For various reasons my bird feeders have to be mounted onto a window - and I was happily feeding all members of the small birds in our area: all the tits, finches and sparrows for a couple of years - then we were noticed by the gargantuan appetites of the collared doves and the jackdaws. They scared away most of the little bird quite understandably - but it was only when eventually I lost patience with the large birds hogging everything and added up what they cost me - around £300 extra a year which I CANNOT afford - that I put my foot down. I cannot go on, especially as they were bringing all their friends and relations around and had I continued the bill would have been even higher.
Has anyone out there had a similar experience? I asked the RSPB, and was advised to buy a feeder that is a circular clear perspex dish, with a clear perspex half dome over it, both suspended on a hook. Doubtless this is excellent in many settings, but not from our first floor window! The first day it was up it attracted the jackdaws, who studied it long and earnestly, then after an hour or two flew down to the ground, then up almost vertically to the gap between the feeder base and the dome, folded their wings and popped their heads over the edge, grabbed a beakful of food, and were off, then another copied the first! Nothing stopped them! Now I have a useless feeder and supply of food for it - the jackdaws still come round to see if I've put it back out...
I've had similar troubles with the collared doves taking premium sunflower kernals from the rectangular perspex stick-on feeder, and also from the seed saver which fits on the base of my tubular seed feeder.
I really want to start feeding the birds again, as I miss them dreadfully, but I do need to keep the large ones from taking all the food intended for the little birds....
Please help!
The price of apathy is to be ruled by evil men.
Do as you would be done by.
I had the same trouble until I stopped hanging and taped my feeders to posts. the Jackdaws gave up and moved on to easier meals. :-)
Hope this helps, John
For viewing or photography right place right time is everything. I'd rather be in the right place with poor kit than have the best kit and be in the wrong place.
Many thanks for the suggestion, but alas I have to spend most of my life in this upstairs room, and really would like to see the birds I feed - hence the suction-cup window feeders.
Someone suggested putting a wire cage over the window (!) which might be my only line of defence against these clever and determined birds, but where I would get one that would open to refill and clean feeders, not to mention someone to attach the thing, I do not know.
Many thanks for your idea - if all else fails I'll try it, as at least the birds will get their food even if I can't see them!
Regards
Pat