Purple Martin houses, Blue Bird nest boxes, etc.

[TheLorax]

Purple Martin houses, Blue Bird nest boxes, etc.

I've got the above plus nest boxes for other species and thistle feeders for finches. I'm in an area that is inundated with English house sparrows and European starlings. I'm pretty careful about the seed I use in my feeders and almost exclusively use safflower, sunflower seeds, whole kernel corn for the blue jays, and thistle seed.

Lately, I've been noticing the English House Sparrows at my thistle feeders. Thought this was somewhat odd. Did a little checking around and found this-

found that the thistle feeders that the goldfinches have to get to the seed by hanging upside down are the best for this. HOSP cannot hang upside down for any length of time and the goldfinches have no problem with this.

All of the finch feeders I have are the wrong style which is a big bummer.

Then found this-

Take the perches off your feeders. The desirable birds (chickadee,
nuthatch, titmouse, finches, etc.) can cling to the feeders
without a perch. House Sparrows have difficulty with this.

Found a link to a website selling thistle feeders that also had interesting comments-
https://www.bird-feeder-and-bird-house-guide.com/thistle-feeder.html

Then found this-
https://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/how_to/feeding_feeders/feeder_war.aspx
excerpt-

Having seen advertisements for "upside-down" thistle feeders, we decided to perform a retrofitting on our feeder, which was a standard finch feeder featuring a central plastic tube with a metal top and bottom, and metal perches. We took the bottom and top off the feeder and reversed them. Now the bottom was on the top and the top on the bottom. But more importantly, the perches were now above the small thistle holes. This configuration enables the goldfinches to hang upside down to feed. Both the house finches and the house sparrows have tried to use the feeder, but they can't cling to the perches well enough to reach any thistle. They leave the thistle feeder alone now, so the goldfinches have exclusive rights.

Might work for me. Also read something about reducing the perch length to a quarter inch.

[Charlie MV]

campaign.

[TheLorax]

We've got sparrow traps for some of the nest boxes and ground traps and I've been really careful about the type of seed I offer so it was rather frustrating to see them going for the thistle seed. The thistle seed is expensive to boot. They've not shown an interest in thistle seed before that I ever remember. I have at least 6 thistle seed feeders that are all newly purchased and I've just learned they are all the wrong style which really irks me.

We are visited by more than just goldfinches here and your comments about the house finches sitting on them and looking confused concerns me.

I don't think I can modify the design as suggested above. The thistle feeders are all aspects feeders and they are secured to the base because of some sort of an easy clean feature which is what originally attracted me to them. The actual slots are also secured. I could reduce or eliminate the perches but there's still that slot that looks as if it would provide ample space for them to perch.

I know I have the medium tube feeder shown here-
https://www.jjcardinal.com/tube.htm

Sort of aggravated as I might have to take them all down if I can't come up with something. I'm most comfortable with passive control and prefer exclusion however my husband is an avid birder and prefers active control. If he sees what I am seeing (he's not home during the day and hasn't seen what's going on at the finch feeders), I will have to take them down and will lose the purchase price of 4 of them not to mention the shipping and handling I had to pay.

Got any suggestions? I literally bought 6 of them. If you want, I still have 2 in the boxes they were shipped in and I could take close up photos of them to show you the design. I guess I could return those two but the others have already been used for a few weeks now.

[Charlie MV]

If you can bear to shop at Lowes or HD they have very cheap goldfinch feeders and you can leave up a few of the others for the rest of the birds. My house finches didn't starve because I had plenty of other feeders with cheaper feed. Most any feeder except the big hole ones can be modified with a cordless drill to reposition the perches or feed holes. Never underestimate the value of Alabama chrome [duct tape] as a possibility for modifying feeders either. I once had an employee who drove a car that was 90% duct tape.