Holidays & Celebrations Bird Hobbies

Keeping a Bird Feeder Squirrel Free

Published at 03/10/2012 05:41:53

Introduction

Bird lovers find it entertaining to watch birds on their backyard or their front lawn. That is the reason why they usually put up bird feeders to attract birds and to feed them as well. The only problem is that bird feeders not only attract birds but other animals as well such as squirrels. Squirrels scare off birds and can destroy bird feeders. So if you’re one of those bird lovers and want to see birds and not squirrels on your bird feeder, you should keep your bird feeder squirrel-free.

Securing the location of your bird feeder

Keep your bird feeder away from a squirrel’s natural habitat such as trees. Hanging them on tree branches would be such easy access for them. Squirrels are clever and can jump from greater distances so you should place your bird feeder away from trees, poles or anything that they can jump from in order to get to your feeder.

Enhance your bird feeder

There are a lot of things that you can add to enhance your bird feeder to better protect it. You can enclose the feeder with a wire which should have a mesh that isn’t small enough to restrict birds from eating the seeds in the feeder or not big enough for squirrels to have access to it. Some people use squirrel baffles which can be placed underneath or above the bird feeder so that squirrels won’t be able to reach the bird feeder. Some also use spinners for bird feeders which are hanged in wires. This will make it difficult for squirrels to hang on to those wires and reach the feeder that is why you have to select your place to feed them.

Changing the food placed on bird feeders

There are some seeds that squirrels don’t eat. These are thistle and safflower seeds. So instead of putting mixed seeds on your feeder, you can put thistle and safflower seeds instead.

Purchasing Squirrel-proof bird feeders

There are some companies that sell squirrel-proof bird feeders. These are battery operated feeders that would sting the squirrels when they get to these feeders. If you’re thinking that it would be cruel to hurt squirrels through these stingers, don’t worry because these won’t actually harm the squirrels so you better watch out whare you are looking for.

Wild bills squirrel-free bird feeder offer feeders that have stingers to keep away the squirrels. You can find these at squirrel-free.com, which is a virtual store for animal lovers. They have local (US) and international shipping as well.

Another brand of feeder is the Brome squirrel-proof bird feeder. It doesn’t have a stinger like the Wild Bills feeder. Instead, it has spring mechanism in which its seed ports closes down automatically due to the weight of the squirrel, thus, their access to the seeds. What’s good about this is that you won’t have to be purchasing batteries for the feeder. Brome squirrel-proof feeders are available in Amazon.com which also offer both local (US) and international shipping so if you are an animal lover you can purchase them easily.

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