Nuisance Bird Strategies
European Starling - Photo by Andy Holmes
Introduction
First, let’s try to put some kind of definition around what we mean by a “nuisance bird.” In this post we will mainly be referring to birds that will be considered a nuisance, pesky or bully birds. The ones most often referred to as such are European Starlings, Grackles, and Red-Winged Blackbirds. Other birds that may fall into this category could be any aggressive flock feeding bird (Pine Siskins) or even Mourning Doves, & Northern Mockingbirds.
Aren’t all birds pretty and worthy of our care and feeding? Yes and no. I guess we could possibly look at it another way as it relates to pets. If we are trying to feed our pet cat and our pet dog keeps eating the food, then the cat isn’t going to be happy and I doubt we are either. We love them both and want best for their continued well being. However, in this particular case, we can take steps to remedy the situation to where the dog eats its own food and the cat gets to eat its own food. This concept can also apply to feeding wild birds.
While our feeding of wild birds is not quite the same as feeding our pets, it does illustrate a point that we may have to incorporate strategies to ensure that we have the opportunity to feed the specific birds that we want to feed to the exclusion of ones that we don’t want to feed. The cost of bird seed appears to be escalating and by feeding birds that are aggressive flock-feeders (who clean your feeders out in a couple of hours and run off all other birds) can lead to increased cost of our hobby. In this blog, I will try to outline a few strategies that may be of help.
Why a Nuisance?
Enormous Flock of Birds, known as a “Murmuration” - Photo by James Wainscoat
What are some of the issues that make some of these birds a nuisance?
Flock Size - Starlings, Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds often flock together into huge flocks called “murmurations. “ If just a few of he birds from this large flock locate a food source such as your feeder, then you may have hundreds or thousands of birds descend upon your feeders and water sources. This effect scatters your desired songbirds and these new migrating birds will feed until the food is gone, which may not take very long.
Aggressive Nature - Most flock-feeding birds have to be aggressive if they want to eat. The peck at each other and also run off your desirable birds. In some cases other birds are injured. Additionally, the size of these birds are equal to or larger than the songbirds that may frequent your feeder. This combination of size, aggressive nature and sheer number of birds wins out in the world of survival of the fittest. See my Feeder Wars series about bird behavior and pecking order.
Appetite - They seem to have an endless appetite and will sit and eat until either the food is gone or another bird forces them off the feeder. Additionally, they will eat most any food that you may have at your feeder. However, their favorite is a seed mix that contains smaller seeds without shells (millet and milo), cracked corn, as well as suet (not pure suet), but suet with other ingredients added), and mealworms. This is pretty much what is served at most feeding stations.
Disease Transmission - Since these birds mob feeders and feed in close proximity to each other, they can quickly spread disease. With so many birds on the feeder at once, it’s hard to tell which birds are diseased. Additionally, since we are usually looking at a flock containing hundreds or thousands of birds, the droppings of these birds are on many surfaces, including the ground under feeders where ground feeding birds eat. Salmonella is usually transmitted from droppings that are on feeder surfaces (including the ground) or in water sources used by other birds. Also see blog post on diseases for more details about diseases and methods of transmission.
Nesting Issues - Starlings usually like to nest in cavities occupied by other birds. One of these birds is the red-bellied woodpecker. I read that they usually wait for the red-bellied woodpecker to leave the nesting cavity and then occupy the nest with both the male and female defending the new nest. Even though the red-bellied woodpecker has a larger beak (which is important in the pecking order of birds), the Starlings are extremely aggressive and have the advantage of holding down their position in the nesting cavity. Starlings will either kill any nestlings that are current occupants, break any eggs and even just nest over occupants or the existing nest.
Noise - Large flocks of Starlings, Grackles and Red-Winged Blackbirds can produce a tremendous amount of loud and unpleasant noise. Over extended periods of time, this constant noise can be irritating. No more pleasant bird songs or peace and quiet!
Tough on feeders - Grackles are large birds, larger than Starlings and can impact your feeders, especially ones that are plastic and less durable.. Bird deposits not cleaned off feeders can wear away paint and coatings exposing the metal parts of the feeders and causing rust.
Cost - Given that the cost of bird seed and other bird food has increased tremendously given effects from COVID, having birds eat all your feed in a few hours can cause one to go through extraordinary amounts of birdseed and other food offerings. This can get costly really fast!
