Squirrel Buster Plus

Guaranteed Squirrel and Large Bird Proof
Effective against Red and Gray Squirrels, as well as Grackles, Starlings, Doves, etc.

Dishwasher Safe Design
Easily cleans to maintain a safe and healthy feeder

Built-to-Last Construction
UV-stabilized ABS and polycarbonate resins, rust-proof / powder-coated aluminum and stainless steel components.

If you have a squirrel problem at your bird feeding station, the Squirrel Buster PLUS™ is the answer. Thousands of delighted customers (and well-fed birds) confirm that the patented Squirrel Buster PLUS™ bird feeder is truly Squirrel Proof! Openings in the bottom section of the feeder align with seed ports, providing birds access to the seed. When a squirrel climbs onto the feeder, its weight automatically forces the shroud down, closing the seed ports. Squirrels and large birds are foiled but not harmed in any way. The Squirrel Buster Plus™ breaks new ground with design features available for the first time on any bird feeder.

Purchase the Squirrel Buster Plus™ from these authorized dealers
Shaw Creek Bird Supply

Red Squirrel
Tamiasciurus hudsonicus
The red squirrel is rust-red to greyish-red above being brightest on the sides, white or greyish-white below and the tail is similar to the back color but is outlined with a broad, black band edged in white. The coat is duller in the summer and a black line separated the back and underbelly colours. The average red squirrel weighs 7-12 ounces. The red squirrel can be found in most parts of Alaska and Canada. It is also found in the Rocky Mountain states and in the eastern United States south to northern Virginia and west to Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Habitat preferred by the red squirrel is moist northern forests of coniferous trees such as spruce or fir. They will inhabit less dense, mixed forests of juniper, maple, basswood, and other deciduous trees but prefer continuous stands of trees unlike the fox squirrel who will inhabit open woodlands. The red squirrel eats a wide-variety of foods including insects, seeds, bark, nuts, fruits, mushrooms and pine seeds or cones. Sometimes it eats insects, young birds, mice and rabbits. A large part of its diet is made up of pine seeds. It makes a nest of leaves in a hollow or fallen tree, hole in the ground or tree crotch. 3-7 young are born in March or April and there is sometimes a second litter in August or September. The Red squirrel is a chatterbox with a variety of calls to announce its home range or the presence of intruders.

Gray Squirrel
Sciurus carolinensis
Gray Squirrels annoy people by taking over bird feeders, nesting in attics, ruining garden vegetables such as cucumbers, eggplants, and pumpkins, and by "transplanting" flower bulbs to new locations. Many people wonder how a flower pops up in the middle of a lawn or some other strange place. It was probably moved by a squirrel. Gray Squirrels have grayish-brown fur, except for their bellies, which have pale fur. The tail often has silvery-tipped hairs at the end. Gray Squirrels live in trees year-round, either in cavities or nests they build out of leaves. Preferred habitat of the Gray Squirrel is mature, deciduous forest including trees such as oak, basswood, maple, and hickory. Cavities are often old woodpecker holes. Nests are usually high up in tree crotches. Nests are hard to see in the Summer, because they are made with green leaves, and are hidden by foliage (leaves on the trees). They are easy to see in the Winter, when the nest leaves have turned brown and tree leaves fall to the ground. Gray Squirrels have two litters each year. The first is in the Spring, the second in late Summer. Two or three young are in each litter. The second litter spends the winter with their mother.

Common Grackle
Quiscalus quiscula
Common Grackles occur throughout the United States east of the Rocky Mountains; in Canada, these grackles are found north to the latitude of the Hudson Bay and as far northwest as northeastern British Columbia. They usually nest in dense colonies with as many as 10 to 30 pairs and occasionally a colony will have more than 100 pairs. Common Grackles favor conifers close to open areas and water as nest locations, although a wide variety of sites-from open nests built in clumps of marsh grass in Red-winged Blackbird colonies to old woodpecker holes and the interior of barns-have been observed.

Prior to the European settlers' arrival in America, the Common Grackle, a semicolonial species found in open areas with scattered trees, probably nested in cottonwood and sycamore groves along watercourses in the Midwest. But when forests were cleared to create agricultural land, the Common Grackle began to increase its numbers, such that now it is one of the most abundant breeding birds in North America. Today, the Common Grackle’s range continues to expand west, where it inhabits the trees planted in shelter belts.

