Problem Solving
Keeping Starlings Off Feeders
Starlings will not feed hanging upside down. Almost every effective defense at a feeder is built on that single behavioral gap.
The short answer
- An upside-down suet feeder is the single most effective starling measure. Starlings will not hang inverted to feed; woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees do it without hesitation.
- A cage with a 1.5 inch (4 cm) grid excludes starlings and grackles from seed feeders while letting chickadees, finches and titmice through.
- Starlings reject safflower, so switching a hopper or tube to safflower removes them from it without removing cardinals, finches or titmice.
- European starlings are an introduced species and are not protected by the US Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Provincial rules in Canada and state or city ordinances can still apply, so check locally.
- A flock that has found suet will keep coming for as long as the suet is there. Taking every open feeder down for one to two weeks breaks the habit.
Starlings will not feed hanging upside down. That one fact is worth more than every other starling deterrent combined, because suet is what most starling flocks are really after, and an upside-down suet feeder takes it off the table entirely while woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees carry on eating.
The rest is seed choice and geometry. European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) reject safflower, cannot get through a 1.5 inch (4 cm) cage grid, and are clumsy on short perches with nothing to stand on. Give them no flat surface, no suet cage they can perch on, and no soft food, and a flock moves elsewhere within a week or two.
This page covers how to tell starlings from the native blackbirds you must not exclude by force, how inverted suet feeders work, the cage and perch dimensions that matter, where starlings sit legally, and the shutdown that breaks a flock's habit.
Confirm it is starlings#
Starlings get confused with grackles and blackbirds constantly, and the distinction matters legally: grackles, red-winged blackbirds and cowbirds are native and federally protected, while starlings are not.
| Field mark | European starling | Common grackle |
|---|---|---|
| Size | About 8.5 in (22 cm), stocky | About 12.5 in (32 cm), long |
| Tail | Short and square | Long, often held in a keel shape |
| Bill | Straight and pointed, yellow in spring, dark in fall | Heavy, all dark |
| Plumage | Black with green and purple gloss, heavily white-spotted in winter | Glossy bronze or purple, no spots |
| Eye | Dark | Pale yellow |
| Walk | Hurried waddle, probing the turf | Long confident stride |
| Legal status | Introduced, not protected by the MBTA | Native, federally protected |
If the birds are long-tailed with pale eyes, you are looking at grackles and the approach is different in one important respect: everything must be exclusion. That is covered in grackles and blackbirds taking over. More identification detail is in the European starling profile.
Upside-down suet: the measure that works#
An upside-down suet feeder holds the cake under a solid wooden or metal roof, with the mesh facing down. A bird has to cling to the underside and feed inverted.
Woodpeckers do this without difficulty. Downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, chickadees and titmice all cling and hang as part of normal foraging. Starlings do not. They are ground-probing birds with feet built for walking, and while a determined individual may flutter at the mesh, they do not sustain inverted feeding.
Points that decide whether it works:
- No perch, ledge or lip anywhere on the feeder. A tail-prop ledge is enough for a starling to work from.
- The roof needs to overhang the cake so the cake cannot be reached from the side.
- Hang it clear. A feeder against a trunk or fence gives a starling something to brace on.
- Expect a few days of noise while the flock tests it and gives up.
Regular cage suet feeders, including the tail-prop style, are wide open to starlings. Details on the formats and how they compare are in suet feeders, and if you are choosing a cake, the suet guide covers which types hold up in heat.
One change removes most of the problem
If you do nothing else on this page, replace every open suet cage with an upside-down suet feeder. In most yards that alone takes the flock from a daily fixture to an occasional flyover, because suet is the high-value food that keeps starlings coming back.
Cage grids and perch dimensions#
For seed, the tool is a cage. A wire grid of roughly 1.5 inches (4 cm) admits chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, finches, goldfinches and downy woodpeckers, and stops starlings, grackles and squirrels. It also excludes cardinals, jays and doves, which is the trade you are making. The formats available are compared in caged and selective feeders.
Two smaller design choices help:
- Perches under about 3/4 inch (2 cm). Short perches suit small songbird feet and give a starling nothing to settle on.
- No seed tray. A tray under a tube converts it into a platform, which is a starling's preferred setup. Removing it costs you cardinals and juncos, so if you want those birds, feed them separately on the ground at a time when the flock is not around.
Open platform and tray feeders are effectively starling feeders during a flock invasion. Take them in for the duration rather than fighting them.
Foods to cut and foods to keep#
| Food | Starlings take it | Keep offering it? |
|---|---|---|
| Suet in an open cage | Heavily | Only in an upside-down feeder |
| Sunflower hearts and chips | Heavily | Not during a flock invasion |
| Cracked corn, milo, wheat, bread | Heavily | No |
| Peanuts, especially shelled | Heavily | Only in a mesh peanut feeder or a cage |
| Mealworms | Heavily | Offer in a covered or caged dish, timed |
| Fruit and jelly | Heavily | Limit portions, take in at midday |
| Safflower | Almost never | Yes |
| Nyjer | Almost never | Yes |
| Whole sunflower in the shell | Poorly | Yes |
Safflower seed is the useful swap. Starlings, grackles and most squirrels reject it, and cardinals, house finches, chickadees and titmice eat it happily. Switch over about two weeks by mixing it into your usual sunflower, because birds are slow to try unfamiliar seed.
