how to discorage pigeons on the feeders.

[joan]

I have recently taken a big interest in my garden birds. I have a very small garden . I have six feeders up, but can't put any flat area for the ground feeding birds as the pigeons come in and try to eat from the feeders, making it virtually impssible for the small bird to stay at the feeders. Im not talking a few , its more 30. any surgestions. joan

[Whitezombie]

Hi joan,

a cheap solution would be to place an upside down wire hanging basket over the seed. these usualy have holes/gaps small enough to stop squirels as well.;)

[davidb]

Hello Joan.

I had similar problems and bought a cage to prevent large birds and squirrels. I also use some large mesh wire netting for another area I put food down. I bought it to support sweet peas and found I had a bit spare.

Hope you find something suitable.

David.

[Amy B]

Wow, that's a lot of pigeons! :eek: Maybe a dish of cheap corn, wheat or maize will distract some of then, and you can put a small table or bowl, containing a wheat free mixture under some shrubs. Also, they are not as quick off the mark as blue tits etc, so if you change the position of the dish regularly, it might confuse them. :confused: The netting or mesh is also a great idea - but make sure the birds can't catch their tongues or feet in it.

[Bebe]

I have bought 2 special caged feeders designed to keep large birds out. However neither of them has been used by any of the little birds. One has mixed winter feed & the other peanuts.I have lots of birds & several other feeders so any suggestions, please?

[Kerry L]

Hi Bebe

I haven't got any cages on the feeders, but I use an old freezer drawer upside down over the ground food. It takes a little while for them to see if it is safe, and once one bird tries, they all catch on very quickly. Last year my blackbirds found it very easy, but this year they must be new to our garden, but they managed it in the end and they raise their bottoms to squeeze through (the lure of raisins was too hard to resist!). I had a lot of problems with wood pigeons and they can't get through, but the blackbirds and starlings have no problems. The little birds have no problem and sometimes the smaller birds dive in from the top. However I have noticed that the pigeons have discovered that by shoving the makeshift cage, they can free some food. This has now been remedied by strategically placed flowerpots!
It isn't squirrel proof though, and she hoovers up some, and leaves plenty for the birds, so I don't mind. In the past the hedgehogs flip it over their backs, eat up the remains inside the cage and then walk it to a flower bed to escape!
I think that you will find it is a blue tit who will use it first, so it is just a waiting game.

Regards, Kerry

[Bebe]

Thanks Kerry. I do tend to be rather impatient! This is a new garden to me, in the countryside & I'm loving it & learning fast! Perhaps I'll put some different food in to see if they prefer that. Lots of the little birds enjoy sunflower hearts so here goes another try.

[Kerry L]

Good luck Bebe
I also have a small bird table with a roof (suspended on string on the pergola outside the kitchen window) and it is too small for larger birds - apart from starlings who seem to adapt to most things - and although the pigeons have tried, they can't get a hold. Hah! Fooled em again!

[birdgirl]

cruel as it sounds don't put anything out for a couple of days pigeons will soon look elsewhere and your regulars will soon come back !

[sammy j]

On a related note, I'd like to put a ground table out for the blackbirds etc but as I live in a big city I was worried that it might encourage rodents into the garden. We had a rat last year who figured out how to get on to the bird table and I'm not really keen to encourage them back again.

Any tips?

I also have problems with wood-pidgeons on my roofed bird table, they are so greedy and leave little for the smaller birds when they finally go. If I put wire mesh around the edges, what sort of size holes should it have to allow robins and tits etc to get in but keep pidgeons out?

A good tip for keeping squirrels at bay by the way, is to give them their own peanut feeder that the birds can't get into, then they leave the bird food pretty much alone and they are so cute when they lift the lid to get the nuts out too!

[ExtraMedium]

My neighbour has one of those squirrel boxes, a couple of days ago one of the squirrels, got a bit pigheaded and decided to enter the box, and sit on the nuts (probably trying to hatch them out or something!), anyway, it sat on them looking out of the front window, and would not let anything else near them, including other squirrels.

Well even he wasn't enough squirrel to contain that mountain of nuts, so he had to give it up in the end, but as he left, there were a number of other squirrels about the place looking a bit fed up with him, and more or less every one he had to pass by to leave tried to nip his bottom! I bet he won't try that again, he looked decidedly sheepish about it all by the time he'd left the area!:)

Actually I got a funny photo of two squirrels at that box from last year, I'll see if I can dig it out and post it. A prime example of when team work goes awry!

see photos section title When "teamwork" goes awry