Bird Feeders and Bears

Boat horns and controlled hours of bird-feeder buffets can ensure that our local black bears remain good neighbors.

Bird feeders help sustain birds and the Web of Life of which they are a part. Having a bird feeder also brings us close to the avian beauty of mountain life. We have encouraged the use of bird feeders on these pages.

But bird feeders sometimes attract other non-avian creatures such as squirrels, racoons, and bears. Squirrels can be foiled via baffles and other devices that are built into the best seed feeders. Most raccoon encounters can be avoided by simply bringing bird feeders in at night: bookends to the day by being hung out first thing in the morning and brought in at nightfall.

Bears are a different matter. Bears and bird feeders don’t mix. We love our bears. Seeing a bear is an exhilarating experience. Coming upon a post-hibernation momma bear with two cubs, big puppies full of play, touches our hearts.

Unfortunately, our bird feeders could place our bears in danger. Bears love bird feeders and can gain sustenance by eating bird seed. A bird feeder full of black oil sunflower seed can offer as many as 18,000 calories. A she-bear nursing cubs has a high daily caloric need. Hummingbird feeders are like soda pop to them, including the sugar high. They like our bird feeders as well as most of the human diet, notably leftovers such as pizza and scraps on barbeque pits.

Attracting a bear to the human habitat can be a death sentence for the bear. Bear-human interactions often do not end well for bears. Food brings them in, they hang around and guard their source, can be aggressive and destructive, we feel unsafe and become afraid, then they get shot. Bear relocation is fraught and can be deadly for the bear. If we feed them, we must do so only in the sanctity and safety of the deep woods.

So, how do we keep bears away from our feeders and our homes? Don’t doubt that they can see your bird feeders, even through glass, which could result in an attempt to break and enter. This happens in our mountains.

Bringing your bird feeders in at night and out of sight will help. Bears will come, however, to your feeders during the day. Hang them high, using cross wire between trees, say, and pulleys or long poles to bring them in for refilling. A ground feeder post should extend at least 10-feet (3.5 m) off the ground, the four-byfour post anchored deep in dry sack cement. Use a stovepipe or metal covering to produce a slippery surface bears cannot climb.

You can also lace your feeder seed and suet with cayenne pepper. Mammals have keen taste buds, birds don’t.

If a bear comes to your feeders, you must act. If you catch the bear at the feeders, you do well to scare the bear away. You do this by staying a safe distance away and blowing your bear whistle as loudly as you can. If you can produce a loud tongue-on-tooth catcall, whistle it now. Bears hate it. You can get a bear whistle at most outdoor and hiking gear shops. Anything that makes a loud noise. The photo above, taken through glass doors, shows a momma (two cubs below) balancing precariously on a porch rail while preparing to savage my feeders. I whistled her away. I’m going to invest in a pneumatic boat horn.

The idea is to stay safe but give the bear a challenging time. They won’t like your loud sound and might not come back. Bears that are successful in eating some seed will probably be return visitors.

If a bear comes to your feeders, you must change your bird feeding habits. To avoid a recurrence, good for neither bear nor bird feeder, all bird feeders should be removed for at least two weeks. You won’t have the pleasure of your bird feeders for at least two weeks. The birds will be fine; we’re taking care of bears here.

In some states, wildlife officials have said that if bears are active in your locale, do not put out bird feeders unless the bears are hibernating in winter. It might come to that. For now, I am experimenting with reintroducing my feeders after two weeks by putting them out for only 3 hours each day, between 9:00 A.M. and Noon. My hope is that my local birds will learn that there is a brief but reliable feeding time each day while bears are reduced to little opportunity. Happy birding and bear protecting!

by William McReynolds