Took me 4 days to figure out why my bird feeder was empty every morning

I kept refilling my tube feeder with black oil sunflower seeds but by dawn it was bone dry, figured a raccoon was getting into it. Turns out a family of squirrels figured out how to open the lid by spinning it sideways, something they must have practiced for weeks. Has anyone else had a pest outsmart their feeder like that and what did you do to stop it?

2 comments

2 Comments

evannelson3d ago

See I think people always focus on the squirrels or raccoons, but my aunt had a similar problem and it turned out to be blue jays. Those birds are brutal man, they figured out how to jimmy the latch on her feeder and then they'd just sit there and chuck seed on the ground for like an hour until the whole thing was empty. They're not even eating it all, they're just being jerks about it. So maybe check if it's actually birds doing the work before you blame the mammals, because my aunt put up a camera and caught them red handed. She finally had to get one of those mesh feeders that only lets little songbirds through.

simonw413d ago

Bet those squirrels are sitting up in the trees laughing at you while they sip seed like some kind of tiny outdoor coffee shop. Had a similar thing with chipmunks and a feeder that had a little platform they were supposed to sit on, but they just jumped straight up and grabbed the ports like little acrobats. Ended up getting one that closes the feeding holes when something heavy sits on the perch, which works great until they figure out how to hang upside down.