How to Build Grackle Resistant Bird Feeders

Common Grackle (quiscalus quiscula) with a green background image by Steve Byland from <a href='http://www.fotolia.com'>Fotolia.com</a>

Grackles are a nuisance bird that most bird watchers want to keep out of their bird feeders. You can prevent grackles from taking over your bird feeder by converting an ordinary tube feeder into a cage feeder. A simple wire mesh screen around the feeder can keep grackles out while still allowing smaller song birds inside. A cage feeder can be built with supplies found at any hardware store and will take less than an hour to complete.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

Wire screen with 2 by 2 inch grid
Pliers
Wire cutters
Wire
Measuring tape

Step 1

Measure around the widest part of the tube feeder that will receive the mesh screen. Add 3 inches to this measurement. This will be the width of the mesh screen.

Step 2

Cut a rectangle of wire mesh that is as long as the feeder is tall. Use the measurement from Step 1 for the width.

Step 3

Twist 2 inch lengths of wire at the place where the mesh meets until it forms a circle.

Step 4

Insert the tube feeder into the mesh circle.

Step 5

Attach the mesh circle to the feeder by looping a section of wire around the hanging hardware at the top of the feeder.

Tips & Warnings

Grackles are usually 9 inches tall. The mesh should be no smaller than 9 inches.

This grackle proof screen should also keep out squirrels.

Resources

USGS: Backyard Bird Feeding in North Dakota

Article Written By Denise Bertacchi

Denise Bertacchi is a freelance writer with a degree in journalism from Southeast Missouri State University. She is a St. Louis suburbanite who has written for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Boys' Life, Wisconsin Trails, and Missouri Life.

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