An unwittingly perfect short story posted to a bird-related forum over the course of a week and discovered by a St. Drogo intern while in a sunstroke-induced haze, “Blackmailed by Grackles” is officially dedicated to Spurl readers Ashley and Gilda.
July 25, 2007
Hi, I am wondering if anyone has advice for me.
We recently started feeding the birds in our back yard, with a number of tube feeders from Wild Birds Unlimited. They seemed to be working well, a little too well in fact... now we are overrun with grackles, starlings, pigeons and sparrows. To cut a long story short, I noticed today that one or more of the grackles is actively attacking sparrows, killing them and proceeding to eat them. This happened three times so far today. I had earlier found a dead sparrow in the yard, but I put it down to nature at work.
Now to be clear, I know all about the arguments for letting nature run its course, but I truthfully just feel bad about this. I don’t particularly have anything against any of these birds on an individual level, but right now the grackles are just ruining it for everybody else. They are so hyper-aggressive... I was able to live with that, but now they have actually started killing my other “customers,” and my wife is quite distraught about it. I don’t know if it makes any sense, but we wouldn’t have such a problem if it was a hawk of some kind coming occasionally and grabbing a bird. It’s just that this is the last straw—these grackles already totally dominated my yard, and now they’re killing too. They aren’t even supposed to do that, I called the store and she told me she had been doing this for 30 years and never heard of a grackle killing a sparrow. Now I’ve seen it three times in one day, so obviously someone figured it out and others are maybe copying.
At any rate... I don’t feel good any more about this entire situation. I don't really want lectures on nature, please, this is just a simple request for help in fixing what is quite a distressing situation. Does anyone who feeds birds want to see this kind of thing on a regular basis? That’s not what we signed up for.
We got a couple of the cages that go around the tube feeders (again from WBU) and it was actually from inside one of these that the grackle grabbed the sparrow, dragged it out, carried it down to the ground, and proceeded to peck it to death.
I tried taking the cages away, thinking that perhaps this was just the grackle taking out its frustration and rage at not being able to get to the food, but very soon after I took the cages away, I observed a grackle (same one? no idea) doing it again, grabbing a sparrow sitting on top of the pole and going for its head. I banged on the window, which broke it up, and the sparrow got away.
Any ideas? Feeding the birds wasn’t supposed to be like this...
p.s. I also have a “Squirrel Buster” feeder that we just got today. The grackles solved that one quickly... if I adjust the spring tension so that cardinals can use it, then this is apparently enough for the grackle to be able to insert its beak into the crack and lever it up so it can get into the food. So it just keeps doing that.
p.p.s. We are feeding millet and no-mess blend in the two main tube feeders, and safflower/sunflower in the Squirrel Buster, along with a couple of open trays, one with striped sunflower and the other with safflower only. The grackles seem to like whatever we put out, safflower included, whatever, they eat it. And they have no problem hanging onto the perches on the tube feeders.
July 26, 2007
We went to PetSmart this evening and purchased a 48" dog crate, which happens to have wire mesh that is about 3.5 cm apart, exactly the same as the tube feeder cages from WBU. So that should be just wide enough for sparrow-type birds, but hopefully not wide enough for grackles. I put it up around the pole feeder we already had, resting on the ground, then hung two of the tube feeders inside the cage, away from the walls. So any birds on the feeders at least should be out of reach of the grackles on the outside. Yet to be determined: a) Whether grackles can figure out a way in, b) whether the squirrel will find a way to destroy it, and c) whether grackles will continue to target sparrows hanging around the periphery of the setup. I’ll post a picture of the thing as soon as I can, if it works...
We also moved the open trays (with striped sunflower and safflower) further away from the cage, hopefully to take some pressure off that small area. We also hung the Squirrel Buster, thistle seed feeder and a cage sunflower seed feeder on the three hooks on the main pole.
To placate the squirrels, who have now lost the two trays that were previously accessible to them, I’ll go get one of those squirrel feeders with the lid that opens (I think Wal-Mart has them, but haven’t found them anywhere else unfortunately). Thus, with a lid, this should keep the squirrel happy without having the birds steal it all before the tree rats get their chance...
Boy, I never thought bird feeding would feel like planning a military campaign... complete with casualties. Sigh.
July 27, 2007
Here’s a couple of pics of the new setup, with the dog crate. The wires are about 3.5 cm apart, which is just right for letting sparrow-sized-objects through but won’t permit access to grackle-sized-objects. Cowbirds and smaller grackles can get in, but they don't seem to cause a problem, maybe they are younger or whatever but I’ve been watching for a while and for whatever reason, the smaller grackle-like birds that can get in seem remarkably non-aggressive.
Currently I am thinking that a combined approach seems to work:
1. Protected sparrow area, à la dog cage with appropriate spacing for bars.
2. Separating feeders to different parts of the yard; not so much frenzy in one place.
3. Sacrificial feed (cracked corn, safflower and sunflower bought in bulk) on the ground in other parts of the yard to distract the grackles, pigeons and starlings.
This takes pressure off the sparrow area, which formerly had everything in close proximity (I have a pole with three hooks on the top, plus another three that could be hung off the body of the pole—too much in a small area, I think). I now have just the two feeders in the dog crate for the sparrows (with millet and no-mess), hanging from the detachable hangers on the pole itself rather than from the roof of the cage (which isn’t strong). The Squirrel Buster hangs by itself above all this, with safflower/black sunflower. One grackle at a time can use this, but it doesn't seem to be a problem. The cardinals like it early morning and late evening.
