Sometimes you just have too many blackbirds, doves and pigeons. They can eat more than their share of food and chase other birds away. However, there are several solutions to keep these birds from monopolizing feeders.

The Right Food

Many birds will sweep through seed blends to find the seed they want to eat. Uneaten seed gets tossed to the ground. By offering the right blend for the feeding situation, you can reduce the mess that accumulates below the feeder and eliminate the problem birds that hang around the area.

Try offering:

• blends loaded with oil sunflower. They are less likely to be picked through and swept to the ground.
• safflower. It's a small, white seed that is high in protein and fat. Many of your favorite birds will readily eat safflower; blackbirds, like starlings and grackles, typically do not.
• a no-mess blend, preferrably without millet, and/or a high quality blend that contains sunflower, safflower or peanut pieces.

Avoid offering:

• discount blends with cereals and fillers, such as wheat, oats, barely, milo and flax seed. These just end up in a pile under feeders.
• corn, especailly cracked corn. Blackbirds, doves and pigeons love it.

Feeder Solutions

Though adding a tray to the bottom of a seed tube or finch feeder will minimize mess, it allows larger birds, like pigeons and doves, to dine easily. Deter larger birds from visiting your existing feeder by adding an On-Guard™ wire mesh cage. Our On-Guard solutions are designed to allow smaller birds access but prevent doves, pigeons, even blackbirds from reaching the food in a feeder. We offer a variety of cages that easily fit on our seed tube, finch, peanut, suet and some of our specialty feeders.

Solution Feeders

We offer a variety of feeders that help you feed only the birds you want.

• EcoTough® Upside-down Suet Feeder - This feeder is designed to allow birds to feed from below, a comfortable practice for woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and other clinging birds but difficult for starlings.
• Dinner Bell™ feeder - Use this versatile feeder to offer a number of different foods. The Dinner Bell's adjustable dome can be raised and lowered to allow access for smaller birds.
• The Eliminator™ and Fundamentals Squirrel-proof feeders. Both of these feeders are weight-sensitive and will close off access to the food when heavier visitors, such as squirrels, pigeons and most doves, sit on a perch.