The plague on my yard is gone. The grackles have finally flown the coop. They arrived back in March this year, earlier than ever. And they came in droves – 20, 30, 40. Then they thinned down to a couple of dozen and ate most every speck of decent bird food I put out.
I hate ‘em, and I can’t afford to feed my backyard friends and them, too.
I would put out a $4 bar of peanut suet and they mowed it down in a day. They plowed into the sunflower hearts reserved for my bluebirds and emptied a 2-gallon feeder in two days.
They are songbirds and are federally protected. Otherwise, I would know how to deal with the black pests.
The only good thing about grackles is that their babies make great crow food. They build high in pine tree branches. When the crows spy a nest, they make Kamikaze raids and snatch the juicy young chicks out of the nest for a little grackle tartar for dinner.
Go crows!
I tried numerous birdfeeder defenses, but most failed. My spring-loaded feeder didn’t work. The heavy-footed grackles would grab the side and be able to reach in and peck away. I tried fly-through bowls and they worked a little, but the grackles still came. I switched to safflower seeds in one feeder and that works because grackles don’t like safflower, but the bluebirds can’t eat safflower seeds.
The only thing that absolutely works is a dome feeder. You continue to lower the dome over the bowl of seed until the larger grackles physically cannot get in. That’s my strategy for next year.
But for now, I am enjoying the luxury of going out in my back yard and not having to shoo away 24 grackles.