Encourage chickadees and other birds at your feeder by getting rid of grackles.
Grackles are a type of slender blackbird, with black plumage that has a iridescent shine. They are gregarious birds, meaning that they travel in large groups, and they are also aggressive. In large groups, they easily drive shyer, single birds away from the feeder. If grackles monopolize your bird feeder, preventing other birds from getting close, take steps to keep the grackles away or to make the feeder unattractive to them.
Instructions
1. Remove your tray feeders. Grackles are attracted to food presented in trays. Trays also give them an easy place to sit when they eat at the bird feeder.
2. Use a sock feeder. A sock feeder is a tube made out of fine mesh. When filled with seed, it only allows birds with small beaks pull seeds out between the mesh. This prevents grackles, which have larger beaks, from eating the seed.
3. Offer a large portion of safflower seeds at your feeder. While safflower seeds are attractive to many birds, Bird Watching suggests that grackles are not as interested in it. If you put out food that does not interest them, the grackles leave.
4. Place a caged suet feeder under your roof eaves. Hanging the suet feeder in a place where there is no perch makes it accessible only to birds that can hold on upside-down, like woodpeckers and chickadees. This excludes grackles.
5. Sweep up loose seed. Grackles are opportunistic feeders and will eat the food scattered on the ground. Remove the seed on the ground to prevent them from hanging around for an easy meal.
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