How to stop Starlings eating fat balls

Starlings can make a nuisance of themselves for sure by eating up the suet, thus its vital to apply deterrents to stop them once and for all.

How you would commonly stop starlings eating fat balls in your garden would begin by placing your fat balls within a specialty feeder. Only then would you conceal enough of the feeder with plastic to allow other species to cling on upside down, which is a feeding technique your common starling can't do.

When starlings tend to be most active on your bird feeder pole would be in spring time when the young are now defending for themselves.

In this time the young starlings will raid your suet feeders but for most of us, this may only be for a short time, before they are gone for good.

Getting rid of starlings at feeders will be a big ask, although to prevent them touching the bird food at all over time may see their numbers drop or completely disappear in a matter of weeks or months.

With that said its fair to say adult starlings can disturb feeding time for smaller, more friendly birds as starlings take over the fat ball feeder; which can be noisy when there's too many starlings at once, which will keep other bird species away for sure.

We can't get rid of all starlings at bird feeders that's for sure, though we can reduce their numbers in due course to stop them eating up all the suet, which of course can come in suet cake or fat ball form.

When utilizing fat balls inside of its corresponding feeder, I can assure you the task of deterring starlings is made far easier for you.

You only need to shroud the fat ball feeder in plastic with only a small section open at the bottom - now birds can cling upside to eat the suet such as all woodpeckers or chickadee will commonly be seen to do.

Starlings can eat upside down but are unable to cling on the underside, which is a technique you want to force them into... because they're likely to fail every time they do.

If you don't want the fuss you can simply keep starlings off bird feeders buy investing in any kind of squirrel proof feeder which is sure to keep starlings on the outside.

Best way to hang a fat ball feeder would be to not hang it at all in an effort deter unwanted birds like starlings; although it has to be said, a stabilized suet feeder will help similar size birds to access the suet, while still remaining accessible to starlings.

Conceal top of fat ball feeder

When we talk about starlings eating your fat balls, can I assume you mean starlings eating suet balls on what can be described as a standard long, wire fat ball feeder which is made to be hung off a branch or bracket.

Well, what you may not know about starlings is this rather large bird can be athletic but are unable to cling on the underside of suet feeders to feed, or any kind of bird feeder.

Starlings can position themselves upside down but they can't positioned themselves like chickadees or woodpeckers do to eat; which is clinging on to the underside of a fat ball feeder, or indeed a feeder that provides a cage-like wire or mesh surround.

If you wish to stop starlings eating fat balls out of your traditional long fat ball feeder, then it would be a good idea to conceal at least half to two-thirds of the top section.

First of all this will only leave 2 or 3 inches at the bottom of the fat ball feeder where it will be made near impossible for starlings to cling onto in such a tight spot. On top of that, the concealment - usually made with a plastic sheet or coke bottle - will prevent starlings hanging upside down to access what is only a small area to feed on.

How to eventually stop starlings eating food trapped inside a fat ball feeder then would be to wrap a plastic sheet around the top section of the feeder to create an upside down cone-like device.

You can also cut away the bottom section of the plastic bottle - or whatever length can accommodate your fat ball feeder - to then thread the hanging feeder inside the plastic coke or Pepsi bottle.

Trap fat balls behind squirrel proof feeder

Where else you will absolutely see success when finding ways to keep starlings off your suet feeder, would be to trap the fat ball feeder inside a specific squirrel proof feeder.

Now you can conceal much of the top side of a long, hanging-type fat ball feeder within a plastic soda bottle as explained previously, however a small investment of a specialty squirrel proof fat ball feeder will be all you need.

Current fat ball feeders aren't really made to affix inside a squirrel proof bird feeder cage, thus you'd need to start all over again.

And that means buying a squirrel proof fat ball bird feeder to be sure of a solid construction.

With fat balls trapped in the center of what is now a cage surround, will allow your regular small birds like chickadees or finches to pop through the small cage gaps, all while preventing starlings getting beyond the cage exterior.

Good news is this method is suitable for stopping all large birds raiding your feeder, thus it will become a great investment in due course.

Affix low baffle over bird tray

How else you can go about stopping starlings accessing your fat balls contained within a regular fat ball feeder - without investing in the squirrel proof kind - would be to hang the fat ball feeder below a squirrel baffle.

Squirrel baffle type I am referring to is the kind that would hang off your bird feeder pole or a tree branch; all while your fat ball feeder of any kind can then be hung off the baffle, underneath at the center point.

Now let me say this should keep squirrels off and it will absolutely prevent pigeons or crows in the process, but it isn't enough just yet to prevent starlings landing on the feeder.

How to starling proof your fat ball feeder would require you to push the baffle as close to the top of the fat ball feeder as you can.

I guarantee you at this stage starlings will still access your feeder, thus its vital you invest in a hanging-style squirrel baffle that appear like a dome, so it covers the top half of the fat ball feeder to make it hard for starlings with a large wingspan to land.

Squirrel baffle in question doesn't need to be large and wide at all, it just needs to be narrow as to come into close proximity to the fat ball feeder cage.

Summary

How you would truly succeed in preventing starlings accessing your fat balls, would of course mean you'd have to limit their use by trapping fat balls inside a fat ball feeder.

Once the fat balls are hung inside a cage-like feeder, only then can you think about stopping starlings eating up the suet.

With the fat balls inside what must be a long cage-type feeder, you can use a sheet of flexible plastic to make a cone-shape to conceal most of the top section of a fat ball feeder.

What this will do is force starlings to cling on upside, which they are unable to.

Similarly, you can cut away half of a coke or Pepsi bottle to accommodate your specific size feeder; then hang the fat ball feeder within the bottle which will act as a shield against starlings or other large size birds.

If you wish to avoid doing any crafts you can instead do without your current fat ball feeder, whilst reverting to a squirrel proof fat ball feeder only.

Small birds can access the fat balls as they hop inside the interior of the cage surround, all while starlings will be too large to take the same route.

You can continue to use your current fat ball feeder to deter starlings if you like, only you'd need to hang your feeder below a small size but with a deep curve squirrel baffle.

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