I've deployed anti-starling countermeasures

I've been getting tired of watching hordes of starlings devouring the suet I put out. They've been going to town with it, like fat kids on a box of donuts. Or, let's be fair, like me on a box of donuts. My solution was to pick up a 12" plastic plant dish, the kind with an upturned lip about an inch wide. I poked a hole in the middle and threaded the feeder's chain through it, so the lip is facing up, and poked a few more holes along the edge to keep rain from collecting in it.

Starlings aren't too great at clutching onto the side of something, and most often I see them sitting on the top of the feeder. (They can hang onto the side, but I don't usually see them doing this.) The plant dish covers the top of the feeder, and since it's much wider than the cage itself, they can't reach over the edge to reach the side -- the lip makes it that much harder. Plus, the weight of one hanging onto the lip would probably swing the feeder away. However, since the dish is transparent, the birds can still see the food. This is my working theory. We'll see how it goes in practice.

After I did that to the feeder, I put in a new block of suet and hung it back up on the clothesline bar. Right away, a starling and two mockingbirds came over to investigate. The starling took a swoop over but veered away. Their vision might not be good enough to see the dish from a distance -- I'll have to see what I can find out about that. It flew off once the second mockingbirds showed up.

The mockingbirds had more luck: one of them was able to grab onto the bottom edge of the feeder, and got three or four pecks in before flying up to wipe its beak off on the bar the feeder hangs from. (The ground bird did that a few times as well.) I don't think it had a good grip at all: it kept waving its left wing out for balance. But it would do this three or four times, each time getting itself some food while the other bird waited below to snatch up any crumbs. Then the bird on the feeder would drop down to the ground to look for crumbs. They both would look up at the feeder, which was about a 75-degree angle from where they were standing, so their necks are at least that flexible. They repeated this whole routine a couple times until a door slammed somewhere nearby, frightening them away. I think the one on the ground was getting the better deal; they were clearly together, though it didn't look like they were intentionally cooperating.

If the mockingbirds can feed, more power to them -- I like having them around. It's just the starlings that I don't want to encourage. We'll see if they figure it out. Mockingbirds and starlings are bright birds, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a starling figure out something moderately clever.