How to stop crows nicking seed from wild bird feeders?

[rancid badger]

Any suggestions on how to deter crows etc from emptying my wild bird feeders?

They basically attack the damn things, grabbing what they can, while their mates grub about picking up whatever falls out.

I'm not fussed about them picking up seed and whatever off the floor but I want to stop them going for the feeders.

cheers

Steve

 

[boatman]

Aren't crows wild birds? We get jackdaws and magpies doing similar but the little brown jobs and similar get a fair feed as well.

 

[bob_the_baker]

I have a couple of additional "squirrel proof" feeders that the bigger birds can't get into, so that the little guys always have their own supply.

 

[Toddy]

I have yet to find a squirrel proof feeder The cage ones they just tilt until the seed runs out of the feeder ports.
Crows and magpies seem to just keep bumping them until the seeds come out too, and a fixed post is just a squirrel feeding post. Best we found was a hopper type thing that only allowed some to fall out onto a shallow tray. It had a house shaped roof over it that shed the rain and kept the bigger birds out. The squirrels eventually ate their way in though.

We have masses of sparrows this year. The hedge is alive with them

cheers,
Toddy

 

[daveO]

I've spent years trying to stop jackdaws empying the feeders (while still getting a feed of their own). I made a big bird table with a roof and vertical bars around the sides to limit the size of bird that could get in. They've ripped that to bits now even though they had their own open table on there too.

At the moment I've got an upside-down hanging basket cage on the table with chicken wire over it. This allows anything up to blackbird size in there but limits the jackdaws. They do eventually remove the chicken wire though once they've found a weakness. Smart birds these jackdaws, they've always found a way around whatever I've put there. They've worked out how to detach the fatball feeder now so they can eat it all on the ground.

 

[Toddy]

The fatball feeder works best agin them if you hang it on a Wayland chain

I love your bird table That's beautiful (or was !) Mine was that shape but the roof half lifted to fill the hopper thing underneath....until the blasted squirrels ate it

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Goatboy]

You could try hanging a dead corvid of choice in your garden, tends to deter the others but doesn't freak out the LBJ's. That or just selectively snipe away at the crows

 

[dave89]

What about a steel box or clear plastic if you dont like the idea on steel, with a small hole cut into it to allow the smaller birds in but not the larger ones

 

[david1]

just catch all the crows

 

[rancid badger]

Thought about that-catching them and killing them-easy enough done but not ideal and probably not legal anyway

For preference I'd shoot them, again easily done but not an option in this case.

I've just given up on the window feeder I got for fathers day,( I got it last Wednesday) It's great for watching the little buxxers right up close but it just leads to muck all over the window sill and sxxt on the windows,oh and the collared doves like to sit on top of it!

 

[Mal-J-Swaine]

I'm not sure if it's any use, but a smaller bird feeder might do the trick, a tubular one that hangs from the tree. We have a couple round our garden hanging from a hawthorn and a willow, and we never have trouble with magpies or crows. And we get blue tits nesting every year despite the cats next door


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[Bowlander]

Shooting/trapping corvids to stop them pinching your seed isn't covered under the general licence, think it would need to be to protect nesting birds?

A strong weldmesh cage is the only thing I've tried that works.

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[santaman2000]

never mind the crows; how do you stop the squirrels?

 

[Bowlander]

Try one of these.....

Watch "Ultimate Squirrel Launching Compilation" on YouTube
Ultimate Squirrel Launching Compilation: http://youtu.be/M5-d3rZZ-_M

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[santaman2000]

Try one of these.....

Watch "Ultimate Squirrel Launching Compilation" on YouTube
Ultimate Squirrel Launching Compilation: http://youtu.be/M5-d3rZZ-_M

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LOL. Love it.

 

[tom.moran]

my grandad used to put the feeder in the middle of bird table with a roof and put mesh around the outside that only the small birds could get through