Squirrel proof bird feeders

Tuesday, 10th March 2015

“Is there such a beast as a squirrel proof bird feeder?” Read this blog to find out...

Bird feeder manufacturers are very careful when it comes to making claims about squirrel proof bird feeders, and I understand why that’s the case as I don’t really know what squirrel proof means, do you? Are you looking for a squirrel resistant bird feeder? "What's the difference?" you might ask. Well...

...an analogy might help answer this question: If I purchase a “waterproof” watch I expect the inner workings to remain dry when the outer case gets wet. Waterproof, however, doesn’t mean that water evaporates on contact with the watch – in other words, I expect the outer casing of the watch to get wet, but this isn’t really much of an issue to me because water, unlike a grey squirrel, in this situation, is quite harmless. A water-resistant watch on the other hand just seems to be able to deal with the occasional splash of water, it wouldn’t survive a good dunking!

Confused?

Perhaps you see what I mean when I say that I don’t really know what squirrel proof means?

So what “might” a squirrel proof bird feeder do? A squirrel proof bird feeder would have to be a feeder that squirrels couldn’t gnaw and harm and that is highly unlikely to ever exist. Even the very best waterproof watches get wet, don’t they?

On the other hand, I know exactly what a squirrel resistant bird feeder is: this feeder should keep grey squirrels at bay and off the bird food. They should do no harm to the squirrel and they shouldn’t be over-engineered as that puts the birds off feeding and that, as they say, would be an own goal.

I don’t mind my squirrel resistant bird feeders getting battered and gnawed by grey squirrels as they can’t get to the bird food that’s inside them, and that’s all the resistance a good bird feeder needs to see off even the most persistent of squirrels.