RSPB Ultimate bird feeder guardian, medium

Stops the pigeons and magpies emptying the feeder. The dunnocks and sparrows took a few days to get the hang of it, but no problems now.

If I could add the picture I've just taken, it would show 2 young squirrels sitting inside the frame munching on birdseed! Assume the size of the holes was calculated carefully, but unfortunately we're now helping to bring on the next generation. The good thing is our local great spotted woodpecker can get in for a snack.

I actually purchased a medium guardian and a small guardian at the same time and, by careful removal of the top part of the small guardian, was able to attach it to the bottom of the medium guardian. The resulting “large” guardian fitted my large ultimate easy-clean seed feeder perfectly.

Within 10 minutes of fitting the guardian, Goldfinches were arriving and going straight into my feeder. Blue tits and Great tits followed shortly after. I did, however, notice that the sparrows in my garden were choosing to ignore this feeder and instead concentrate on my fat ball feeders.

Three weeks have now passed since fitting the guardian, and I am now happy to report that the sparrows are now visiting my feeder and are going in and out without any issues. Yesterday I counted 14 sparrows in and around the feeder!

My regular squirrel visitors took one look at the guardian and moved on elsewhere. It’s great now, not having to fill up the feeder with sunflower hearts on an almost daily basis because of the greedy squirrels.

If I had any niggle it would be that it makes viewing of the birds on the feeder more difficult because of the metal bars, but then again, I can watch them in the rest of my garden, and it’s a small price to pay to prevent my local squirrel population getting fat at my expense!

Had been great keeping off squirrels and larger birds, today was a disaster returned home to find a dead young starling stuck in the guardian

I almost didn't buy this product due to the review but within a day I had a range of birds going into the cage including, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Robins and a Nuthatch. And it kept the squirrel out!

My previous feeder guard was narrower in diameter so the pigeons, woodpigeons, magpies and squirrels had learned to cling on and poke through to extract the seeds. The sparrows used it all the time, also tits and goldfinches. Only the tits are using this new one. I've had it for a bit less than a couple of weeks. It's the sparrows i especially want to feed as so many people say they never see them nowadays and we have had good numbers for many years.I am not using the narrower guard on a separate feeder at the moment as I want the sparrows to get bolder and give it a go as i see at least one reviewer has had success with them. Still worried though!

RSPB response: Thank you for your review, I am sorry you are unhappy with this feeder guardian. It is good to hear you are concerned about the declining number of sparrows and wish to feed them., as they are now a red listed species. We do advise that it can take weeks, sometimes a few months, for birds to adjust and try new feeders or guardians. Hopefully your sparrows will be back feeding in no time!

Great idea, unfortunately the Sparrows we have on a regular basis think otherwise. Had one Sparrow on the first day, since then nothing for 10 days. It does keep the pesky Pigeon off though.

I bought this reluctantly because of the other reviews. I have a medium feeder on the fence opposite one of the house windows. This was regularly visited by goldfinch, greenfinch and house sparrows. Today I am looking out at the feeder, in its guardian. There are two green finch parents in the feeder, with two fledglings picking through what is in the catcher tray at the bottom. Yesterday there were goldfinch in the feeder and again, the fledglings were happily walking around the catcher tray picking out seeds that had dropped down. The house sparrows have not been deterred either. And the big plus is the starlings can no longer perch on the feeder and shovel out the contents with their beaks.

RSPB response: Thank you for your review. It's great to hear your birds have taken well to your new guardian!

As other reviewers, I have had this for some time now and the birds don't like it. I bought it as wood pigeons were just sitting and emptying the feeder as soon as I filled it and stopping other birds from getting anything. I have tried leaving it for several weeks, the seed just sits inside hardly touched, the only birds I saw go into it were goldfinches. All others seemed bemused and put off by it. I had a bullfinch regularly visiting the garden which now seems to have given up. I have resorted to using it for a few days to put the wood pigeons off, then leaving it off for a few days for the other birds to get to the food, until the wood pigeons realise and return, when the cage goes back on..... Not really a good solution

I have had this seed feeder and guardian in my garden for over a week. The birds have investigated it but will not go in. The openings are obviously too small.

RSPB response: Thank you for your review. Sorry you are unhappy with the feeder guardian, however the openings on the guardian have been made to exact specifications and tested to make sure they are suitable for small to medium garden birds. We have made them big enough for most birds visiting gardens but small enough to deter squirrels and some larger birds such as jackdaws. A new feeder especially with a guardian can take the birds a while to trust usually a couple of weeks but can be longer.

Excellent finish on product and the extra diameter with wide clear dish is superb. However, I have noted that the openings are smaller which seems to make it less inviting for many finches that happily use the Helix one that we have. Premium model openings are same width but taller. Time will tell if the finches get more used to it.

RSPB Response: Thank you for your review, as you suggest it can take some time for birds to get used to new feeders, especially at this time of year when natural food is in plentiful supply. The new guardians are more squirrel resistant than previous models and the birds will get used to them when they become more reliant on supplementary feeding and pluck up the courage to enter the cage.