Hi to everyone - this is my first post . I have been feeding a wide range of garden birds sucessfully for about 18 months. I have not had many starlings in the garden - until now !! I put suet pellets/ blocks out and soaked mealworms scattered on the ground and on feeder trays and they have an area in the garden almost exclusively for them. A robin visits the garden throughout the day and I am chuffed that I have almost got him to feed from the hand .As I wanted to keep on providing separate mealworms for the robin to ensure he keeps visiting and hopefully will have the trust to come fully to hand, I also put mealworms in a gaurdian feeder. However, unbelievably , the starlings can squeeze through the holes ( they are about one and half inches by 2" ) - I couldn't believe my eyes!! I have had a look for another gaurdian with smaller holes but I think they would still be able to stick their necks in. Has anyone got any advice on a gaurdian they can,t get into before I buy up the whole of the garden centre? The poor robin looks so dejected when his previously exclusive supply of mealworms are disappearing!
Many thanks
See my Flickr photos here.
Hi Michelle, not sure if you realise the post you are asking on dates back 9 years, however, I did have the same feeder although didn't get starlings in my garden. It was a very successful feeder, popular with the smaller birds and as TJ says, it should keep starlings out as he suggested with his photo. It is a bit expensive to buy but I found it so successful keeping larger birds and grey squirrels off the food that I ended up buying three of them as it saved me money in the long run. HERE is a link to one of the suppliers of such a feeder.
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Regards, Hazel