Grackle Proof Feeder

I never thought having dry walls would be so satisfying. Its the small things in life, you know? It rained pretty hard this morning, and there was nary a drop to be found inside the house. Now that's livin'.

Speaking of dry wall, some of it went up today. Its all in and taped, skim coat tomorrow. Things are coming together.


I had a little side project this morning. I was really tiring of chasing the grackles away from my expensive, grackle-proof feeder - you know, the one they love to feed on? Its got this spring-loaded perch mechanism - when a bird this size of a grackle lands on it, the feeding holes close up. Oh I'm not kidding - its a marvel of engineering. Except it doesn't work. It took the grackles a day or so to figure out that they could land on the perch, and by bouncing up and down, get access to the seed as the feeder doors open and closed. So I got really tired of chasing them away, and refilling the feeder every day after they emptied it.


So I made this NEW AND IMPROVED grackle-proof feeder. A marvel of engineering it ain't, but it works. It took me several tries. On the first attempt, I used some wire fencing material to make a circular basket, which I then fastened around the squirrel baffle - the feeder hangs down in the center of it. The idea is that the small birds would land on the basket, then go through the holes to get to the feeder. Worked like a champ, except the grackles were getting through the holes also. So then I made and installed a second basket, over top of the first, slightly offset. This doubled the number of holes, but they were twice as small. Perfect - the small birds were getting through, and the grackles weren't. Except they figured out that they could stand underneath the feeder, then fly up and grab onto the lowest rung of the basket, on the inside, then hop up onto the feeder, then bounce up and down as usual to get the seed. So then I made a hinged cover for the bottom, et voila! The grackles are going elsewhere to pillage and plunder. Though MANY have tried, not a single seed could be had by any grackle.

Now, I'll have so much more time to spackle and stone. I'd better get busy...



Update 4/28/2010 - These feeders absolutely work, and they've held up nicely for three years now. I found later that two squirrel baffles work best - one for the top, and one for the bottom. Drill three holes, evenly spaced around the outer edge of the baffles. Then build your baskets around one of the baffles so it fits tightly. When complete, attach a long-ish eye-hook bolt assembly through the hole in the middle of the top baffle - you can find these at bird supply stores. The eye-hook is used to hang the basket from a tree or other suitable place, and also to hang the feeder inside the basket. Then simply use zip-strips (wire ties) to fasten the top and bottom baffles (convex-side up) to the basket through the holes you drilled. Zip-strips (three to be exact, one through each of those evenly spaced holes) are the only method I've found that works to keep racoons and even squirrels from prying the baffles out. When you need to load the feeders, just cut two of the zip-strips off the bottom baffle and work the baffle loose - the third zip-strip will act to hold the baffle in place like a hinge. Load the feeder and re-zip it. The solid baffle on the bottom serves to collect dropped seeds, and some non-perch birds (like dark-eyed juncos) will go in and feed off the seed collected on the bottom baffle....