Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder

Ever since purchasing my first tube bird feeder I've found myself constantly at war with squirrels. I've tried various strategies; baffles, elaborate ways of hanging feeders from trees, separate squirrel feeders, dousing the bird seed with a hot pepper wash, etc.. all of which proved to be ineffective. I love nature, however it got to a point where 14 squirrels were ravaging the bird seed a day, and I stopped feeding the birds. I thought my bird feeding days were over, however after some much needed additional research I was able to design / build a very affordable squirrel proof bird feeder that really works! I have been so pleased with the design that I now have 3 such feeders in my yard, and built a 4th for my brother in order to put together this instructable. There are some guidelines below that need to be followed to ensure that squirrels cannot gain access, though they are fairly obvious as this feeder has a lower bottom side baffle.

Feeder Guidelines:

a. Feeder should be placed 10 feet away from any trees, overhanging branches, roofs, etc... anything that a squirrel could use to jump down onto the feeder. As you can see from the photo, one of my feeders is fairly close to the tree line ( ~10ft ) so it shouldn't be impossible to find a good spot for this feeder in your own yard.

b. Feeder should be 5ft off the ground, though the first feeder I setup was around 4 1/2 feet. The pole used in this instructable is 6ft tall so you should be good to go. You simply want to ensure that the squirrel will not be able to jump from the ground to the tray directly. The lower baffle has a large enough diameter that the squirrel will not be able to climb it.


How this squirrel proof feeder works:

Since the feeder should be placed 10ft away from trees, roofs and overhanging branches, and has it's tray roughly 5ft off the ground, squirrels should only have one route to get to the feeder's tray; up the pole. The baffle under the tray will be 2 feet tall and have a diameter of 6 inches. I have found ( through trial and research ) that a squirrel cannot climb up a pipe of this size diameter. Also the baffle is open at the bottom allowing squirrels to climb up into the baffle into a dark chamber where they are confused as to where to go and inevitably return back down the pole.

I cannot guarantee 100% that this squirrel feeder will work for you, however prior to using these types of feeders my yard was infested with squirrels. Now that I am using these style feeders I at most see 2-3 squirrels in the yard at a time, and have noticed that unlike other setups I have tried they lose interest in trying to get to the seed rather quickly.

Accompanying Video:

I have created a video to go along with this instructable that can be found at the below url:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qdm747cols
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxdxdck4Syo

Step 1: Tools & Supplies

Parts Needed:
a. 6 inch diameter stove pipe cap ( fits on outside of stove pipe )
b. 6 inch diameter, 2 foot long stove pipe
c. 2x4, ~12 inches long ( use scraps if you have them lying around )
d. 3/4 inch, 6 foot long copper pipe
e. 16 inch diameter plant pot base ( can use other size )
f.  8 - 2 1/2 inch #8 deck screws
g. 4 - 1 inch #8 screws

Tools Needed:
a. miter saw w/ miter box ( can do without box )
b. power drill
c. 7/8 inch spade drill bit
d. 3/16 inch drill bit
e. center punch
f.  hammer
g. work gloves
h. tape measure

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The tools and parts should be fairly straight forward. The work gloves are recommended when putting the stove pipe together as the seam is fairly sharp and can cut your hands ( it happened to me ).

Comments

[pnadal]

I also had given up on inviting birds to my yard/deck because of the squirrels. I recently found one of those squirrel proof houses, where the weight of the squirrel, closes the opening. It does work pretty well, but still has to be hung from a shepherds hook. I saw your design and it looks great. I have 1 spot I think, that is far enough from the trees, fence etc, so I plan on trying your design. Thank you for all the effort you put into this and still sharing it with others.

[solarmew]

sweet :] ... i was thinking more of a pole with a feeder dish on top (like yours) and a simple metal disk somewhere half way up the pole with diameter big enough so that the squirrel can't reach the edge of it when climbing the pole ... pretty much no way to climb past that unless it's a gecko squirrel :D

[Morgan_Demers]

thanks for the comment. I have tried making my own baffles from a piece of sheet metal cut into a disk. I cut a triangle out of one area and connected along the seam making a funnel. You can attach something like this to the poll with a split set screw collar ( found at any hardware store ). I'd recommend mounting one on top and bottom to keep the funnel from flopping around when the squirrel jumps on it, or pushes up under it. My main issue was my funnel did not have a large enough diameter to keep the squirrels from inevitably jumping up and onto the edge of it. Even the cone baffles I see for sale don't seem to be wide enough to keep all crafty squirrels out. The nice thing about this feeder is the baffle itself is 6 inches in diameter and 2 feet long, it is too wide for the squirrel to wrap it's arms around and climb up, and should be too tall for them to jump onto the tray - with the disk style if they can jump over the disk you are out of luck.

anyways, good idea - let me know how it works out if you try and make your version.

Cheers,
Morgan