How To Stop Squirrels Stealing Bird Food From Feeders

Filed under Bird Feeding Articles

I guess the single most frustrating and downright infuriating thing a person is likely to face in backyard birding is the theft of bird food and the destruction of feeders. And we know already that pretty much all the bird watchers I know probably would answer this strongly and that this would be the food stealing squirrels that visit our back yards every day.

For sure the worst of these pesky little tree rats will drive off every bird in the yard if they can and then eat up all the expensive bird seed we put out and as an added insult you will notice that the more determined of these squirrels will also rip your expensive bird feeders to shreds in the process of their continuous attacks.

So just what can anyone do to stop these squirrels and their antics? Is there any hope at all in really stopping them?

Well fortunately there is. So when you set them up and your bird feeder is hung correctly from a branch or thick twig or you have them suspended from a horizontal line then you can help the situation greatly. Just by installing some sort of tilted baffle and make this at least eighteen inches in diameter and located right above your feeder then it might just do the right trick for you.

A great top bit of advice for you if you are using suspended feeders is to also try hanging them up from a simple three to four foot length of thick nylon line instead of using some metal wire for support.

And then when you can hang you bird feeders from a horizontal wire you can also place lengths of plastic tube right around this line and then the tubes will automatically spin whenever a crazy squirrel simply attempts to walk along them.

However if you have a feeder that is simply mounted up on top of a pole then you will probably need to install a wide baffle right below the bird feeder, because then you will find that the squirrels will climb the pole but get not further. In this situation the wide baffle should not tilt but be fixed so the squirrel cannot get passed.

At home in your yard or in the shed you can easily make your own baffle like this quite easily and quickly from a small garbage can lid or any similar round shaped and flat object.

Alternatively you could just go out and buy a ready made wide baffle that simply fastens to the pole beneath the bird feeder easily with a small metal clamp.

For me though it is only a truly squirrel proof feeder that could easily be found in many of the nations bird gardens is a straight tube feeder, probably made of plastic, that is usually mounted on a pole but which is located no less than about ten feet or so from nearby cover or other squirrel launch pads..

Often this type of bird feeder setup has a sixteen inch or so wide baffle, which is fastened about a foot or so just below the feeder’s bottom. Some of these baffles are designed to also serve as a bird feeding tray that will also help by catching extra seed that is spilled by the birds from above. These designs will always work very well indeed!

From the off you must first try to plan carefully and make your bird feeders more inaccessible to the squirrels if you want stop them more easily. This is of course no easy task for us all when you are found to be dealing with a crazy animal that is as acrobatic as a squirrel.

The problem is that these tree dwelling creatures can easily and often leap up to eight feet horizontally or simply jump about eleven feet or so down from a roof or tree branch directly onto your bird feeders. So you should always try to position all of your feeders whatever is in them at least ten feet or more from squirrel jumping off points for the best protection.

Whenever you have bird feeders in a yard, which has too just many squirrel launching platforms like this, such as fences or rooftops and trees, then things will be more difficult and it may be seemingly impossible to keep those pesky squirrels off your bird feeders for very long.

And if you find that the squirrels are chewing hard and breaking up all your feeders in to tiny bits then you will have little choice, and you will really need to switch to new brands of bird feeders that are made from some types of indestructible materials.

Today you will find that all the best top bird feeders will also have their seed ports reinforced with strong metal and that they will often come with guarantees against their destruction by your back yard squirrels.

So by simply using more sturdy and well built squirrel proof bird feeders like these, you should find that they will last you in service for several years in time and this will then also be the real proof of their long term effectiveness.

If you need to buy a feeder that can stop the squirrels then visit the Squirrel Proof Bird Feeders website to see the whole range of these types of feeder currently available and my recomendation to you would to take a close look at the very popular Squirrel Buster Plus feeder, which I have used for years very sucessfully in my own back yard.

Good luck stopping those squirrels!