Darn crows!

We like birds in our garden and have seed containers and fat balls hung up, but the crows come and demolish the lot in a morning. Is there anyway you can stop the crows getting at the fat balls and the seed without scaring off the other birds?
A cat does not work as our current one shows them where to get the food. Thought of a silhouette of a predator bird but that woudl keep them all away and the crows soon wise up.
Don't want to shoot the crows, but it is getting close to that now! Wev live in a rural area. Help and advice appreciated.

 

Its a bit like how do you feed the hedgehog and not the rat.

They are all just trying to survive and doing what comes natural.

But I'm sure someone has a few ideas.

 

Hi Surfer. If you use the kind of bird feeder which is in a kind of cage that only the little birds can get into the crows will loose interest as there is nothing for them to get.
We had a similar problem with jackdaws but they can't reach the food in the "cage" feeders we have now so they don't bother to visit.

 

Just an aside. If you're getting a crowd of them Surfer, they're more likely to be rooks as although they look similar, crows tend to be solitary. they could be Jackdaws but they are smaller and have distinctive grey faces.

We put out bread in the top of our table which the rooks and Jacks demolish with relish but they never seem to bother with the feeders below. Had a Greater Spotted Woodpecker on the peanuts this morning which makes it something of a red letter day!

Chris

 

These are crows. There are two or three of them and I am sure that they are the same ones. The fat balls hang in the tree and one will lift up the fat ball so the other can peck at it and then the other does the same and they all take turns. We will stop putting out the nuts and stick with the wild bird feed for awhile to see what happens.

 

Check again thsi morning and they are rooks. Grey head etc. We will try putting the bread etc outside in the field and see if that helps. What sort fo feeders do you use for your fat balls? Do you have a link or a picture to give us some idea as the fat balls attract the finches? Thanks.