Greedy Doves stealing all the food from feeders!!

[LLee]

I have two feeders, each holds about 6 pounds of mixed bird seeds. A lot of Sunflower to entice the cardinals and Towhees. Lots of finch food too. A flock of Doves has taken over my feeder station and I am re-filling those two feeders every three or four days. The Doves are PIGS!!! I put a squirrel baffle over the feeders, as low as possible to make it more difficult for large birds to hang out at the diner, but it didn’t work for more than two days, now they are back at it again. This is becoming expensive…and annoying.

Anybody got suggestions on how to get rid of the Doves (I don’t mind them on the ground scavenging what falls) so they don’t drain the feeders? Do NOT suggest pellet guns, etc.

[Louise]

Doves can be terribly greedy. The best thing that you can do is to get feeders that are weight sensitive. They’re mostly called squirrel resistant, but some are calibrated to exclude large birds. I have this one, though I didn’t pay that much for it. It’s not perfect. My problem is grackles, and they are a lot smarter than doves, so have figured out how to bypass the dump factor. It slows them down, however. My Mourning Doves have not figured it out, though.

This one looks like it might work. Droll Yankee makes a good product and I wouldn’t hesitate to give it a try.

[hoopoe]

get rid of the mixed seed ( milo millet most of it is junk) and use BOSS only. Horses love BOSS too

finches chickadees nuthatch tits they will happily take BOSS .

if you want gold finch and siskin support, add a niger sock. They will take BOSS but niger thistle is also attractive

in winter all of these birds will persist ( depending on your home range) and the addition of suet will be welcome

If you want to spread some crack corn on the ground that will satify the sparrows, towhees and doves

[Dewey]

I had one similar to this; it worked well to keep out squirrels and large birds. Mine was cheaper, though; I think I got it at K-Mart.

http://www.sears.com/heritage-farms-absolute-combo-pole-amp-hanger/p-SPM246736392?hlSellerId=4156&sid=IDx20110310x00001i&kpid=SPM2030754501&kispla=SPM2030754501&gclid=Cj0KEQjw1cS6BRDvhtKL89em1oIBEiQAtZO5x9Psrg2utqp_I0Yeo9ZnGs6Dq2iYNWICRgqk1o9W-DgaAvnO8P8HAQ

[Hayburner]

I too have a problem with doves! I nly feed shelled sunflower seeds, safflower, and a thistle mix for the canaries.

They will sit in the open feeder and not even be eating, they just want to keep other birds away. I like having one open feeder for the red birds.

I’m ready to throw rocks at them! I do run out and chase them away.

[ChristinaClarLuisa]

Diversion feeder on the ground with cracked corn. We call them “the chickens”…

[vacation1]

I got fed up with a flock of starlings aka thugs, not only eating everything at the feeder but also attacking the other birds and basically guarding the feeders from everything else that moved. I read somewhere that the best thing to do is to take up the feeders for a couple weeks. The big flock will get discouraged and move on, the regular crew will fend for itself fine and then return when you put the feeders back. I tried it, and it worked for me. The thugs went away, and while some came back later, it wasn’t in the same numbers and they’d stopped being violent.

[pony_powered]

The doves at my house are big as city rats…luckily I have a very aggressive pack of blue jays that scare them off. I’m going to try the cracked corn idea - thanks!

[JoZ]

No hints other than the sacrificial food on the ground, but this reminds me of when I was a kid and the mourning doves started coming to our yard and feeders. Day one, one mourning dove, my mother was ecstatic, running for the bird book, waking me up. Day two, oh look, how sweet, there’s a PAIR of them, and listen, you can hear them cooing. By day 4 or 5? A flock of 32, empty feeders, poop all over the ground, and the loudest infernal cooing at all hours of the day. A fine example of “careful what you wish for!”