Tired of Squirrels Raiding Your Bird Feeders? Here Are Ten Ways to Outwit Them

National Wildlife, Dec-Jan, 2000 by George H. Harrison

* Though some people have wired their feeders with electricity to keep squirrels away, that can be extremely dangerous. A safer alternative is The WildBills bird feeder, which has a built-in, battery-operated charger that lightly zaps squirrels when they make contact. Birds do not get a shock because they cannot make a contact with only two legs. The small charge only startles squirrels; it is far from being strong enough to hurt them.

* A woman in Virginia built a huge chicken wire house, tall enough to stand in so that she could feed the birds and grow tomatoes inside without losing everything to the squirrels. On a smaller scale, commercially made hanging feeders surrounded by wire screen allow small birds to enter and feed, but exclude larger bully birds and squirrels.

* A growing number of backyard birders have switched from sunflower seeds to safflower seeds in their bird feeders. They find that the change in diet is popular with cardinals, house finches, chickadees, nuthatches and mourning doves, but the safflower doesn't appeal to squirrels.

* Some homeowners have simply learned to live with the squirrels. After years of battling them at their feeding station, trying nearly every type of feeder and seed, a couple in Boulder, Colorado, started feeding squirrels on the ground a distance away from their bird feeders. Not only do they spend only a few dollars a month feeding the squirrels, the couple has found that pine siskins and other birds are also attracted to the feeding area on the ground.

"The squirrels will try to jump onto the pole, grab the Slinky and promptly find themselves dumped to the ground."

Field Editor George H. Harrison's latest book is Squirrel Wars and Other Battles with Backyard Wildlife (Willow Creek Press, 2000).