In the summer, I like to keep the grackles and starlings away from the little birds like finches, sparrows and chickadees that like to feed from the tube feeders. Even though woodpeckers are too big to get through the openings, they will like to cling to the cage, stick their head into the opening and use their long tongue to get some seeds.
Unfortunately, the cage deters the colorful cardinals and blue jays because they don’t fit through the openings. We fixed this issue by removing the cage when we are sitting outside. It is easy to slide the upper have off the base. Also, I feed the cardinal safflower seeds in the clear dome feeder which seems to keep them happy.
While this cage does the trick in the spring and summer, I can remove it in the fall and winter when the starlings are living in the south. While the grackles and blue jays don’t migrate, there are usually way less of them as compared to the starlings.
