I Considered A Tiny Velvet Rope

July 13, 2022 4:19 AM

What's a good window-mount bird feeder that is big enough for cardinals, but NOT for mourning doves and pigeons? (Or, how else can I keep the pigeons away from the feeder?)

I have a couple of bird feeders out my back window - a tube style hanging one for the smaller birds, and a window-mounted acryllic one. The window-mounted one is just shy of a foot wide, and was easily attracting a pair of cardinals and a couple blue jays. However, it ALSO was big enough to lure over a bunch of mourning doves and a few pigeons, and the pigeons and doves are starting to crowd out the smaller birds and knock seed all over the ground (which in turn may be starting to attract rats and mice).

I've taken the window feeder down for a few days while I figure out what to do. I don't want to screw over the cardinals, but I want the doves and pigeons gone. (Or at least just the pigeons, fuck those guys.) I thought maybe getting something just big enough for the cardinals, but too small for the pigeons, may work - what's your recommendation for that?

Or, do you have other ideas for selectively feeding these guys?

posted by EmpressCallipygos to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

Hopefully someone will come along with a feeder suggestion, but in the meanwhile: switching to nyjer seed in my window feeder too has gotten rid of the vast majority of the pigeons, while smaller birds including cardinals still visit. The pigeon reduction isn't 100% but it's a big improvement.
posted by Stacey at 4:35 AM on July 13, 2022 [3 favorites]

You could probably just keep the tube feeder and nix the window feeder. If it's a full-sized tube and not a mini, it's big enough for blue jays (and by extension cardinals, and, really, also doves) in my experience. I agree with Stacey that tweaking the food blend could help too (jays love peanuts but so do pigeons, so there may be some tradeoffs between avoiding pigeons and attracting the birds you want).

If you don't manage to discourage your pigeon visitors, here are some resources that may change your view on pigeons since they and their history with people are actually quite interesting even though they're ubiquitous. Andrew Garn's book, The New York Pigeon, is very beautiful, and A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching is a fun book that explains how to spot fancy pet pigeon traits in the feral pigeon population (among other neat pigeon facts and history).
posted by snaw at 4:50 AM on July 13, 2022 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: One quick for-the-record note - I don't mind pigeons as such, but they are VERY messy and bossy diners, is all. If they played nicely with the cardinals and didn't spill food on the ground for the rats I'd have no problem with them.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:09 AM on July 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

Many many years ago in my family's mountain house in western NC we had a bird feeder where the perch was on some sort of spring mechanism so that when a heavier bird landed on it, the perch would sink down and lower a barrier that prevented access to the birdfeed. A bear ended up tearing it to smithereens, but I'm guessing that wouldn't be an issue for you. :-)
posted by slkinsey at 7:40 AM on July 13, 2022

One more thought on your pigeon situation. I concur that pigeons are extremely bossy and often jerky diners, but I have never seen them leave a single morsel uneaten (except raisins, which they reject heartily). So, if part of the problem is them spilling food, I bet they could also be the solution if you drew their attention to the spilled food. Like, if you have a pigeon at the feeder and they spilled food, maybe toss a few peanuts or sunflower seeds down onto the ground so they can discover the abundance of snacks down there. They're pretty fast learners (about food sources, anyway) and follow each other, so soon you'll have a set of ground cleaning pigeons ready to help with all the spilled birdseed.
posted by snaw at 3:06 PM on July 13, 2022

Pigeons discovered my big tube feeder and won't leave it alone, so I don't know if keeping just the tube would even help. (I tried to have a positive attitude towards the pigeons, but their shit is vastly larger and more messy than all the other birds.)

I hope you get some good suggestions. I miss my little birdie friends.
posted by Mavri at 6:01 PM on July 13, 2022

i love my acrylic window feeder, and I too hate pigeons. I was looking for solutions and they make birdfeeders with grids that keep the bigger birds out - but I've never seen one on the acrylic type. So I took-- I think it was originally a plastic liner for a sink, with square openings about 2 x 2. I attached that on the front and sides of my feeder, with one that opens so I can get in there to fill it. It keeps the bigger birds out and lets the cardinals in - I even have a woodpecker who hangs on teh edge and sticks his head in to nosh a bit. I have one that a squirrel keeps getting into and I think i am going to use hardware cloth, I'll just have to use a wire cutter and make the openings to about 2 x 2. if you look for squirrel proof bird feeders you'll see a bunch with metal grid coverings, maybe that'll give you some ideas.
posted by lemniskate at 6:25 PM on July 13, 2022

Response by poster: Lemniskate, is there any way you could post a picture of what you're describing? I'm not quite sure I get it, and it sounds like if I did it might work.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:05 PM on July 13, 2022

I use this type of design to keep squirrels out, seems like it would work for pigeons? Mine is wider and rounder too so it’s a bit prettier. It lets nuthatches in which I think are about the size of cardinals…
posted by tardigrade at 9:57 PM on July 14, 2022

EmpressCallipygos I mefi-mailed you :)
posted by lemniskate at 11:15 AM on July 24, 2022

Response by poster: Coming back in to add that I've unfortunately had to table this feeder altogether for a while - I've spotted some rats back there as well, and I've alerted the landlord and am waiting for those critters to be taken care of before putting that feeder back in action again. I'm sticking to the one tube feeder since it's a bit neater (and the pigeons will also hover around and clean up anything from the ground that does spill).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:00 PM on July 24, 2022