My dad had a bunch of hummingbird feeders in his backyard In San Diego. It was really cool watching them fly around. It was very surprising to me how territorial they are. They fought over them very fiercely.
We found that ants were a major issue. You might want to consider a plan to mitigate ant activity.
THE SHIELD THAT WORKED IS THE FIRST THING I WOULD HAVE DONE
Their jumping ability is the issue
The pole has to be several feet away from anything they can jump off of
Have two, only feed them during the winter. As I attempt to let them find their own feed in the other seasons, My feeble attempt to help them maintain their natural survival instincts.
I used a baffle which worked perfectly to stop squirrels from climbing up the pole but in the winter time , it was not the smaller meagre black squirrels, but the larger grey squirrels that were able to “fly and glide through the air “ from an adjacent higher tree branch that was over 3m away similar to the flying squirrels and sometimes they would be able to grab a purchase on the feeder and hang on.
This only happened when there was a lot of snow and food was scarce and they were not hibernating for whatever reasons.
Have a birdfeeder in front of the living room window yes I enjoy the birds feeding nice red cardinals and don’t forget about the Blue Jays. People that have problems with squirrels might I suggest the name skips me right now but it’s a Chinese hot sauce it’s hot as hell, I put a little on the roof and a little bit on the support structure to the birdhouse, sit back and enjoy. A squirrel hops on get some of the hot sauce on his paws wipes his face and I think it’s the 1st squirrel in space he shot up like hell and he learned something not to fuck around. If he wants food there is enough on the ground for him. But the biggest mistake with the birdfeeder is you freshly washed polished and waxed your car to perfection you put everything away and there it is it’s either on the hood of the car or on the roof white bird hit! Such is life.
I just bought a weight activated squirrel proof bird feeder. It is a steel cage with feeder holes,
As soon the squirrel grabs the cage its weight lowers the cage so the feeder holes are closed
As soon as the squirrel leaves the cage rises and the holes open back up
I can take the perches off from under the holes so the bigger birds have no perch and the smaller birds do not need a perch
I just filled it with sunflower seeds, hulled to avoid mess, and put it up on a hanger
We shall see what happens. With luck a bird will try it and come back atrracting other birds and the squirrels will realize they cannot get the seed and give up as they are smart animals
Then I buy another squirrel proof feeder for different birds and a beautiful water bath then put up LED lights but before I spend $$$$$$$ I want to see what happens. But my plan is to make it look very nice with light maintenance. Just fill up seeders every now and then but there may be bird poop issues and spillage attracting mice and insects or something else unpredictable like birds crashing into my windows and we got lot of cats so birds may not come so a squirrel baffle may be needed to keep cats from climbing the feeder pole and they can leap as good as squirrels but they want the birds