​If you bother to set up a bird feeder, you’re probably doing so to get a peek at more birds in your yard. Unfortunately, as any bird feeder owner knows, they also attract unwanted wildlife dead set on freeloading. Unlike other pest solutions, killing the squirrels is considered extreme, and there’s no single prescribed solution to the problem. Instead, vague notions and rules of thumb rule supreme, each with its own drawbacks. These simple steps will help tell the squirrels the free meals are over once and for all.
Physical barriers
The physical barrier is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of keeping squirrels out of your bird feeder. Ideally, after a barrier is applied, your bird food will be easy to get to via a flight path but will be blocked from squirrels’ primary modes of transportation: jumping, dropping, climbing, and walking.
Naturally, what barrier you want to get will depend on your bird feeder’s location, style, and surroundings. There are probably more products designed to prevent squirrels from getting into bird feeders than there are squirrels in your city, which can make the process of finding the right one tricky. Here are just a few styles, picked for effectiveness, to get you on your way to a squirrel-free bird feeder.
Baffles (Recommended)
Garbuildman Baffle
It also stops chipmunks.
Garbuildman
Baffles, which get their name from 1800s oven shields and not how they make squirrels feel, are likely your best bet in preventing squirrels from getting to your birdfeeder. They’re wide cones that are placed in squirrels’ paths to the feeder, with the open side facing the approaching squirrel.
To surpass a baffle, the squirrel would need to do a very difficult jump and grab maneuver. Alternatively, however, they could try another path to get to the food. Think jumping down onto the feeder from a tree branch it sits under, or off your deck. As a result, you’ll need to place your bird feeder in a strategic location for the baffle to work correctly.
The simplest baffles, like the very popular Garbuildman Baffle, let you install the baffle directly to the pole of your bird feeder in a snap-on fashion. If you have a hanging bird feeder, two-way baffles, such as the North States Two-Way Squirrel Baffle. They have dual hooks for setup, one above the cone and one below the cone. Simply hang the baffle where you’d usually hang your bird feeder, and then hang your bird feeder below it. Two-way baffles also serve to keep some rain and snow away from your bird seed.
Weight-activated bird feeders
Another thing you can try is a weight-activated bird feeder that effectively closes down when the heavy weight of a squirrel is applied to it. Birds, which are “lighter than a feather,” can eat as normal.
Kingsyard Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder
If you don’t already have a bird feeder that you like, a recommended one in this style is the Kingsyard Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder. In addition to the weight-activated shutdown feature, it has an all-metal build with three attractive colors to choose from, and a built-in baffle.
Droll Yankees Yankee Flipper
For a bit of entertainment, you can also get a spinning version of the weight-activated bird feeder. If you’re here, there’s a big chance you’ve seen videos of squirrels spinning around and around the motor-activated Droll Yankees Yankee Flipper bird feeder. If you position a feeder like this low enough to the ground, it can be a bit of harmless fun to watch the periodic squirrel spin about on one of these like a game show contestant.
Bottom line
These squirrel preventers are effective and affordable, but aren’t foolproof. As has been observed countless times before, squirrels are acrobats with incredible leaping ability and flexibility. This, combined with a natural playfulness noticeable to any squirrel observer, and you have a recipe for relentless exploration. To a squirrel with the right personality traits, a guarded feeder presents a challenge with an enormous reward at the end.
If, after some time, a squirrel has penetrated these defenses, there’s an enormous sense of defeat. By a squirrel. These instances inevitably create stories, and ones that are repeated loudly. Such stories are infinitely more exciting to repeat than the stories where the barriers were productive. This creates a sort of availability bias that can easily be misinterpreted in the mind to say, “Barriers NEVER work!” The reality is much different.
Should a squirrel breach incident occur at your feeder, don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater, and do adjust or change your physical barrier. And maybe, just maybe, let yourself be happy for the squirrel’s victory.