Strategies to Manage Starlings, Grackles and Blackbirds
These type of birds, since they eat a variety of foods, makes it somewhat difficult to establish a strategy. But it is not impossible. We will try to incorporate a number of tips that when incorporated simultaneously, present a strategy that makes your feeder station a less desirable target for the mass of feeding birds. Generally, the tips in this strategy involve choices in food and type of feeder. In other words, let’s make the food choices foods that they do not prefer or find it hard to eat (seeds with harder shells) and offer it in feeders that they find difficult to navigate. This also includes removing some feeders and foods that they do prefer. Let’s address these two strategies:
Food Strategy
Starlings and Grackles prefer mixed seed (that include any of the following ingredients: millet, milo, cracked corn), dried mealworms or suet containing other ingredients, mentioned previously. So, if we change the food sources to foods that are less desirable, such as safflower or seeds with hulls, and maybe pure suet (in colder temps only!), then we reduce the attractiveness of the food source.
Another option (but more costly) is to set up a different feeding station away from your primary feeder station and then put the food that they do like in this location. These seed mixes and cracked corn are typically less expensive and can be offered on the ground or in a large volume tube feeder or one that holds 5-7 pounds of food. This should draw them mostly away from your primary feeder. In truth, incorporating both these options simultaneously can produce better results.
See this article from The Spruce about safflower seeds: (https://www.thespruce.com/safflower-seeds-385835) to get a better idea of how to tailor your foods to reduce bully birds. From this excellent article: “Safflower seeds have a bitter flavor and a different shape than other types of birdseed, and grackles, blackbirds, and European starlings will typically leave these seeds alone. This makes safflower an ideal addition to feeding stations where these "bully birds" might dominate feeders.”
I have a whole video about feeding strategy if interested.
Feeder Type Selection Strategy
Concept - The feeder type selection strategy leverages the concept that larger birds aren’t quite as nimble, flexible or as small as the typical songbird. As such, we can incorporate feeders that capitalize on these physical limitations.
Remove the Platform Feeder - It is easier for these large birds to feed from large flat surfaces such as the ground or platform feeders. So, let’s remove this advantage, by removing the platform feeders and using lightweight seed catchers to keep seed from falling on the ground. Be careful as plastic trays on the bottom of tube feeders provide a larger place for these birds to land, so don’t attach these trays when Grackles or Starlings are feeding in the area.
Platform Feeder Option - If you must use a platform feeder, either offer the foods the Starlings and Grackles do not prefer or cover the platform feeder with a dome or do both. I use an Audubon 16” Clear Squirrel baffle (with the center part removed) for this when it rains to keep my feed in the tray mostly dry. But when hung right, larger birds that are less nimble have a hard time accessing the food in the platform feeder. Pulling the dome down to whatever level you think excludes larger birds such as starlings and grackles will help limit their access to the food. I also read somewhere that Starlings don’t like to feed under tight spaces (such as domes), but can’t confirm this personally.
Even Mourning Doves can’t get access. Somehow Blue Jays, Northern Mockingbirds and some American Robins can still access it, if they approach from a nearby feeder. But with Starlings around, it should be lowered to where only the smaller songbirds can access the food.
4. Caged Feeders
Caged feeders are regular feeders that offer a cage surrounding the food source that limits access to larger birds. This option allows most songbirds to feed at the exclusion of larger birds (or squirrels). The only con here is that birds such as the Northern Cardinal, American Robin, Northern Mockingbirds, Brown Thrashers, Blue Jays and Mourning Doves will also be too large to access the food source in these type feeders. Here are some popular options of these type feeders from Amazon. I prefer the ones with domes or roofs as it keeps the food more dry.
5. Adjustable Weight-activated Feeders
The adjustable weight-activated feeders work on the concept that birds or critters over a certain weight cannot access the food based on their weight. Most all these type feeders have an adjustment so you can dial in or set the weight limit. Many of these are typically referred to as Squirrel proof or squirrel buster type feeders. But these feeders also work for larger birds if the weight is dialed in correctly. It may take some trial and error to get it exactly right. Be aware and ensure that any weight-activated feeder that you choose is adjustable! There are many that just close with a squirrel’s weight. Also read the reviews on Amazon for these to be sure that it fits your particular needs.
6. Upside-Down Suet Feeders
As with the adjustable weight-activated feeders mentioned above, upside-down suet feeders also capitalize on the physical limitations of the Starlings and Grackles. Both of these species love suet that contains added food such as seed, nuts and mealworms. They are not so inclined to eat pure suet. They will wipe out traditional suet feeders that aren’t caged using the feeders offered above. However, another way to present the suet is in an upside-down suet feeder.
Agile and nimble songbirds that eat suet can still access the suet, as well as most all species of woodpeckers. But, the larger birds have a tough time positioning themselves with their added size and weight to desire to go to the trouble to eat from these type feeders.
Here are some highly rated upside-down suet feeders from Amazon. The top two hold a single suet cake. The third one holds two side-by-side to created a larger feeding area. The last one holds stacked suet cakes. I would only choose this one if the demand was high. While it does keep the suet covered from rain, in high humidity environments with lower demand, I would worry about the suet cakes getting mold. In other words, like overfilling a feeder, without the high demand, the food can get moist.