Their diet consists of a wide variety of animal and vegetable food, including insects and invertebrates but also occasional eggs and nestlings. In rare instances, Common Grackles will attack and eat small birds and lizards, and in coastal areas they forage at the tide line for small invertebrates, even wading into the water to capture live fish. During the winter and migration months, their diet shifts to plant food. Because of their predilection for agricultural grain and seeds, especially corn, Common Grackles have earned a reputation as a significant pest in certain areas of North America. These grackles feed in farm fields, pastures, and suburban lawns by walking, rather than hopping, and they act aggressively toward, even stealing food from, other ground-foraging birds such as robins. A common display for a male grackle includes fluffing the body feathers, spreading its wings and tail so as to increase its apparent size, vocalizing, and posing before a female with its bill held vertical. The brief, unmusical song is often described as sounding something like a rusty gate. After the breeding season, Common Grackles form large foraging flocks that often include other blackbirds and cowbirds. Flock size increases as birds from the northern part of the range migrate to winter destinations in the southeastern United States, from the Carolinas to the Gulf Coast. In flight, the flocks tend to be as broad as they are long, unlike the long and cylindrical flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds.

Common Grackles are large, iridescent blackbirds (11 to 13.5 inches in length), with pale yellow eyes, a long, sharp black bill, and long tails. The central feathers of the long, rounded tail are often depressed, so that the tail is displayed in flight with a deeply keeled V-shape.

Typically, females are about 12 percent smaller than males and slightly less glossy. Young birds have brown eyes that turn yellow during their first autumn. Although they may appear to be all black, in good light Common Grackles display a metallic sheen, the color of which varies regionally. In the southeastern race (the Purple Grackle) that is found from central Louisiana and Alabama north to southern New York and Connecticut, the head, back, and sides are purple, the back may show iridescent barring, and the tail is usually blue green. Birds found west of the Appalachian Mountains and in New England (the Bronzed Grackle) have blue-green heads, a sharply defined bronze back without iridescent bars, and a purplish tail. The slightly smaller and nonmigratory Florida Grackle of peninsular Florida and the Gulf Coast typically has a purple head, dark green back, and blue-green tail. At one time these races, or subspecies, were separated as distinct species. Intermediately colored birds may be found where these races meet.

Common Grackles can be distinguished from other similarly sized all-black blackbirds with yellow eyes, which include the Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) and Brewer's Blackbird (E. cyanocephalus), by their larger size and proportionally longer tails and bills. Neither Rusty nor Brewer's blackbirds have keeled tails. Common Grackles fly in a straighter, less undulating manner than other blackbirds. They are much smaller and have proportionally shorter tails than Boat-tailed and Great-tailed grackles (Quiscalus major and Q. mexicanus).

European Starling
Sturnus vulgaris
The starling is a European native that breeds as far north as the British Isles, northern Norway, and Russia and as far south as northern Italy and southern France. The progress of this species in North America-with what may have been the first nest site under the eaves of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City-has been nothing short of spectacular. Wintering birds reached northern Florida by 1918, and breeding birds were found in Ontario and Maine by the 1920s. By the 1940s, this species reached the Pacific, and in the 1970s it was spotted in Alaska. The increase in range appears to have been made primarily by birds wandering outside of their range when it wasn't breeding season, because the first breeding records lagged behind the first fall or winter sightings by about five years. Once they arrived in a new area, however, the population of starlings rapidly increased.

All of the European Starlings found today in North America-and they number in the 200 million range-are descendants of approximately 100 birds introduced in New York City's Central Park in the early 1890s. A society dedicated to introducing into America all of the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare set these birds free. Previous attempts to introduce Starlings were made in the Northeast and on the West Coast as early as 1850, but all were unsuccessful. Today, European Starlings are seen from Alaska to Florida to northern Mexico.

Starlings are associated with man-altered environments, foraging in open country on short, mown, or grazed grassland while avoiding woodlands, arid chaparral, and deserts. Starlings exploit a variety of food sources, taking invertebrates, fruits and berries, grain, and temporarily abundant food such as animal feed or garbage.

Throughout the year, Starlings associate in flocks and form communal roosts at night-even during breeding season. These roosts are larger during fall and winter, when roosts of more than a million birds are not uncommon. Starlings like to return to the same area to eat each day, usually early and late in the day, while traveling at other times in large flocks to more abundant but ephemeral food sources. Migratory behavior appeared in North American starlings shortly after their introduction; they are at least partly migratory throughout the Mid-Atlantic states and are mostly migratory in the Midwest and Great Lakes area. South of 40-degrees latitude they are nonmigratory. Starlings are diurnal migrants and move out of northern areas, following major river valleys or the coastal plain, between September and early December. Spring migration takes place from mid-February to the end of March.

