Trying to attract cardinals to our bird feeders, comments welcome.

[jclay]

They're calming down a bit, what with it being the hottest part of the day, but as it relates to cardinal activity in our backyard it's oscillating between looking like the battle of Britain and one big happy family around the birdbath. They are digging the birdbath.

[thollandpe]

Witnessed a face-off yesterday between a male Cardinal and a Blue Jay. Quite the sight among the white blossoms of a dogwood.

We also have a pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks that have returned.

[jumphigher]

It's pretty funny, we set up two feeders (my first pic), with one dedicated to the cardinals and which had only those black seeds they like. Well for whatever reason our cardinal couple wouldnt eat from it, they'd simply ignore it and eat from the other one. So today we refilled the 'cardinal' feeder with about 50% of the normal bird seeds and 50% black ones - now both feeders contain the same mix. The cardinals seem to be ok with it and have been visiting. Funny that they wouldnt eat from the feeder we specially set up for them.

On a side note, we're fond of the woodpecker that shows up too, he's really cool. In fact we're getting quite a few regulars now. :)

[thollandpe]

Interesting, same thing happened to us with the white safflower seeds. It took forever for the initial fill to be used up, but now that we've refilled with a mix, I notice that the Cardinals, Downy Woodpeckers, Chickadees, and others only take the white ones. But they left them mostly alone when the feeders were all white.

I also noticed the my Droll Yankee feeder's posts are a tad short for Cardinals to perch and turn to get their beaks in the opening. Gonna try making them longer than 1-3/4".

[thollandpe]

Re: squirrels.

Cheaper than an airsoft gun: Droll Yankees Sunflower Domed Cage Wild Bird Feeder, 23-in - Chewy.com

Re: litterbirds

Anybody tried this to catch the scatter? Droll Yankees 6-Seed Bird Seed Tray, 8-in - Chewy.com

[jumphigher]

Re: litterbirds

Anybody tried this to catch the scatter? Droll Yankees 6-Seed Bird Seed Tray, 8-in - Chewy.com

Yeah I should post a pic of our balcony, it is a MESS if seeds shells - thousands of them. We're talking about possible solutions. We're also gonna ho look at some bird baths today..

[jumphigher]

We were just watching the female eating this morning, Grace pointed out she always knows when the female is up there because she sings while she eats, and it's true. Pretty funny to watch her with her bandit mask on, singing away while she eats. :)

[jumphigher]

Update: Well, we took the feeders down. We couldnt take the mess anymore that the birds were making. There was bird poop and seeds EVERYWHERE on our balcony, and probably the people's below us. The final straw was one bird that started throwing all the seeds he didnt like out of the feeder, he emptied one of them in like 2 days by throwing most of the seeds onto the deck. This in turn brought more squirrels who couldnt reach the feeders but could pick up the seeds that had fallen. We've decided to keep putting suet out in the winter, when the birds really need the extra food, but I think we're done for now with summer feeders.

[Mabouya]

Well that stinks - one bad actor ruined it for everyone else.

I go through about 5 pounds of sunflower seed a day, but since it's just out in the garden the mess doesn't matter.

[ZenNMotion]

I don't mean to be a downer, but our experience with 2 year round bird feeders near the house were going great, we were keeping a list of who showed up. Until a couple of very large rats showed up. At my wife's request, live traps didn't work (except for a couple of freaked out squirrels) although I would have had to dispatch them anyway, no way they're getting 'released' somewhere else- well, maybe down the road at the white house where they would fit in (sorry-gratuitous). Snap traps netted one rat, and one chipmunk (resulting in wife upset #2 ), with still at least one or probably more at large feeding on what the birds drop- even on squirrel-proof feeders. Finally stopped feeding the birds for several months, but rats came back after several weeks when we resumed- so no more bird seed around the property, I have no idea what else could have been done while not nailing more squirrels or chipmunks. We had 9 male cardinals at the feeder at one point in late winter.

[jumphigher]

Well that stinks - one bad actor ruined it for everyone else.

I go through about 5 pounds of sunflower seed a day, but since it's just out in the garden the mess doesn't matter.

Its ok. We're probably not gonna be in this apt past Feb, and will likely set up feeders again wherever we end up. Our bird feeding adventure hasnt completely gone away. :)