When we were in Dallas back in mid-January, the downtown trees were filled with grackles each night – tens of thousands of grackles, squeezed onto every branch.
I thought to myself at the time, “I hope they stay in Dallas.”
But they didn’t. At least 50 have migrated into my backyard, but I am ready for them this year.
Grackles will decimate your feeders if given the opportunity. I try to keep sunflower hearts or sunflower chips in at least one feeder for the bluebirds, primarily. But if there is even a single sunflower heart in a feeder, the grackles come and come and come back again, banging into the feeder and dislodging seeds. Then, they gobble them up as they hit the ground. I cannot afford to feed 4 and 20 blackbirds, so here is my plan, and I think it’s working.
I am taking down (temporarily) the suet cages, which grackles also devour. In my main feeder, I have switched to safflower seeds. Grackles (and squirrels) don’t like safflower seeds, but cardinals, titmice, chickadees and many other songbirds love them. Near the birdhouse (which I think the bluebirds have pre-selected for this year’s nest), I have a small feeder that I put a few sunflower chips in.
In addition, last year I bought an inexpensive dome feeder which small birds can access by flying beneath, but larger birds can not get in. In that feeder, I also have a few sunflower hearts
Knock on wood, it’s working. Without their free lunches of suet and sunflower seeds, grackles will eventually disperse. In about a month, they will split up from their large flocks and begin nesting.
I don’t mind feeding a few grackles and their families – just not the entire state of Texas’s population of grackles.
Here’s hoping it works.