These highly social birds do not defend a territory beyond their cavity nest site, but males are very protective of their mates. They compete aggressively for nesting sites and may evict the occupants of desired holes, including the woodpeckers that excavated them. They often out-compete other hole-nesting species such as Eastern Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Great Crested Flycatchers, and woodpeckers. Starlings usually return to nest in the same site every year.

Both males and females (especially in the fall) can sing and make a variety of calls, whistles, and more complex songs. The males typically sing two types of songs, one consisting primarily of loud whistles and the other a so-called “warbling song” that often incorporates mimicry of other species. An individual bird can mimic up to 20 species, including Eastern Wood Pewee, Killdeer, and Meadowlark songs. It has been observed that longer songs are more successful in attracting a mate.

European Starlings are stocky birds with short, square-tipped tails and pointed wings. During breeding season, they can be distinguished quickly from blackbirds by their long, pointed, yellow bill; blackbirds have dark bills.

Both sexes are iridescent black. The sheen is mostly green-tinted on the back, breast, and belly; mixed green and purple on the crown; and purple on the nape and throat. Body feathers have creamy or white triangular terminal markings that are lost through wear so that by breeding season, adults are entirely glossy black, without white spots. First-year birds are more heavily spotted than adults. Following the breeding season, in late summer and fall, the yellow bill darkens to brownish gray or black in almost all birds.

The sexes are very similar with only a few differences in detail. The male's eyes are uniformly brown, whereas the female's eyes have is a lighter ring around the outer edge. A female's bill is pinkish at the base of the lower mandible whereas a male's bill is bluish or blue gray. Underwing coverts are black in males and brown or gray in females.

Mourning Dove
Zenaida macroura
The most abundant dove in the United States, the Mourning Dove is also the most widely hunted and harvested game bird. The name comes from the familiar, although easily overlooked song, a low-toned moaning cooah, coo, coo, coo. This dove, found across the United States and southern Canada, is most common throughout the Great Plains in the Midwest. In warm climates, these doves produce up to six broods per year, the most of any native bird. Typically, two eggs are laid in a nest made in an evergreen tree, although a wide variety of nest sites are used, including clumps of grass.

In winter, Mourning Doves prefer average minimum January temperatures greater than 10 degrees Fahrenheit; Rocky Mountain, Great Basin, and Great Plains birds may migrate to escape the cold. Mourning Doves also require a source of water; thus, peak abundances occur near rivers. In arid areas, large flocks visit water sources at dawn and dusk.

Mobile foraging flocks of Mourning Doves feed primarily on the ground, consuming waste grain—especially wheat and buckwheat—and weed seeds. Their crops fill quickly with seeds and digestion, aided by swallowed grit, occurs while the birds are resting, often in groups perched in trees or on wires. They readily come to feeders. Flocks are formed in every season, except while the birds are breeding—then, the birds disperse in pairs. When disturbed, Mourning Doves burst into strong, rapid flight on whistling wings.

Mourning Doves feed their nestlings crop milk or "pigeon milk," which is secreted by the crop lining. This is an extremely nutritious food with more protein and fat than is found in either cow or human milk. Crop milk, which is regurgitated by both adults, is the exclusive food of hatchlings for three days, after which it is gradually replaced by a diet of seeds.

A Mourning Dove is a long (approximately 12 inches), slim, gray-brown bird with a small head and a long, pointed tail. The outer tail feathers have white tips with a black marking midway, so that the tail is edged with a black and white stripe. Wings show dark primaries, and wing coverts and scapulars are boldly spotted with black. The dove's crown, nape, and hindneck are slate in color, turning to grayish brown over the rest of the upperparts. The face is pinkish buff, the underparts have a pinkish wash, and the belly is buff-colored. Legs are reddish in color. The eye has a bluish ring of bare skin, and there is a small black spot and a larger iridescent purplish area on the side of the neck. This area is larger in males. Females have more brown coloring overall.

Of the other native doves, the Inca Dove of the Southwest and the Common Ground-Dove of the Southwest and Gulf States (both doves belong to genus Columbina) are much smaller and have chestnut markings on their wings. A White-winged Dove (Zenaida asiatica) is about the same size, but it has distinctive white patches on its wings that show in both flying and resting birds.