A male bluebird and two chicks flew to my main feeder and left disappointed. All they found were safflower seeds, and bluebirds can’t eat whole seeds like these. They need to be the form of the hearts or chips from the seeds. “Blues” especially love sunflower hearts, but the damned grackles had been pounding my feeder, dislodging the seeds and were eating me out of house and home. So I had switched to safflower seeds to discourage the grackles, but in so doing I had cut off the bluebirds.
Somehow, without taking out a second mortgage, I had to figure out a way to feed the bluebirds, and I found a nice compromise. Waste-free seeds. I get them at Kroger’s where a 4-pound bag of Nature’s Song, No Waste Bird Seed sells for $5.79. This is about a third less than sunflower hearts or chips.
The grackles still come but the seeds they knock out are less expensive and there are still sunflower chips remaining for the bluebirds and other songbirds – like cardinals, catbirds, finches and others.
For now, it’s no-waste seeds in my main feeder, but if anyone can tell me how to get rid of grackles without the use of a Daisy Air Rifle, I would be much obliged.