Backyard Bird 10/9--Pine Siskin

I put up our second Squirrel Buster feeder this morning. One of our first customers was a peculiar looking bird--not a sparrow, not a goldfinch, yellow wing bars, small beak, striped breast--bingo--Pine Siskin. There have a been a number of sightings reported on Jerseybirds this morning under the header of "Siskin Invasion," so I was starting to get a little jealous--50 siskins here, 40 there, 4 during someone's commute. Pine Siskin has been another of the wish list species for our backyard, so I was very pleased to get one--not exactly an invasion but I'll take it.

These Squirrel Buster feeders are great. I started off a couple of weeks ago with the "mini" version because it was relatively cheap so I could test it out before committing to the more elaborate "plus" model.

Mini Squirrel Buster

It works by weight. There's a spring inside the feeder that will stretch whenever something as heavy as a squirrel gets on the perch--this causes the outer shield to come down and cover up the seed tray. The weight of little birds like chickadees or even cardinals isn't enough to trip the mechanism.

Supposedly the drawback to the mini is that there isn't enough room for a larger bird like a cardinal or a grosbeak. However, as I write this a big red male cardinal is happily scarfing down seed from the tray.

There is also isn't a lot of capacity, so you have to fill the feeder more often.

Once I saw that the smaller feeder worked well--no squirrels have breached its defenses and the birds have been actively feeding, I ordered the extra large feeder.

Super duper version

This one has an outer ring on which the larger birds can perch and holds 3 quarts of seeds. These are pretty expensive, but I've been fighting squirrels for a year now and sunk a fair amount of money into baffles that don't. Besides, I figure with the amount of money I'll save on seed that doesn't go into a squirrel's stomach, these things will pay for themselves in only 28 years.

Is it just a coincidence that Pine Siskin inaugurated the new feeder? Or will it be our lucky feeder?

Abandoned non-squirrel proof feeder

As to the old feeder--I left it on the ground with what was left of it's wet seed as a final offering to the squirrels.