7. Restrictive-Opening Feeders
These type feeders have smaller openings that the bird has to use to get to the food source. Many are presented as Bluebird feeders, but I have found that nuthatches, chickadees, wrens and tufted titmouse birds also eat food from these feeders. I would think that warblers could as well. The larger birds can’t get through these openings, but the smaller songbirds can.
It’s the same concept as caged feeders without the cage. Another plus is that each has roofs that keep your seed or food source dry. I have put dried mealworms in these and on other occasions, sunflower hearts, suet nuggets or any small seed that may quickly consumed by nuisance birds. Sometimes it takes a while for the songbirds to get used to these feeders, but once they do, it is totally worth it! Northern Mockingbirds, who love dried mealworms also are locked out of feeding from these feeders. Dried mealworms are expensive and using these type feeders ensures that you are leveraging a feeding strategy to feed only the birds that you wish to feed. Here are a couple of popular choices.
7. Finch/Nyjer Seed Feeders
Another strategy in keeping the nuisance birds at bay is the use of thistle/nyjer seed feeders that are typically offered to finches. These type feeders typically have no pegs. The ones that do, offer only small slit openings that means only small amounts of seed is distributed when feeding. Additionally, thistle is not a preferred food of grackles and starlings. As such, even though a number of these feeders have seed catcher trays, the small seeds don’t offer much of a meal, being a non-preferred food.
The Nature’s Way feeder does have the food funnel that more optimally distributes the feed throughout the feeder as seed is consumed. This is advantageous in that there is less crowded like other feeders where gravity pulls all the seed to the bottom and the birds crowd down there to feed, which can more readily transmit disease from bird to bird. However, it also means that only so many larger nuisance birds can feed at the same time.
The Droll Yankee Feeder has no seed catcher tray which is good, as thistle seed can block drain ports in the seed catcher tray and the moisture can wick up the center column of the thistle. Here are a couple of popular thistle/finch feeders that might be considered:
8. Location Strategies
Location strategies involve a couple of concepts. It involves food and location. It leverages the “if I can’t beat them, I join them” kind of strategy. This strategy, by using distraction, uses a method of incorporation of a second feeder at a different location. Set up a second feeder that offers the cheaper food (cheap seed mixes with lots of milo and millet and cracked corn) that the Starlings like. Offer it in platform feeders and on the ground and in old feeders. This distraction feeder needs to be as far away from your songbird feeder as possible. If possible, put it on the other side of the house or in the woods behind your house or put trees or bushes between the feeders so birds on one feeder can’t see the birds on the other feeder. Hopefully, the mass of nuisance birds will flock to the other feeder with the cheaper and more abundant food easily available to be consumed.
This is not the cheapest solution, but when used in combination with the other strategies mentioned above, hopefully the flock will determine that the second feeder is the one to use, leaving you to enjoy your songbirds……hopefully! A downside is that with such free and easy food for the Starlings, are you creating a new feeding mecca that attracts more Starlings/Grackles and they will remember to return to next time they pass through? I don’t know, but it may be worth a try.
9. Other Ideas and resources
If you are on a budget and can’t afford to spend the money buying an upside down feeder, check out Nancie Waterman’s blog located at: https://birdseedandbinoculars.com/wordpress/starling-proofing-the-suet/ . She also has some a wide array of good ideas and some great information on this topic and even a DIY idea on using an existing suet cage!
Shorten the feeder pegs or find peg-less feeders. This strategy again plays on the fact that these birds are bigger and not quite as agile to stand on really short pegs to feed. Can you remove the existing pegs or substitute shorter pegs of your own making using dowels? It depends on the feeder, if you can find one.
Globe feeders that are peg-less and with limited size holes - I found and just ordered the Cling-a-Wing feeders from Duncraft that I think might be a great addition to my feeding station. I will try these out before I get nuisance birds. If interested, here also is the Duncraft direct link. There is also a Super Cling-a-Wing that holds up to 6 lbs. of food, but was not available when I purchased my regular sized ones. I even bought two as I think these may be an ideal addition to my regular feeder rotation. It is more weather resistant than my Perky Pet Green Wire mesh feeder that many birds seem to favor.
10. Northern Mockingbirds
Northern Mockingbird - Photo by Joshua J. Cotten
“Wait” you say! Northern Mockingbirds (Mockingbirds) are songbirds and have some of the most beautiful songs. Why would anyone want to avoid these birds? I’m sure that there are many folks that enjoy Mockingbirds may never had them on their feeders, as most times we see these birds running around on the ground like American Robins and Brown Thrashers, hunting for insects and worms. They typically don’t visit feeders that offer just seeds and nuts. True!
However, if you start offering mealworms, dried mealworms, or suet, the mockingbirds may come check out these new offerings and may become regular customers. And as regular customers, you may soon find out that they are bullies! They run other songbirds off the feeder or any other bird that may be on the feeder. See my Feeder Wars video series (that is part of my Nature Series) to get more insight on this type of bird behavior.
