How to sparrow proof your bird feeding.

Dec 2021

House sparrows are a huge problem for the native North American birds. They out compete native species in just about every way.

I have had bird feeders in the past, it was always disappointing. I tried feeding sunflower seeds. The sparrows loved them and they left the feeder tray full of shells. Chickadees and nuthatches on the other hand get a seed and fly off to open it. In the end I stopped feeding birds.

My wife wanted me to put up a feeder again so she would have birds to watch. In the end I decided to stop hating sparrows and to actually feed them. I bought cheap cracked corn and to my surprise blue jays love it too.

I searched online for the best food to feed birds, according to online information that would be suet. I found a recipe that used lard, peanut butter, oatmeal, corn meal and a few more things. They claimed that it would be the favorite of many of the desirable birds. I found that it wasn't anyone's favorite except for the magpies and of course sparrows loved it.

It was expensive to make and rather useless.

I doubled the lard and peanut butter and filled coconut shells with the result. Well that got the chickadees interested. A day or two later I tried crunchy peanut butter straight. I put a little onto the suet in the coconut shell. That is a star performer. The chickadees seem to especially go for the peanut bits. Ok I will be buying some shelled peanuts. Hopefully I can find chopped peanuts to mix into some peanut butter.

Notice the sparrow, he's not impressed. This works fantastic as the magpies and sparrows are not capable of the gymnastics needed to get to the treats, but the chickadees are and nuthatches love it too.

Then I got an amazing idea! Why not make a feeder with 1 1/8" holes? That is the size hole that is recommended for chickadees. Hmmm it didn't work :( I would see a bird try every now and then, but none entered. Out came my drill and I enlarged those holes to 1 1/4". That did it! A chickadee would fly up and enter. Seconds later it would pop out of a different hole. Kind of like a whack-a-mole game. Nuthatches were also highly motivated. They loved their new "In and Out" feeder.

As a result I watched a lot of sparrows follow a chickadee to the hole. The sparrows would try to follow the chickadees in, but so far none have entered. So lesson learned 1 1/8" is too small for chickadees in Alberta. I will also increase the size of my chickadee nest box holes to 1 1/4" because this size works so well on my feeders. One of my chickadee customers "Chubby" just barely can squeeze himself in. I believe in my area around Edmonton both chickadees and sparrows are a little larger.

That's Chubby! He is a "Big Bird" wanna be.

To sum it up, shelled peanuts and shelled sunflower seeds are quite expensive, but only chickadees and nuthatches can eat them in my new feeders. I feed cracked corn to the sparrows which stops them from eating sunflower seeds at my neighbors.

I like my new whack-a-mole feeder so much I made the above one to place at a nearby seniors lodge. I put up a feeding station so that any seniors who like birds might get to watch them.

Update Dec 15, 2021

The feeders worked so well, and then one day everything stopped. I didn't have any chickadees, nuthatches, blue jays or even house sparrows for perhaps a week.

Now there are two chickadees coming around and on occasion a pair of blue jays. These blue jays are from before. I am not sure about the chickadees.

But! now the chickadees do not go into the sparrow proof feeder.

Update One day later

Chubby is back and he is going in and out of the feeders. He was missing for a few days and it is sure nice to know that nothing bad has befallen him.