So I was out buying birdseed the other day, and I picked up a package that said

"Grackles, cow birds and blackbirds" and I thought that was fine, since I get a lot of those at one of my bird feeders.

Then I got home, re-read the package and realized if it said "fewer grackles, cowbirds and black birds" and I wondered if I was going to end up chasing those birds away.

Fortunately, the grackles, cow birds and black birds apparently didn't read the package either!

god know the wild birds devour it just fine out of chicken feeders. Just bought 50 lbs of chick starter for $16.

Scratch is mostly corn, actual feed would probably be healthier.

So far, I've gotten gold finches, a rosy grosbeak, cow birds, grackels, starlings, downy woodpeckers, cardinals, ruby throated hummingbirds and a red eyed vireo.

I have 4 feeders strung in a line on an old a-frame swing set - the really old kind made from pipe sections!

I have a hummingbird feeder, mesh feeder for finch seed, suet hanger and a tower feeder I fill with large seeds like sunflower.

The chickens love to scratch around under the feeders to eat the spilled seed. Some of the brighter ones have figured out where the seed comes from. One time I had the tower feeder too close to the cross piece and the chickens took turns flying up there to lean over and help themselves. They emptied the tower in a day. So I moved the feeder a few inches further away and enjoyed a couple of days of watching chickens stretching out trying to reach the seed and leaping out tryig to sit on the little 1" rim of the feeder. It looked like one of those Japanese game shows, but with chickens!

I think cowbirds are nest-stealers. That's probably why some people discourage them. I can see that the cowbirds could diminish the song bird populace. I'm not familiar w/ grackles, though I've heard them mentioned.

My lot is in an exurban area. We used to get a lot of redtail hawks nesting in the deeper woods, now we get more crows. Atlanta is sprawling this way.

I get mourning doves, bluebirds, orioles (not baltimore), goldfinch, and another dozen species of wrens, sparrows and towhees. I see piliated woodpeckers pretty frequently because there's some deep woods nearby. I've had an occasional owl and 1 blue heron searching the creek that borders my property.

And bats!!

I was raised in the center of a major midwestern city, my songbirds were rock pigeons and starlings, so this is pretty exciting for me.


Oh. I feed thistle for the finches and blackoil sunflower seeds in hangers and strewn for the ground-feeders. Peanut butter and suet for the woodpeckers.

:thumbsup:

:hug:

And squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons and opossums.

I'd feed deer but my neighbors would shoot them.

Sorry if that sounds snarky, but I had to go out a bit ago and make the church behind me stop shooting their pistols into the dirt bank. Fifty yards from my dog pen.

Idiots....

:mad:

Grackles/Blackbirds and Cowbirds will eat anything, as will House Sparrows. Even the seed mixes that are mostly crap seed will be eaten by House Sparrows and Cowbirds. Grackles are okay because they eat lots of insects, especially when they're rearing young. The only good thing about those others is that their presence at the feeders will bring in the "more desirable" birds -- Chickadees, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Goldfinch, Woodpeckers, etc etc.

I forgot that I get chickadees and blue jays.

There is no where near the activity I had a week ago - I think a lot of baby birds have flown away so the parents aren't as frantic to find food!

x(

Especially chickens!