I’m new to this bird feeding business. I bought my first bird feeder about two months ago. I hung up one, then three, then five, then cut back to two and am back up to five feeders.

I never knew birds were so mean to each other. Those White-winged doves? Aggressive when it comes to food. They even scare off the grackles sometimes. That surprised me. The doves were preventing any of the smaller (and sometimes larger) birds from feeding. What to do, I wondered?

Easy access

Then I found this feeder, with cylindrical areas internal to the feeder. Ah, I thought, this will let the small song birds feed without interference from the doves or the Red-winged Blackbirds.

In theory, yes. In reality, no.

Doves guarding the feeder

The doves will take over any feeder I put up, including this one. Fine. I started leaving bird seed out in the open for the doves, on the picnic table. This seems to work somewhat, as they leave the hanging bird feeders alone for a short while, giving the small birds a chance to feed. Diversionary bird feeding. Who knew?

Landing attempt

When the doves try to land on the feeder, they cause some of the seeds to fall and scatter on the ground. I don’t know if they are doing this on purpose (the scattering), but they sure do take advantage of the results.

Reaping the rewards