feeders, try a few fat balls near more cover and the tits will use that while the gang attack the main feeders. I have as many feeders but scattered all around a small sheltered garden on trees and shrubs, the shy birds soon find them !

Hi, try a cylinder of narrow mesh chicken wire around a long tube feeder ,has to stand off from the tube by about 6" & have a top & bottom mesh. A few single cuts in the mesh will allow the larger tits chaffs etc in, but keep the rapacious starlings out!! Similar to your bottom feeder ,but smaller hoes

IWAngler said:

We have a local mob of a dozen starlings that keep coming to our feeders and clearing out all the suet pellets & mealworms that our resident population of BlueTits seem to also favour. We also put out fat balls in a metal cage, Niger seed in a special feeder, peanuts & mixed seed all of which do not seem to get much attention. In an attempt to allow the smaller birds a greater chance of getting their favorite food, I have tried a propriatory feeder with a protection cage but this has not stopped the starlings getting access. I just wondered if anyone has any thoughts about providing the Bluetits with suet pellets and mealworms in such a way that the starlings cannot easily rob them all. I have seen a plastic feeder with an ajustable umberella type cover for this sort of thing but at least half of the dozen or more on display were already broken.

I do not wish to deny the starlings food at all and I would continue to provide them with some that they could accesss. I just feel that I would like to give the smaller birds a more secure source as well.

 

Many thanks to all who responded. I think the main criteria is that the mesh has to be at least 6 ins away from the feeder as suggested above. The mesh size on my guarded feeded is quite small but I have observed that it still allows the starlings to put their heads through and their long beaks allow them access to the food. In fairness the feeded was sold primarily to be squirrel proof. (Fortunately still no greys here on the Isle of Wight, just reds if you know where to look.) Looks like I will be getting busy with the wire mesh.

Hi I also have a 20+ strong Starling Gang, they are amazing, I also have a wide range of birds that come to the feeders.

They are a pair of Blue Tits, and 20+ Sparrows, a pair of Blackbirds, plus 15+ pigeons and 1  Robin, 6 Collared Doves and 6 Wood Pigeons. And to top it all 6 Magpies and 2 Carrion Crows.

The way I feed them all is to Scatter some of the seed on the lawn together with the fat balls and fat pellets. I also fill up the two feeding stations with seed feeders and with the fat balls and coconuts on both stations.

The seed feeders and the fat ball feeders seem to keep the blue tits happy, Whilst the Sparrows and Starlings are happier on the ground. The Crows take a whole fat ball each and fly off once a day, and there is no squabbling at all between different species. The Pigeons are great at guarding the other birds as when they are spooked everything fies to the trees, bushes and fences that we have in our garden.

The Starlings do squable amoungst themselves occaisionally whilst the small birds dart in and out and take plenty.

I also have a cat and a lot of the neighbours do too, but none of the birds seem to get caught. They are all too busy catching the mice.

I too have a group of about 8 - 10 Starlings taking everything before other birds get a chance ! So I found that throwing a few suet pellets down first , or even a few currants lets them devour what they need ! They then tend to fly off elsewhere in search of food . During that time I then put my usual hand fulls of Hedgerow Mix for my ground feed . I treat differents bird the same as at school when we had 1st and 2nd sittings . Even now as I write the Starlings are long gone and I've two Collared Doves now waiting for their turn .

I have solved the problem of how to feed the smaller birds - tits, sparrows and robins - the suet pellets without the starlings, of which I have loads, eating them all in an instant and bankrupting me. I feed them in a ground cage on a mesh tray. The smaller birds fly/hop in and help themselves and the starlings pace round and round the outside getting more and more frustrated, which is amusing to watch! All my feeders are caged as I just cannot afford to feed the flocks of starlings. The odd bird is no problem but 30 of them is no joke. They must be doing well round here in Wiltshire as there are so many of them. The blue,great,long tailed and coal tits have all learnt to take the suet from the ground feeder and this way the kilos of pellets now

IWAngler said:

Many thanks to all who responded. I think the main criteria is that the mesh has to be at least 6 ins away from the feeder as suggested above. The mesh size on my guarded feeded is quite small but I have observed that it still allows the starlings to put their heads through and their long beaks allow them access to the food. In fairness the feeded was sold primarily to be squirrel proof. (Fortunately still no greys here on the Isle of Wight, just reds if you know where to look.) Looks like I will be getting busy with the wire mesh.

IWAngler said:

Many thanks to all who responded. I think the main criteria is that the mesh has to be at least 6 ins away from the feeder as suggested above. The mesh size on my guarded feeded is quite small but I have observed that it still allows the starlings to put their heads through and their long beaks allow them access to the food. In fairness the feeded was sold primarily to be squirrel proof. (Fortunately still no greys here on the Isle of Wight, just reds if you know where to look.) Looks like I will be getting busy with the wire mesh.

Many thanks for all the further responses.

I will give the (just off the) ground cage idea a go. Had not thought of that one. 

The general level of activity on the feeders showed a distinct drop as soon as the very cold weather turned mild. I guess all the new buds on the trees/bushes bay be a source of food now.

Hi IWAngler,

The house I used to live at had so many starlings, sparrows & Collard doves it was fantastic to watch & I learned then that the starlings are greedy little beggars, noisy squabblers but just gorgeous in their own right.

The house I am now moved to has not had any starlings or sparrows which I found really sad. Ive been here for 2 months now and I noticed something strange in the garden today. Usually my regular bird visitors eat all the sunflower hearts & peanuts daily so I top up on a morning only. Today though, I went out for 2 hours and when I returned the feeders were so bare it was madness and I just knew that it wasnt the norm around here and that the starlings must have started coming. Sure enough there were two of them snaffling around before flying off.

One part of me was thinking "oh lord here we go with expensive bird food orders" now that they know there is food here, but another part of me got excited because I think they are lovely and I was secretly glad to see that they have appeared around here because they aren't half comical to watch.

Its the usually the Gray Squirrels that pinch the little birds food if I don't keep the monkey nuts topped up in their baskets ;)