BLACKBIRDS (GRACKLE, STARLING, RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD)
Are you looking to mitigate the blackbirds in your yard? We have compiled some helpful and effective suggestions on methods that can be used to limit their bossy and dominant behaviour at your backyard feeding stations.
Blackbirds are a commonly used term for songbird species that are mainly black in appearance. For the purpose of this webpage, all birds that can be considered to be a "nuisance" bird, will be referred to as blackbirds. This includes Common Grackles, European Starlings (as seen in photos below), Red-Winged Blackbirds, as well as Cowbirds.
As always, we love birds here at WBU Belleville and never intend to cause harm. We only strive to help people maximize the joy of their bird watching experience, minimize any frustrations, as well as keeping everyone safe while doing so.
Specific foods can help to deter or even completely stop blackbird activity. Keep in mind that offering the foods listed are a commitment and may take a period of time for the other bird species to transition and adjust to the new foods.
Safflower: One type of specific bird food is a seed called Safflower. This seed has a thicker shell, and is considered to be unappealing to blackbirds. All of your regular seed-eating birds will enjoy it. We carry two varieties, safflower and golden safflower, also known as NutraSaff™. The golden safflower variety does have a shell that is slightly thinner, however, has been reported to be quite effective when used. Safflower seed is known to be bitter to squirrels and can be useful as a deterrent (see squirrel solutions). Check out below for some safflower products we offer. Click on the product title for further information on each item.⇓
Safflower
Nutrasaff™ (Golden Safflower)
Safflower Cylinder
Golden Safflower (NutraSaff™) Cylinder
Pure Suet: Another type of food you can offer that will generally be uninteresting to the blackbirds is a pure suet. This type of suet is simply the rendered beef fat base and no other added ingredients. All of your insect and fat eating birds will still enjoy it, and it will save you from feeding all of the blackbirds a daily (or hourly) suet cake. See below for the Canadian pure beef suet option that we have in store for sale.
Aside from using specific types of food to deter blackbird activity, you can opt for a feeder or feeder accessory that can block their access. This would allow for you to be able to offer just about any type of food for the birds, and should limit the blackbird visitors, or at least make it more difficult and tiring for them to try and get very little food out of the feeder. Listed below are some options.
Squirrel-Proof Feeders: We carry a wide variety of squirrel-proof feeders by our Canadian brand Brome Bird Care Inc. They are designed with a spring mechanism that closes down as soon as the weight of a squirrel is on it. Some of the squirrel-proof feeders are able to be adjusted on the spring mechanism, allowing the feeder itself to become more sensitive to the weight of a larger bird, such as blackbirds. When the adjustable spring is loosened to the most sensitive setting, typically it will make it more difficult and perhaps impossible for the blackbirds to get a snack. In some cases, we have seen and heard of the blackbirds hopping along the mechanism in order to get one small morcel at a time and bypassing the spring mechanism. However, it is clear that the blackbirds are not getting much payoff from the feeder, as it causes them to use a lot of energy for very little reward. Check out some options for weight-adjustable Brome feeders with links to the product on our online shop.
Eliminator™ Squirrel Proof Feeder
Squirrel Buster® Suet
We also carry a weight-adjustable squirrel-proof Peanut Feeder and Finch Feeder.
Exclusion Cages: As an option to add to a feeder. The bird feeder would be placed inside the cage, allowing smaller birds access, but blocking the blackbirds from getting to the food source. Here are some options we have below.
Tube Feeder Cover - 1 1/2" (Green)
Tube Feeder Cover - 1 1/2" with Metal Tray (Green)
Seed Cylinder Cage
We also carry a suet cage in store or if you'd like to place an over the phone order, call us at 613-771-0571.
Upside-Down Suet Feeder: Our EcoTough® Upside-Down Suet Feeder is designed to allow birds to feed from below, a comfortable practice for woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and other clinging birds but difficult for blackbirds. This is a feeder that is designed to be blackbird-resistant, so the nuisance birds are physically able to cling to it, but they won't stay for long, as they are not comfortable eating upside-down. This would at least limit the amount of suet the blackbirds can chow down in one sitting, saving you significantly in the long run. See below for our upside-down suet feeder option, made of durable recycled plastic.
EcoTough® Upside-Down Suet Feeder
Finch Feeders: Using a specialty feeder, such as a finch feeder, will result in the blackbirds being unable to fit their larger beaks into the very small ports that these feeders have.
We carry a variety of finch feeders, in both tube or mesh style, and they will work to block the access of the blackbirds from being able to take the food right out of the feeder. They are typically not going to be very comfortable trying to perch on the feeder, although they can if they try, but not for long periods of time. They will tend to become tired of trying and eventually give up.
This type of feeder will allow smaller birds such as Goldfinches, House Finches, Pine Siskins, and Chickadees access to it. There have also been reports of some Woodpecker species eating at finch feeders! This will not necessarily eliminate the blackbirds from your yard, as they could possibly take advantage of the small amounts of fallen seed around the ground outside of the feeder, but will stop or slow them down significantly from being able to take the seed out of the feeder itself. Below is a link to our finch feeder selection on our online shop.⇓