Intuitively, we know that Mockingbirds are fearless, as we have seen them dive at hawks, crows, owls, cats and people. They are extremely aggressive if you get in close proximity of their nests. They are also territorial.
So now that we have established that they are fearless, territorial bully birds that run off our beloved songbirds, what can we do? This question is probably the most asked question on my live feeder cam streams.
Strategies:
Food Strategy - Quit offering the food they like (mealworms, dried mealworms or suet). OK, if you want to keep serving up these type foods then incorporate the upside down feeders for suet and the restrictive-opening feeder strategies above to continue to offer these foods.
Location Strategies -
If your feeder is in close proximity to a mockingbird nest, then the mockingbird will do its best to defend its nest and territory. You have to move your feeder.
Locate a second feeder (a distraction feeder) with their desired food away from your main songbird feeder. Preferably, locate this second feeder where there is no line of sight between the two feeders. If there is line of sight between the two feeders, the Mockingbird, who is territorial, will fly back and forth between the two feeders defending his territorial food source. If the feeder is located out of sight, he can’t see other birds on the other feeder. He can only be in one place at a time. Even if he defends both feeders, at least the birds on your main feeder get more time to feed while the Mockingbird is on the other feeder.
11. Pine Siskins
Pine Siskins on a feeder - Photo by Joshua J. Cotten
Pine Siskins as nuisance birds? Ken, have you lost your mind? Maybe! These are adorable birds in the Finch family and almost always are found in large flocks. When you see one, like Starlings, there are more to come….lots more. These birds just spent their winter here and are migratory. However, their wintering period here was about 5 months! So, nearly 1/2 of a year they occupied my feeders. This was the first year that I have had them visit. They were part of the great 2020 irruption, when a lot of states in the south and all over were inundated with these birds that they had never seen before.
So, what makes these birds a nuisance. In my opinion, they, like the Starlings, are aggressive flock-feeding birds. Combine their aggressive nature with the large numbers of birds feeding at once and most of your songbirds head for the hills, trying to find food elsewhere. Given that the Pine Siskins visit is usually in the wintertime when there is a low supply of food, my feeder was one of the few supplies around, where their choices are limited and they need to feed from my feeder. So, we have a clash of species, where the Pine Siskins usually win.
Another issue with these birds is that with feeding in great numbers next to each other, they can easily transmit disease to each other and to the feeders and therefore other birds. Additionally, with their sheer numbers, there are a lot of bird deposits everywhere including on the feeders and in the water sources, requiring increased frequency of cleaning routines. The predominant disease found in these birds is Salmonella. This is a highly infectious disease (see my blog post on Disease and Feeder Cleaning) and can quickly become a problem, forcing one to have to take down their feeders until these birds move on. Salmonella can also be transmitted to humans. So, wear gloves when performing feeder duties. In the wild, birds don’t transmit disease as easily as they are spread out when they feed. But at a feeder, they congregate and disease can easily be transferred from one bird to another and across species if feeders and water sources aren’t cleaned VERY frequently. And by cleaning, after an infected bird is on the feeder, the cleaning has to be a bleach or vinegar cleaning to ensure the harmful bacteria are killed.
Strategies:
There is really only two strategies that come to mind with these birds.
Remove the food source - The first is to pull down the feeder and the food source that they feed on and hope they will move on to somewhere else to feed. Caged feeders, weight-activated, restricted access or upside down feeders will not work on these smaller birds.
Use a location strategy - If you felt sorry for these birds, you could add another feeder with the food that they do like and place it in another location away from your songbird feeder. However, if you do feed them in another location, try to spread out the food over a large area, (on the ground or in a number of old platform feeding trays). Most any horizontal surfaces will do. We just want to try to create a feeding area where they don’t congregate close together. This method could potentially lower the risk of disease transmission. While you are at it, add a separate water source over there too. Yes, this does mean about twice the work in filling two feeders and twice the cleaning tasks of the feeders. Maybe you’ll win a participation trophy for your hard work helping these little guys without further spreading disease and your songbirds will love you too.
Conclusion
As mentioned in the introduction, I love most all birds. Even European Starlings are beautiful, even though they are a non-native, invasive species. However, we sometimes have to take measures for the good of all birds and feeding flocking birds at feeders causes congestion and the congregants can further transmit disease. Having more feeders at a feeding station can spread birds out and is better than having just one or two feeders. But with some of these type of birds, the flock is so large, it can overwhelm most any and every bird feeding station. In conclusion, it’s best if we develop and incorporate a number of these strategies simultaneously to ensure the health and welfare of both the birds and us. Let me know what you think so that we can develop a set of best practices. God bless you and yours!
