Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder Compare

Comparing the
Brome 1057 Squirrel Buster Standard Wild Bird Feeder Ordered on August 29, 2016
and the
Perky-Pet 337 Squirrel-Be-Gone III Wild Bird Feeder Ordered on October 4, 2016

A little background

I had a 12 perch Birdscapes Deluxe Grandview Bird Feeder I really liked. It held 8 pounds of seed and was easy to fill. I'd fill it about once a week. But then this happened.



With the reduction in cats out here a squirrel decided to show his displeasure with the feeder not being refilled in a timely manner. So I went looking for something to not only keep the squirrels from spilling all the seed but chewing up. I bought the steel clad Brome 1057 Squirrel Buster Standard Wild Bird Feeder but the larger seeds were clogging it up so quickly almost no seed was getting dispensed so I bought the, also steel clad, Perky-Pet 337 Squirrel-Be-Gone III Wild Bird Feeder. Later I happened on finch seed for the Brome feeder that seemed to work well. Both work on the idea of a spring loaded outer shell that slips down to cover the seed when something as heavy as a squirrel climbs on. Like

After 4 months use

I've had both of these awhile now and I still seem to be going through a good amount of seed compared to my old non squirrel proof one.even though I have not seen one of the squirrels attempt access. Since it was calm yesterday so I did a sort of timed test to see where all the bird seed is going. I have not seen Sid (Squirrel Indigenous Demon) testing the anti squirrel features since I installed the new feeders but I wanted to confirm he and the wind were not taking the seed. I filled them both at 8:23 AM. The Squirrel Buster feeder holds 3/4 quart of finch seed.  The Squirrel-Be-Gone holds the same 8 pounds (about 5 quarts) of seed my old feeder did but it seems to go faster.


And then took pics at 6:05 PM. Here is what they looked like by 6 PM. The Squirrel-Be-Gone

and the Squirrel Buster


After reviewing the video I found the feeders are full of birds most of the day (saved some interesting shots here) but wind and squirrels did not seem to be a factor. By the time I went out at lunch today the Squirrel Buster was virtually empty with at most an once left.


At first glance it might look like the Squirrel Buster dispensed more seed but as it turns out it took about a quart more seed to refill the Squirrel-Be-Gone. That might have been partly caused by the Squirrel Buster being almost empty which might have made some birds go to the other feeder. Bottom line it would seem I just have a lot of hungry birds about. I even saw one of the "larger" birds on the smaller feeder though some of the people on Amazon said they would trigger the squirrel defense. I have not seen anything as large as a dove or pigeon try and land on either. As a general rule though any birds larger than a finch seem to prefer the larger Squirrel-Be-Gone.

One issue though is you have to make sure the squirrels can not climb the pole and reach the feeder. Otherwise this happens.

There is a baffle under the tray but this guy sorted if he climbed up on the ledge the other side of the walkway from the feeder he could make the jump to the tray and then climb up.

Update 6/16/2017: Adding a baffle above did not help because flaps did not close when Sid junped up from the tray to the feeder. Had 2 more notches left to loosen springs so I did that for next round. FYI you adjust the springs here

Here is Sid hanging onto one feeder and the the other.

I finally gave up trying to keep Sid out though the above works on the rest. For Sid I put corn in the tray and he seems OK with that. As an unexpected bonus dove started showing up too.