If you offer mealworms for bluebirds, a starling flock will empty the dish in minutes. Put out a measured portion early in the morning and take the dish in once the bluebirds have fed.
Where starlings stand legally#
European starlings were introduced to North America in the 1890s and are not protected by the US Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which covers native species. The same is true of house sparrows, and the parallel case is covered in controlling house sparrows.
Federal status is not the whole law
State, provincial and city rules on nuisance wildlife, trapping and discharging anything still apply, and they vary widely. In Canada, starlings are outside the Migratory Birds Convention Act but provincial wildlife legislation regulates non-native birds in some contexts. Check your own jurisdiction. This page stays with exclusion and nest box management; lethal control is a decision for you to research, and not something this site coaches.
The flock problem and the one to two week shutdown#
A pair of starlings is a mild nuisance. Thirty are a different animal, and they arrive in fall and winter when starlings form roaming flocks that move as a unit. One scout finds your suet and the group is there the next morning.
Habit is what keeps them. The fix is to make the yard unrewarding long enough for the flock to write it off:
- Take down all suet, peanut, platform and hulled-seed feeders.
- Leave up only safflower in a tube, nyjer, and caged feeders.
- Sweep the spill under the feeders so nothing is left on the ground.
- Hold that for one to two weeks.
- Bring suet back in an upside-down feeder only, and peanuts back in a caged or mesh feeder only.
Chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers will still be around because you left them food they can reach and starlings cannot. The birds that vanish for the fortnight, cardinals and jays mostly, come back within days. If you are nervous about the interruption, do birds become dependent on feeders is the honest answer: they are not, and a two week gap costs them nothing.
Nest boxes and cavities#
Starlings are aggressive cavity nesters that evict native birds and take over woodpecker holes, including those of northern flickers. Hole size does the work: an entrance of 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) or smaller excludes starlings, which conveniently covers bluebird, chickadee, titmouse, nuthatch and wren boxes. Nothing sized for a flicker can be starling-proofed by hole diameter, so those boxes need monitoring instead. Sizing by species is in nest boxes: sizing and siting.
Around the house, starlings nest in dryer vents, soffit gaps, attic louvers and chimney surrounds. Screening those in fall, before nesting starts and while nothing is inside, prevents next spring's problem more cheaply than anything at the feeder.
Check before you seal
Never screen a cavity in spring or early summer without looking and listening first. Sealing a nest with young inside kills them, and if the cavity has been taken over by a native species, closing it is both cruel and illegal.
What does not work#
Plastic owls, hawk kites, reflective tape and spinners. Starlings habituate to a stationary object in days. Anything that works at all works for a week.
Ultrasonic repellents. No reliable evidence of effect on birds in a backyard setting.
Distraction feeding. Putting cheap corn at the far end of the yard raises the number of starlings that treat your property as a food source. It does not protect the suet.
Waiting them out with the feeders full. A flock does not leave a working food supply. The food has to stop being available.
A setup that survives a starling flock#
- Suet only in an upside-down feeder with no ledge, hung clear of trunks and fences.
- Seed in tube feeders with perches under 3/4 inch (2 cm) and no trays, or in caged feeders with a 1.5 inch (4 cm) grid.
- Safflower in at least one feeder, and nyjer for the finches.
- Peanuts in a mesh tube, not loose in a dish.
- No platform feeder from November through March in flock country.
- The ground below swept weekly, which also helps with seed mess and dead grass.
Two weeks is the honest timeline. Starlings test a changed setup persistently for the first few days, and people usually give up one day before the flock does.
Frequently asked questions#
Do upside-down suet feeders really keep starlings out?
Yes, and it is the most reliable starling fix at a feeder. The suet cake sits under a solid roof and is reachable only from below, so a bird has to hang upside down to eat. Starlings are not built for sustained inverted clinging and will not do it, while downy, hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees feed that way routinely. Expect a few days of starlings hovering and giving up.
What seed do starlings not eat?
Starlings largely reject safflower and nyjer, and they are poor at cracking whole sunflower in the shell or striped sunflower. What they want is suet, sunflower hearts, cracked corn, peanuts, mealworms, fruit, jelly and bread. Cutting the hulled and soft foods removes most of the attraction.
Are European starlings protected in the US?
No. European starlings were introduced in the 1890s and are not covered by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which protects native birds. State, provincial and municipal rules can still apply, and in Canada the picture is more complicated because provincial wildlife legislation regulates non-native birds in some contexts. This site covers exclusion and nest box management rather than lethal control.
How do I keep starlings off a platform or hopper feeder?
You mostly cannot, because an open flat surface is exactly what a starling wants. Either take the platform down while the flock is around, fit a cage with a 1.5 inch (4 cm) grid over it, or fill it with safflower only. Tube feeders with short perches and no tray are a better long-term answer.
Will starlings take my bluebird or woodpecker nest box?
Yes. Starlings are aggressive cavity nesters that evict native birds, including bluebirds, flickers and other woodpeckers. An entrance hole of 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) or smaller excludes them, which covers bluebird, chickadee, titmouse and wren boxes. Larger flicker-sized boxes cannot be starling-proofed by hole size alone.
Why are there suddenly 40 starlings in my yard?
Starlings form large mobile flocks outside the breeding season, mainly in fall and winter, and they move as a unit between food sources. One bird finding your suet brings the whole group within a day or two. Removing the open food for one to two weeks usually sends them on.