Raiders of the Lost Bird Seed

Raiders of the Lost Bird Seed
Originally uploaded by kretyen

I bought a new bird feeder a couple of weeks ago. Last summer I quit feeding the birds because they would empty the feeder in a single day. It was taking a lot of time to fill and it was getting expensive.

I thought my problem was that the feeding holes in the feeder were too big, allowing the birds to indiscriminately throw seed out.

So I went up to a wild bird supply store in Tucson. When I told him my problem he immediately said, "white winged doves."

"What?" I said. It turns out that white winged doves sit on a feeder and just go crazy throwing seed around, wasting it on the ground. The answer was to get a "hood" for my feeder that slides down the tube and rests about inches above the perches. The small birds can sit and eat to their hearts' content, but the doves are too big to perch there.

It has worked like a charm. Some seed does still fall the to ground, and the doves come around and eat it up. Everybody is happy, including me.