Meripac Window Feeder

We've had it on a window in our first floor flat for two years now and get a wide range of small birds every day. Having a partition means you can put out two different food types. I don't use the water section as it wets the food, but it is easily cleaned weekly and has a safety cord you can hang on your window so if it did fall, it wouldn't be a disaster. The odd magpie tries to take it down, but no success for them so far.

Great bird feeder and squirrels can’t get to the bird food. Got to watch out for larger birds like wood pigeons landing on it and eventually knocking it off the window.

For a couple of years we've been feeding three blackbirds, a robin and an occasional dunnock on our kitchen windowsill, but recently developed a problem. Late last autumn a couple of wood pigeons found us and learnt our usual in-kitchen times and were getting a lot of the food; but much worse, two months ago two RATS discovered the window sill, rapidly learnt when feeding times were and started staking us out and getting all the food. Just couldn't get rid of them, even after knocking one flying off the windowsill with a fast-opened window. Chasing them off, they'd just skulk under the hedge for two minutes, then rush back and jump up to the windowsill again ... and again and again until we left; and there's no easy way to put poison bait down for the rats without probably killing some of the birds. Thought I'd give this bird feeder a try. I had it assembled after delivery in the afternoon, put it on the upper pane of the fixed side of the kitchen window with our standard foods that the blackbirds etc most like (grated cheddar cheese, suet-with-powdered-insect pellets, 'robin mix' and dried mealworms - all bought from Amazon). I saw some people in these reviews saying it took some days, even a couple of weeks for the birds to start using it ... but within one hour, not only had the blackbirds found and used it and the robin, but I also had visits from a blue-tit and a house sparrow, neither of which I'd seen in our yard for more years than I can remember. Real success! And the blackbird and his mate appear to have now built their nest just on the other side of the wall on the other side of the neighbouring yard, and the male blackbird is just constantly rushing back and forth, quick snack (usually cheese or mealworms) for himself then really hammering the bottom of the feeder as he forces as much food as he can into his beak to rush back to the female. (He hammers his beak so hard into the floor trying to jam more food into his beak I was worrying he'd knock the feeder off the window glass, but so far OK.) The wood pigeons still turn up at our mealtimes, but haven't even tried to squeeze into the bird feeder and just sit looking mournfully at the window sill, and I'm still putting a little food out on the windowsill for them when they are there and will immediately eat it all. The rats ... they kept coming for a few days, and while previously one had to be right by the window looking down to see them on the sill below the bottom of the window, we've had several comical views of them standing on two legs on the sill under the feeder, stretching up against the glass as far as they can, sniffing at the food well out of reach above. One did actually manage to climb the brick wall to nearly level with the bottom of the feeder, and was trying to reach across, but he/she then slipped and fell off onto the stone flower trough and concrete yard surface below, and hasn't tried that again. If we had squirrels, I'm sure they'd manage to reach it, but at least so far it appears to be beyond the rats' acrobatic skills, so the feeder - at least for now - has solved our rat problem as I hoped it might, as well as unexpectedly bringing species of small bird into our yard that we haven't seen for a long time.Four stars, not five, solely because (and this should have occurred to me when I was looking at all the feeders in the Amazon storemand picked this one) the fact that the water compartment is a fixed part of the feeder makes it difficult to clean out. When I want to clean the water part, there is still water in it, and still food in the outer part, making it hard to tip out the old water, at least without wetting the remaining food with the old water. If there was a separate water 'bowl' that slotted into the existing water compartment it would be perfect.Anyway, it's been brilliant and had just the effect on our windowsill I hoped for (more small birds, rats not getting any food so hopefully they will give up and clear off) in the two weeks I've had it. For longevity - and whether the rats are off training and rehearsing advanced mountaineering and acrobatic skills - I'll have to wait and see.

I bought one for my Nan to put on her window in the nursing home so that she could see the birds. It works really well as long as you have good suction on the windows as we had to replace it because it landed on the floor and cracked. She did say the pigeons kept trying to land on it...

Bought Dec 2019 and still up by July 2020.The green plastic pieces fell off a long time ago and are lost.The birds were happily taking food from with within just a few days and with the right food it's attracted all the various garden birds, very nice to see and they seem happy and am now topping the food up most days as it's attracted a steady stream of birds.At first I used the front compartment for water but it gets muddied up very quickly so have stopped.The suction pads have lasted very well, even after repositioning (Used a good glass cleaner first).The main problem for me has been the wood pigeons it does not matter where this feeder is positioned they are persistent creatures and always find a way of getting into the feeder. I tried to add little barriers to narrow access but then it stopped the blackbird and thrust feeding. In the end the pigeons broke my barrier after noisy persistence.Unfortunately the tray cannot support their weight and has started to crack. The crack is under one of the supporting clips and I don't think this feeder will last much longer.I can't find a way of deterring the pigeons (humanly) as they will break the tray and are taking too much of the food. So for this reason when I come to look for a replacement feeder I'm afraid this particular design will be ruled out.Besides this the feeder was fit for purpose and value for money and with the right food it does a good job of attracting the garden birds.

These feeders are great. The suction cups are 40mm diameter and when properly fitted have very good suction to glass window over the smaller cups. I have had coal tits, blue tits, robins and starlings with juveniles visit daily for mealworm, mixed seed, and mealworm pellets in the winter.I have more than one of these, so I can rotate the tray since the birds tend to poop in the tray too, and I prefer to clean the tray in a bucket of bleach. They are a little hard to clean in some of the tight corners, due to the residue of seed dust and oils.I have attached a line of paracord core to the roof part as the supplied nylon cord isn't long enough to reach inside my window, in case it becomes detached from the glass (this has not happened yet in nearly a year of use, as I routinely push on the suction cups when changing the feeder tray). I also added a couple of squares of <1mm rubber to help dampen the knocking noise the feeder can sometimes make when a bird lands on it, there are two circular spots on the back of the roof.They were great feeders until very recently a clever pigeon found it and began landing on the roof bit. Pigeons are enormous and I was afraid it couldn't take the weight. I attached some bird deterrent spikes on the roof but the pigeon persisted, scaring off smaller birds, and also figuring out how to land on the tray despite the limited clearance, hoovering up the entire contents.So I have removed it for the time being because there are far too many pigeons entirely because people deliberately feed them.