Northern cardinal and American goldfinch dining at Native Nurseries’ squirrel and raccoon proof feeder. (Photo: Jody Walthall)
Every yard and home is different, each presenting unique challenges for optimal bird feeder location. First select the window best suited for viewing birds and then go outdoors to evaluate your landscape and how it may impact your choice of protecting your feeder from “tree rats” and “masked bandits.”
There are three main methods for mounting your bird feeder; hang on a shepherd’s hook, hang in a tree, or place on top of a pole. A shepherd’s hook may be the easiest but is the most difficult to make squirrel/raccoon proof. Usually the pole is too short, or the hook is too close to the pole, allowing squirrels to hold on to the pole with their hind feet and rake out seed with their front feet even on a supposedly squirrel proof feeder.
Hanging your feeder in a tree may present its own problems because limbs may be too close to the feeder. If limbs are nearby, select a feeder that closes when a squirrel puts its weight on it.
If your tree is large and rather open, you may be able to hang it with six to eight feet of fine wire. A large dome shaped squirrel guard may help, but only if nearby limbs are no closer than seven feet, since squirrels can jump six feet horizontally. None of the above may prevent a raccoon from accessing the feeder.
The third method of protecting a feeder is my favorite. Placing the feeder on top of an easily installed metal pole with a raccoon baffle below it is very effective against squirrels and raccoons. A plastic tray or short stove pipe type baffles may be effective against squirrels, but if you have neighborhood raccoons, these baffles can easily be defeated by them.
You may use a seven-foot pole with multiple arms extending from which to hang feeders. On the pole, place a stove pipe type raccoon baffle, the top of which must be four feet above the ground to prevent squirrels from leaping above it to the pole.
At my home I use a metal pole with a stove pipe type raccoon baffle. Sitting on top of the baffle is a wooden platform feeder. Twelve inches above the platform is a plastic tray feeder and from the center of it a tube type feeder. The tube is filled with a blend of black oil sunflower, sunflower chips (no hulls), and safflower seed.
These seeds are preferred by chickadees, titmice, goldfinch, and white breasted nuthatch. The plastic tray has sunflower chips, peanut halves, and white proso millet. Cardinals love the sunflower chips, along with mourning dove and pine warblers (in winter). Blue jays and titmice eat the peanut halves, which also have drawn a regular summer tanager.
The wooden tray has white proso millet and suet cakes. In winter, ten chipping sparrows may be perched on the tray, eating the millet. Woodpeckers – downy and red-bellied – yellow-rumped warblers, yellow-throated warblers, Baltimore orioles, and a ruby-crowned kinglet go for the suet, a mixture of beef kidney fat and coarse cornmeal. This tray has a retractable metal screen bottom for easy cleaning.
All feeders must be cleaned regularly for the health of the birds.
Though I prefer the low-tech exclusion techniques to keep the squirrels and raccoons off my feeders, there are many other feeders on the market. They may involve battery powered motors that, when activated by a squirrel’s weight, spin the feeder perches and throw the squirrel off.
These products involve all the complications of charging batteries and motors that may burn out and are costly to replace. This approach still does not address the problem of raccoons that can damage the feeder or drag it out into the woods where it can eat in private.
Since I have spent a few hundred dollars repairing squirrel damage to my house the last two years, I try not to encourage squirrels by giving them extra food. I used to spread white proso millet on our patio in the winter for the sparrows and squirrels, but not anymore!
Intentional feeding of raccoons is against the law in Florida. The danger of rabies is a real threat to humans from raccoon contact. Squirrels and raccoons benefit from the trees we plant in our yards and the habitat we develop over time in our neighborhoods. It is best not to feed them.
A raccoon baffle may cost $50 to $60, but if you are handy you could build your own out of stove pipe.
Evaluate your bird feeding situation and get the option that suits you best. It may seem like a high initial investment, but it will pay off many times over on savings in birdseed or home repair!