Chemical and sensory barriers
You might alternatively use a squirrel repellent food source or other sensory method to scare the squirrel away. The thinking goes that some sensory experiences will deter squirrels but go unnoticed by birds, creating a selective barrier.
Cole’s Blazin’ Hot Bird Feed
You may recall a fact from middle school stating that birds aren’t affected by hot peppers. Capsaicin, the active ingredient in hot peppers, doesn’t seem to affect birds in the same way that it does humans or other mammals like squirrels. Birders can use this to their advantage.
For convenience, you can buy pre-treated seed, like Cole’s Blazing Hot Blend Bird Seed, that can be placed out like ordinary seed. Squirrels will still come by, but quickly get the message. Alternatively, the same company’s Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce can be used to make a DIY blend. You may even find that you can slowly lower the amount of capsaicin applied over time as your local squirrels learn that your bird feeder isn’t their canteen.
As one reviewer at the Clemson Cooperative Extension put it, “hot seed is effective, not perfect.” There will always be curious eaters, and if capsaicin gets in your eyes or nose, you won’t have a good time, either. But for the careful, consistent user, this trick can turn the tide in your favor with little fuss.
The all-safflower seed diet
But what if the squirrels don’t eat the bird seed at all?
Squirrels are known to skip over safflower seeds, which are bitter, but the majority of birds will still eat them. According to the All About Birds seed guide, safflower is a “favorite” among cardinals. As they report: “According to some sources, House Sparrows, European Starlings, and squirrels don’t like safflower, but in some areas seem to have developed a taste for it.”
Getting pure safflower, such as from the Audubon Park Safflower Seed Wild Bird Food bag, is incredibly economical and costs about the same (or even less) than typical bird seed blends. Safflower is certainly worth a shot, especially if you want more cardinals.
Supplement with ultrasonic noise
Squirrels are able to hear in a much wider range than humans, with one fox squirrel study showing the species could hear tones from 113 Hz to 49 kHz, much wider than human ranges. Sounds of 20 kHz and above are considered to be ultrasonic, which we typically can’t hear, and aren’t perceived by most bird species, either. One metastudy of a few dozen bird species showed that most cannot hear beyond 8 to 12 kHz, with the only included species surpassing the 20 kHz barrier being the Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Tawny Owl, and European Robin. Even still, the study states that “no species of bird has shown sensitivity to ultrasonic frequencies.”
An ultrasonic noise maker will create tension and stress. As noted by the FTC, rodents can become accustomed to ultrasonic noise. However, if used in tandem with a baffle and unappealing food, the screechy, spooky noise is likely to reinforce the notion that your bird food isn’t worth the hassle. Excellent choices like the popular PIMAG Solar Ultrasonic Animal Repellent are made for the outdoors and are a set-it-and-leave-it option—a no-brainer for extra anti-squirrel power.
Bottom line
Making the food itself unappealing or even scary to approach in a way that selectively targets squirrels and rodents over birds is an excellent way to get rid of your problem, especially if you’re attached to the way your current bird feeder looks and operates. As mentioned with ultrasonic noisemakers, all of these sensory, food-based solutions to your squirrel problem work great with the physical solutions that were presented at the beginning of this article. Going through a lot of work to get subpar food just isn’t in most animals’ playbooks.
Letting go
Squirrel feeder
By choosing one of the squirrel prevention methods above (or even combining them!), you’re well on your way to massively reducing the amount of bird seed you lose to squirrels.
But is that the only approach?
To quote Jurassic Park, “Nature finds a way.” In our world of perfectly manicured yards and color-sorted flower beds, there’s a natural tendency to want to, and even expect to, be able to exert control over the uncontrollable.
Consider embracing the squirrels for what they are, doing a bit of chaos gardening, and rest with the knowledge that squirrels will get some bird seed from time to time. After all, even 40-pound bird seed bags aren’t that expensive. Plus, some people even go so far as to install a squirrel feeder, too, to keep everyone happy.
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