Bird Watching: Advice on bird feeders for the smaller birds, 1 by eastjack

eastjack wrote:
Hi from rural Nova Scotia.
We have two hanging feeders and a feed tray that we fill once per day with a blend of bird seen and sunflower seeds. This has attracted a variety of birds including chickadees, cardinals, gold finches, blue jays, mourning doves, juncos, sparrows, pheasants, etc. The problem is that the blue jays dominate the feeders and keep the smaller birds from getting access until all the food has gone. On a typical day we may see around 20 each blue jays and mourning doves at any given time. The idea is not to stop feeding these birds but would like to give the smaller ones a chance. We would welcome advise from others on this group as to what type of feeder we can use that is blue jay unfriendly. It would be nice to see more of the chickadees and finches get their fill but we can't afford to keep the feeders full at all times as they certainly can go through a pile of seed.
Dave & Val in Granville Beach, Nova Scotia