Since people already answered the question, here’s some unrequested tip:
If you want mammals to avoid bird feed, mix some of the hottest chili powder and/or pepper seeds that you find into the feed. The birds won’t care, they don’t get pepper burned, but squirrels (and you) do.
It’s native in my chunk of South America. I almost never see those but I hear them often. I know them as sanhaço, but there are a bunch of local names.
The pepper plant is likely a wild malagueta. Almost as hot as habanero, but birds love it.
So cool, thank you for the added detail. I was wondering if it was a random picture illustrating your point, or a local bird. It’s both! Unfortunately for me, sanhaço are never up here in Northern Canada 🙂
Since people already answered the question, here’s some unrequested tip:
If you want mammals to avoid bird feed, mix some of the hottest chili powder and/or pepper seeds that you find into the feed. The birds won’t care, they don’t get pepper burned, but squirrels (and you) do.
Picture related:
Sayaca Tanager
It’s native in my chunk of South America. I almost never see those but I hear them often. I know them as sanhaço, but there are a bunch of local names.
The pepper plant is likely a wild malagueta. Almost as hot as habanero, but birds love it.
So cool, thank you for the added detail. I was wondering if it was a random picture illustrating your point, or a local bird. It’s both! Unfortunately for me, sanhaço are never up here in Northern Canada 🙂
Tried this and it didn’t faze the little fuckers. Going to take another pass at it, must have done something wrong.
Maybe they developed a taste for it?