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(More customer reviews)FYI; I have reviewed & purchased other Bird's Choice feeders (you can read them here on Amazon). I have bought many different kids of feeders from many companies, and I always go back to the Bird's Choice feeders. They are more expensive and well worth it.
I have three of their stainless-steel tube feeders: The shelled peanut & nugget feeder [green enamel], the peanut in-the-shell feeder [red enamel] and this one, the Nyjer feeder [yellow enamel].
These three feeders are very similar in construction and I have had success with all of them. They are strong, simple to use, easy to clean, and you get the birds you want with them. The design of the tubes keeps the feed much dryer & circulating than any other tubes I have used, even after rain storms.
I get woodpeckers, blue jays, nuthatch, sparrows (of course) red-winged black birds, titmouse and chickadees on the whole and the shelled peanut feeders. I get grackles and starlings on them too, but since these undesirable birds are mostly opportunists, they get tired of having to peck out their food and leave quickly.
I get sparrows and finches on the Nyjer feeder. By the way, do not bemoan sparrows eating your feed. They are not nearly as irritating like the grackles and starlings, it is challenging to try and tell the many varieties of them apart, and the flurry of activity they provide around the feeders will attract the ones you want to see.
I do not use the trays (a separate purchase usually), obviously because of the squirrels (those pretty little rats are SMART), but also because it invites the non-clingers that devour obnoxiously - like Mourning Doves, Grackles and Starlings. Mourning Doves are not afraid of high feeders, as long as they have room to purchase they will sit and eat like it's a Roman trough on a Friday night.
I have modified all three of these tubes the same way, with simple things to stop the squirrels from getting in, and it has worked beautifully:
I use electrical tape on the bottom, wrapped tight to secure the point where the bottom attaches to the tube. I started doing this because I witnessed a squirrel as he or she clung to the body of the tube, popped off the metal clip holding the bottom in place, and then pushed the bottom off with his back legs. The seed spilled out to the ground en masse. To top it off, it was the nyjer seed, so after dumping all of it, he then proceeded to not even eat it. The pretty little RAT.
This is not a negative comment to Bird's Choice at all. Squirrels are smart, innovative and way stronger than most people realize. You have to be willing to experiment to out-do them. In the end, it can be very entertaining when you best them.
I go right over the metal clip holding the bottom to the tube together with the electrical tape, winding it about 5 times to cover about an inch where the two parts meet. I change it every time I clean it, and the squirrel can't seem to defeat it.
The other modification is to the tops, where I use stainless steel beaded chains - light pulls I think they are called? - that I weave through the holes in the tubes and around the top hanger to secure it. They have just enough slack that I can get them undone when I re-fill, but not enough slack that the rats with pretty tails cannot get the lid off to feed, or even to stick an arm in. Poor babies.
These are cheap modifications that hold up in the elements, and they work.
In all, I love these tube feeders and I highly recommend all three of them.
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