- Caged feeders are tube feeders with perches that are encircled by a wire cage through which only small birds can fit to perch on the feeder inside. These feeders are widely available where you normally buy bird feeders and have the added benefit of keeping out squirrels.
- Grackles are large birds and are much heavier than songbirds. Tubular feeders with small perches don't accommodate grackles, hard as they may try to get a foothold. Hopper feeders are designed to slam shut when something heavy perches on them. That may be a grackle or a squirrel, but either way, it will be excluded from the feeder.
- Grackles are ground feeders. They may spend lots of time yammering away in the treetops. but they prefer to feed on the ground, where they find lots of nutritious insects and grubs. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology recommends scattering seed on the ground to keep grackles from bullying smaller birds at the feeders.
- If you really hate the grackles and can't bear to think of them wolfing down the sunflower seeds you carefully put out for all the cuter, prettier birds out there, then you may have to change what you're putting in your feeders or take them down altogether for a while to discourage the grackles. According to the Bird Watcher's General Store, grackles strongly dislike safflower seed, so you might consider replacing the sunflower seed with it.
- While grackles do appear in what seem like large numbers. they are actually doing you and your lawn a favor. Grackles love to eat insects and grubs from the lawn, both of which can do damage if left unchecked. Let loose in garden, those same grackles will devour Japanese beetles before the beetles devour your favorite ornamentals. And remember, grackles appear in your yard during migration; as The Birdwatcher's General Store reminds us, they'll be gone by October.
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