For many years, I’ve used the “tube-type” feeders and though I liked them, I found they were somewhat of a pain to fill. There was always a lot of spilled seed, and removing the top was a multi-step process.

On this feeder, the roof is hinged and remains upright without having to hold it while it’s being filled. Filling it requires no finesse –Open the top, dump in a car-wash-bucket-full of seed, close the top and you’re done.

The squirrel-thing. Despite my initial disappointment (noted in the original review, below), it does appear that having increased the sensitivity on the perch has COMPLETELY discouraged the squirrels from attempting to get any bird seed. It took about two weeks from them to give up on the idea that they could get in –now they hang out on the ground waiting for sloppy birds to spray seed on them. (Which is fine by me, and will likely cut down on the amount of sprouting seedlings!)

All in all… a great feeder, and despite my initial doubts, I’ve come to like it quite a bit.

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HERE IS THE ORIGINAL REVIEW….

The good:

– Fairly well constructed, with a big exception noted below, under “the bad” things about this feeder.

– The hanger is well designed, and while I was concerned that it would quickly tilt, the three points of attachment (on each side) of the feeder keep it perfectly level.

– The “squirrel bar” (that drops a barrier in front of the feeding holes) is adjustable. It can be shifted so that very little weight causes the bar to drop –helpful, as if in my case, the squirrels have figured out how to “straddle” the bar and the feeder so as to put as little weight as possible on the bar. Yes, apparently I have very smart squirrels!

The BAD –

– For the first several weeks, I had the feeder mounted on a pole. While my pole was perfectly vertical, the feeder seemed to be tilting further and further back every single day, to the point that I thought it would snap off the pole and fall to the ground. It turns out that the pole adapter (which is a metal plate that attaches to the bottom) is made of rather THIN METAL that quickly deformed and caused the feeder to tilt. (For the record, the mounting pole itself remained vertical the whole time.)

– The “squirrel-proof” feature works in theory (and perhaps for “developmentally challenged” squirrels), but for my Mensa-level squirrels, they figured out how to put most of their weight on the feeder so as to prevent the bar from dropping down. (I’VE POSTED A PHOTO OF ONE OF THESE EINSTEIN/HAWKING SQUIRRELS IN THE PRODUCT PHOTOS, ABOVE.) I have since adjusted the bar to make it more weight sensitive, and it SEEMS to be working, but I suspect my squirrels are drawing up plans to overcome this new obstacle even as this is written!

- Jonathan Sabin
Rating: 3 / 5