How to discourage black birds on feeders....

I live in a suburban area and have always had a few black birds (I guess they're starlings) but lately I've have at least 200 desend on the house at a time. They pretty much stay there a few hours a day.They're eating me out of house and home and keeping my other birds away. Are there any bird seed blends that they dislike? I wouldn't mind if I saw less than 50 a day;) I buy the generic "wild bird" mix.

Take all the feeders down (and out of sight) for several days. Hopefully that will take care of it.

This message was edited Mar 20, 2007 5:05 PM

I was faced with the same situation. It seemed like I remembered the same thing happening a couple of seasons ago. Just when I think I need to do something about it they seem to move on. Not all at once but gradually. This year I had them visiting but not in such great numbers as before. This visit the groups were down to about 50 at a time. At the present time I may see two or three coming in and out of the yard. They started about a month ago coming in large groups. I was afraid to take down my feeders because I didn't want the many other birds that visit my yard to get the same message, so I stick it out buying extra seed until they are gone.

I used to have this problem too, but I switched from mixed seed to only black-oil sunflower seed, and I also switched feeders. I now only use a wobbly globe-shaped one (attractive to nuthatches & chickadees), a thistle tube feeder for the goldfinches, and upside-down suet feeders. The downside is that these feeders aren't preferred by cardinals, but some of my neighbors have the platform & hopper feeders they like. And I have my yard back. :-)

Also, I believe that starlings really like large, open lawns (for bugs, grubs & worms). There's not much one can do about that other than planting more shrubs & trees...

Another possibility is to feed only thistle and safflower seed. This is not attractive to many undesirable birds, but is enjoyed by goldfinches, cardinals, doves, house finches, chickadees and nuthatches, which are often viewed as the more "premium" birds. Also, and for me this is very important, squirrels do not like thistle and safflower seed and don't even come around. The seed is more expensive, though, but you don't go through as much as when the hordes descend.

Susan in Minneapolis

I had tried only putting safflower out and the Starlings just swallowed it whole since its too hard for their beaks to open. You might have a different experience but that was what happened here.
Good Luck and let us know what happens.

Can you purchase a cage to fit around your feeder? Some feeders have an optional cage available that fits around the feeder and effectively keeps out large birds (like blackbirds).

We have a similar problem here, and use regular seed blend in the caged feeder, safflower in the open feeder, and thistle in the finch feeder.