How to keep Crows off bird feeders
Its imperative Crows are kept out of bird feeders just as it is your yard, as Crows can deter the songbirds or friendly birds you intended to feed in your garden.
How to keep Crows off bird feeders is to shroud a new batch of bird feeders in squirrel proof bird feeders. Normal bird feeders can be used, only there can't be areas for Crows to perch, or can you allow Crows leverage. Maximize small bird feeder to keep Crows well off while keeping bird food stored away.
Crows can ruin the party when it comes to only wanting to feed your common backyard birds, and it can be an issue that will get worse unless you do something about it.
What I do ask you to do right now is pack away your bird feeders, while also stop feeding birds in your yard until the Crow issue has gone away or reduced in numbers.
At this time you want to clear up any signs of bird food or else Crows will continue to come to your yard if bird food is available, and continue to if fed to birds every day.
After a week has elapsed with no signs of Crows can you begin the process of attracting kinder birds back to bird feeders.
Begin again be using squirrel proof bird feeders as this time the bird food, and therefore the bird feeders - will be kept out of reach of Crows or any nuisance larger birds.
Continue to feed ground feeding birds with a ground platform bird feeder, but only if its covered in what is also a squirrel proof cage.
Crows who raid bird feeders may also make the most of your bird bath, to which a ground level bird bath can be covered in a cage; or else it might have to be packed away until you find a solution to keep Crows off what is an open to all water bowl.
Unfortunately, Crows will eat just about anything, thus its difficult to deter them with food they don't like thus you must keep Crows off bird feeders by more practical means necessary - and that comes down to keeping Crows out of reach of bird feeder food.
Shroud bird feeders in cage ball
To keep your common American Crow off bird feeders would be to simply utilize what are referred to as squirrel proof bird feeders.
What is involves is, a regular bird feeder that holds peanuts, suet or seed is basically built the same way as it always is - only its positioned in the center of a plastic coated wire cage with the bird feeder at the heart of it.
What will happen now is any bird food in use will be trapped within the bird feeder, yet will be up to 10 inches out of reach of Crows.
Crows won't be able to reach the bird food yet smaller birds can hop inside to feed.
Crows will give it a try for sure if any perches opposite are available for leverage; well this must still be sorted as Crows could demolish a bird feeder in the process of trying to eat the food.
American crows practically eat anything with the good stuff in a squirrel proof bird feeder only inches away - so don't blame them for trying.
How to stop Crows on an open dish mounted alongside bird feeders on a pole requires more imagination, and so to does a pole mounted platform bird feeder open to all nuisance birds, both big and small.
What you might have to do in the end is remove open top platforms including any dishes to be replaced with harder to access, compact hanging bird feeders.
Cage over ground feeders
Rather than cater to Crows on an open top bird feeder its imperative you restrict Crows by using hard to reach hanging bird feeders.
That only applies to keeping Crows off hard to access bird feeders that are hung; yet what is going to be easy to access for Crows is ground platform bird feeders which will need a bit of imagination to keep them off, to which you can squirrel proof again.
What we can do this time is buy what is a squirrel proof cage that is positioned over any open top ground level bird feeder.
If you only feed smaller, more welcoming songbirds to feed out of a dish, then this ceramic dish can go under the cage.
Crows can quickly learn to push over the cage thus its vital to make sure its anchored to the ground - just as you would with a tent with pegs.
Meanwhile, if you experience a pigeon problem on bird feeders then believe it not this is how you would stop pigeons on bird feeders; its an area where pigeons occupy in yard the most as they are ground feeders at heart.
With that in mind you may also have to stop throwing bird seeds on the ground randomly, as Crows will be attracted to them.
On a similar note if you can't keep Crows out of your bird bath you can use a ground squirrel proof cage to restrict their use.
Maximize small bird feeder use
How to seriously keep much larger Crows out of bird feeders is by making most of the smaller bird feeders available to you.
To feed seeds to wild birds you can use what is a long, clear plastic tube with often a set of perches near to the feeding ports. To continue offering peanuts then a smaller wire bird feeder that hangs alongside the seed feeder is recommended.
With that you can hang a suet cake bird feeder near to the seed and peanut offerings, while going down this route can keep the suet cage open to nuisance Crows.
What you must do then is be sure this suet cake or fat ball bird feeder is hanging long, while never allowing a foothold for Crows in a nearby branch or bracket.
How to stop larger birds raiding bird feeders would be to maximize bird feeders intended for small birds only.
And let's not forget these smaller bird feeders can be squirrel proof bird feeders; only you don't need to invest in a set of squirrel proof bird feeders if you limit bird feeder use to styles that cannot be accessed by Crows.
Maximize use of smaller bird feeders then by making sure there's no perches or leverage for Crows to take advantage of.
NO bird food kept on outside
In an effort to keep Crows off bird feeders you'll now have to stop throwing bird food over the lawn to cater to ground feeding birds this way.
Now you must become more organized because remember, bird food thrown over the lawn might just have been the reason why Crows were attracted to your yard in the first place.
Great if you want to attract Crows to the yard but its going to have a counter effect if you only want to feed small common backyard birds.
How to stop Crows eating bird food is to contain it within a hard to access bird feeder for larger birds - yet can be used as normal by your common Finches, Warblers, Chickadees and occasionally a Bluebird.
Crows can't access unstable bird feeders that must be hung, while the same bird feeder that offers seeds on the outside within a tray can continue to tease Crows.
Bird food must be kept stored away within bird feeders as to not keep attracting Crows back to them... as the old saying goes out of sight, out of mind.
Conclusion
What you can begin with is utilizing regular hanging bird feeders that would normally hang off a tree branch or off a bird feeder pole.
It lacks any perches for larger, more nuisance birds like Crows to land on while at the same time, these same bird feeders must be hung in a way that doesn't provide clever Crows leverage to access bird food with assistance.
You can't take what bird feeders you already own and put them in a squirrel proof bird feeder cage - although it is possible to buy squirrel proof bird feeders that keep Crows well out of reach - yet allows smaller birds access.
Bird feeders will be hung in the center of a cage shroud, designed to keep squirrels off but works wonders to keep Crows out of reach at the same time, if not more effectively.
Similarly, if you so happen to be using an open top ground bird feeder, you can continue to, only it would need to be covered in a squirrel proof ground cage.
With that in mind I ask you to stop using open top platform bird feeders on the pole or hanging style - as its too difficult to keep Crows off if bird food is open to all.
You can use an open top ground bird feeder because a squirrel proof cage can simply be positioned over it, with the bird food at the center.
If the Crow issue persists stop feeding backyard birds for the meantime, while never throwing bird food on the lawn as its what probably attracted Crows in the first place.
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