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I’m not an engineer, but…
Recently I discovered on our new old property, a “vintage” birdfeeder. It’s a glass tear drop, blown glass full of bubbles, with small rusty metal decorations. I dug it out, washed it up, and thinking it was pretty, filled it with seed and hung it up. The squirrel arrived within the hour. He hopped off the deck to the tree to eat from it. He snatched a fistful and fell to the porch to eat it. Interesting. He tried a few more times. He doesn’t bother to stop anymore. Big birds like starlings have fallen off. Bluejays can’t land on it. Cardinals come, flutter, and make a quick landing, snag some seed, and rest on the porch to eat. Purple finches, chickadees, nuthatches, and goldfinches, are quite happy with it, however.
I’ve never experienced this. I’ve had all kinds of feeders, including squirrel proof, and I’ve filled them daily while the squirrels and birds waited for seconds. I watched a squirrel tear holes in a finch thistle feeder and empty it! What’s different is the way this feeder is constructed. Take note. There isn’t a deck. No place to land. There’s a very narrow rim at the bottom of the tear-shaped globe. The seed dispenses from small holes onto this saucer-shaped rim. The seed in the rim is protected from the rain because it’s beneath the glass globe. The entire thing swings freely with the slightest touch. The squirrel can reach in from the tree and get a fistful, but he can’t put any weight on the feeder; it swings away from him. He can’t get on it because there’s nothing but slick glass to hold on to; no soft plastic parts. Big birds can’t land on it, there’s no landing deck, nothing to cling to. So, it’s all in the engineering. There’s no plastic involved, no moving parts, no gimmicks. The modern bird-feeder-company engineers make this far too complicated as well as very expensive! I have my first-ever squirrel and starling proof birdfeeder, found under the porch, engineered to perfection. Cub Scouts could make this, if they could blow glass.