Then in other parts of the yard, we have the thistle feeder hanging on the tree, about ten feet away from the pole; a cage sunflower feeder on tree; three squirrel feeders on the tree (one with two corn spikes and two containers with the lid they push up to get in—this protects it from the birds, who otherwise always get to the nuts before the squirrels can). In these squirrel feeders I am thinking that the whole peanuts in the shell are good, since they seem to be a favorite (preferred to corn, it seems) and it’s easier for them to reach in and grab’n’go.
There are three bird baths scattered around the yard, which are refilled at regular intervals because so many birds (particularly grackles and starlings) seem to love bathing and emptying them out. That’s fun to watch.
The two hanging trays have been moved out from next to the tree to farther out, hanging from long string on a branch. The larger tray has striped sunflower, which the blue jay, pigeons and grackles seem to like, and the smaller tray has safflower, which the mourning doves seem to love, and of course the cardinals.
Finally, I sprinkle liberal quantities of cracked corn on the ground in an area far away from the sparrows, which keeps the grackles and pigeons busy far after there's none left (they seem happy rooting around). Safflower also seems to work well here.
The one mistake I made was that we got a bag of Purina Pigeon Checkers, which looked good in the store, but it turns out nobody will touch it at all—not even the pigeons (I know, rock doves really). Strange though, I thought at least they would eat just about anything, or the starlings. Nope. So I chucked that.
The best selection for bulk for my birds seems to be: Cracked corn (sacrificial ground offering), safflower (ditto, and on the small tray, and in the Squirrel Buster), black striped sunflower (everybody loves that), striped sunflower (large tray, ditto), and finally a 50lb bag of peanuts in the shell that should keep the squirrels busy for a while. They will be heartily sick of peanuts by the time we leave here, methinks. And, of course, millet and no-mess blend for the sparrow feeders.
Since we spread things out, I haven’t seen any more aggressive behavior on the part of the grackles. Fingers crossed. I think the spreading out, combined with the bigger space available inside the dog crate will give the sparrows more chance to get away should some grackle decide to go mean again. But I’ll try to keep enough sacrificial feed out elsewhere to keep everybody distracted... we’re a full service station, indeed.
July 28, 2007
I’ve been trying to pin down what it was that disturbed me so much about the grackle attack, given that I really have no such problem with a hawk plying its trade in my yard. I think it comes down to the fact that the grackle is usually a member of the backyard community, eating alongside everybody else, shoulder to shoulder. There is surely an element of trust there (I know I’m anthropomorphising, but bear with me). Sparrows know to run from hawks, but grackles are trusted, because they are (usually) “just one of the usual gang.” So this incident just struck me as kind of a treacherous betrayal, a mugging by someone that you hang out with on a regular basis. I mean, all the birds just sit out there and do this all day. Then this grackle turns around and kills one of his neighbors... just seems wrong to me. With the hawk, there is no pretense, it comes in and everybody knows what’s going on. That poor sparrow thought it was among friends.
Ok, now I’m psychoanalysing sparrows and it’s time to sign off.
August 2, 2007
Sadly, it appears the grackles are still at it. Today I tried cutting back a bit on the food around the yard, since it gets kind of expensive when they empty everything out so quickly. Later in the day, I found another dead sparrow underneath the hanging Squirrel Buster, which both grackles and sparrows frequent (currently has safflower seeds). The sparrow’s head was bashed in, which matches the modus operandi of the previous grackle attack. So what seems to be going on is that I am being blackmailed by grackles—if I don’t keep putting out plenty of food for the hoards, then they start killing sparrows. Nice.
People talk about replacing seed with safflower, but it seems that whatever you put out, the grackles love it. About the only thing that nobody seems too excited about is whole corn, I guess because it’s just too big. But anything else gets swamped with grackles, pigeons and starlings. It’s kind of depressing, and really makes you think about the whole concept of feeding the birds, to be honest. It’s not the idyllic scene that we were somehow expecting, of a few cute little critters flitting to our feeder occasionally. It’s a fricking mob scene out there, complete with murders. I don’t know what to do now, I can’t afford to keep buying 50lb bags of cracked corn, safflower, millet and sunflower seeds on a regular basis. Plus the backyard is starting to smell a little like a big bird cage, I think from the sheer number of customers and the fact that rain has been rare. But it would seem a little heartless to just cut everybody off, there are about a hundred or so young sparrows who seem to be being raised in our yard... plus young grackles, and young starlings...
sigh
August 3, 2007
I’m afraid I’ve admitted defeat for now, after finding yet another freshly killed sparrow next to the dog cage today. Apparently the grackles will kill whenever there is not abundant food, so they feel pressured (I guess) and get more aggressive. Even though the larger grackles cannot get into the cage, they still walk around on top of it, and I’ve seen them peck at any sparrows in their way. I guess that’s how the incidents get started—a sparrow gets in the way, or perhaps it’s just sheer frustration and rage. Grackles are extremely intelligent, so I wouldn’t put higher emotions past them.
I took down all the other feeders, to try to get rid of the grackle population and pigeons who have started hanging around all the time. I’ve left the bird baths out, since water would seem to be in short supply this time of year, and I don’t think it causes the same kind of frenzy that food does.
But then I saw that there were literally around 100 or more sparrows in and on top of the cage, completely covering it. That is just too much. I took down all the feeders, including the ones in the cage, even the thistle feeder. I’m going to try to let things cool down for a while before (slowly) re-introducing food into the garden. I will probably not put food on the ground again—it just attracts the grackles, pigeons and starlings, who then proceed to harass any other feeders in the area if you don’t keep their food plentiful. That gets very expensive very quickly, and the yard starts to look like a huge bird cage, quite unpleasant and smelly too. So screw this. I think I need to rethink this whole concept.
Courtesy of BirdForum