#HTE

Anti-Squirrel Bird Feeder Designs

Designing an object that will accommodate one animal, but not another animal of similar size, is a tricky endeavor. A bird feeder is a good example: How do you allow your avian friends to access the seed, without greedy neighboring squirrels helping themselves?

One solution might be to cover the seed-dispensing apertures with a wire mesh. But here we can see that another design feature of this bird feeder–a wide aperture that allows humans to easily load it–can be exploited:

Another idea is to encircle the feeder in a cage. But this, too, can be defeated:

This squirrel has even managed to squeeze its entire body into the cage:

A more clever solution might be to exploit physics and gravity. If the feeder reacts differently to the weight of a squirrel than of a bird, it could be made to spin or rotate in such a way as to fling the squirrel off.

Squirrels have managed to counter that.

How about an umbrella-shaped baffle over a suspended feeder? That would prevent the squirrel from climbing around it, no?

No.

So, what does work?

Vaseline:

A Slinky:

And placing a spinning feeder the proper distance away from anything on which a squirrel could use to stabilize itself: