1. Field of the Invention
The present patent document relates generally to bird feeders and more specifically to a breakaway perch configured to block heavier birds and squirrels from access to the seed in bird feeders.
2. Background of the Related Art
Selective bird feeders are well known in the art and are designed to limit the maximum size of a bird or animal, which can access the seed in the feeder. The reasons for excluding certain birds may be many. For instance, larger birds such as cardinals, crows, grackles, blue jays and the like are considered by some people to be undesirable.
A further problem associated with bird feeders is preventing rodents from gaining access to the seed. In particular, squirrels are well known for their ability to reach and devour the seed in a bird feeder. Many approaches have been tried to discourage or prevent squirrels from reaching the bird feeder, including various types of domes, covers and baffles on poles. These may not be successful, as the squirrels have shown great ingenuity in overcoming such devices.
Some of the attempted solutions to the problem are disclosed in the prior art such as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,737, issued to Banyas, teaches a collapsible perch for a bird feeder retained by spring tension. However, positioning of the perch relies solely on a spring member, which may weaken over time resulting in poor performance of the perch. U.S. Pat. No. 6,578,518, issued to Conforti, also describes a bird feeder that includes a perch that tips or collapses, which uses a rotationally wound spring to spring-bias the perch into an open position. Both of the above perches are supported by springs whereby heavier birds or mammals on the perch cause the perch to move downwardly to make it more difficult to gain access to the feed in the feeder via a feed port.
There have been further attempts to provide a breakaway perch that uses magnets instead of spring to bias the perch into a feeding position. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,694,652, issued to Fahey, provides a perch that has an end that is magnetically attracted to a portion of the housing of the feeder. When sufficient weight is on the perch to overcome the magnetic attraction, the perch breaks away. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 8,807,081, issued to Gage et al., provides a perch that is pivotally connected to the feeder housing via a lever construction so that the perch on one side of the lever pivots between a feed position and a deterrent position. A magnet on the opposing side releasably engages with a complimentary magnetic surface on the feeder housing to relocate the perch portion of the lever when there are no unwanted animals on the perch.
While the above references disclose collapsible perches, such devices suffer from the reliance on either a spring member or magnetic attraction to help position the perch in a feed position for a bird after an unwanted animal is no longer on the perch. This results in unreliable and erratic performance of the perch, which may cause the feeder not be used by desired birds because they are not able to reliably access the feed while on the perch. Also, such prior art feeders and perches are complicated and/or expensive to produce, or insufficiently robust to survive repeated assaults by rodents. Accordingly, there is a perceived need in the marketplace for a collapsible perch that is inexpensive, yet, sensitive and resilient enough to deter rodents and undesirable birds.
The present invention solves the problems of the prior art by providing a spring-tensioned perch configured to collapse when set upon by undesirable animals, such as squirrels or heavier birds, such as a blue jays, yet have sufficient strength to support the weight of lighter, desirable song birds. The perch of the present invention uses both prior art springs and magnets for superior operation and reliability.
The present invention provides for a bird feeder body with a base with a number of perches connected thereto by a spring such as a coil spring. The coil spring is tensioned and configured so that when an animal of a predetermined weight is positioned thereon, the perch will collapse to move the animal to a position that is enough below the feed aperture of the feeder body to make unwanted feeding much more difficult if not impossible for the unwanted animal. In addition, a magnet is positioned underneath the feeder base above the desired location the perch for normal feeding by a desired bird. The magnet assists in locating the perch in the correct position and helps retain it in place. Also, the magnet attraction between the magnet and the perch can be modified to help control how much weight is needed on the perch before it collapses and breaks away.
Therefore, there is a need for a collapsible perch to reliably break away when an animal of given weight is positioned on the perch.
There is also a need for a feeder with a collapsible perch that is inexpensive and easy to use.
There is a further need for a feeder with a collapsible perch that employs both a spring member for biasing the perch to a feed position and a magnet for assist of positioning the perch in place.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:
Referring now to
Referring now to
The coil springs 110 provide a flexible and spring-biased connector for the perch members 102, which spring-biases the perches 102 up to a home position, namely a perch seat 118, as seen in
The tension of the spring 110 provides the primary spring-biasing of the perch 102, which is tuned to a desire weight of an unwanted animal. Also, the strength of the magnet 120 can be employed to assist in retaining the perch 102 in the home feeding position but is primarily for bringing the perch 102 back to its centered home position. For example, the coil spring 110 can be tuned to break away downwardly upon the weight of one or two pounds, depending on the size of the animal that is an unwanted threat to the feeder 100. The tension of the spring 110 and the magnetic strength of the magnet 120 can be easily modified as desired.
In use, with no birds on the perch 102, the perch 102 is in a resting condition, as in
If a bird or a squirrel with a weight that exceeds the tuned weight of the coil spring 110, the perch 102 will collapse as can be seen in the rightmost perch 102 in
Upon removal of the unwanted animal, that is too large, from the collapsed perch 102, the perch 102 will snap back upwards in the direction of the broken arrow in
The present invention is shown with a single clamp 114 to provide two opposing perches 102. It is should be understood that this is only one example of how the perches can be configured. For example, there may be one clamp 114 for each perch 102 where the clamp 114 secures one end of the coil spring 110 on only one end of the coil spring 110 receives a perch member 102. For example, a hopper style feeder 200 may employ such a configuration where more than two perches 202 are provided about the periphery of the feeder 200.
The collapsible perches 202 are arranged about the periphery of the base 204 and are spring-biased upwardly into their respective seat notches 218 with coil springs 210 fastened to the bottom 212 of the base 208 with a clamp 214. Like the tubular feeder 100, the clamp 214 on the hopper style feeder 200 captures one end of each of the coil springs 210, leaving the other end of the coil springs 210 free to receive its respective perch 202. Located within each seat notch 218 is a magnet 220, which, as indicated above, aids the coil spring 210 in returning the perch 202 returning to the seat notch 218.
Optionally, it is possible that there is only one perch 102, 202 or more than two perches 102, 202 provided, depending on the desired configuration. The coil springs 110, 210 are preferably metallic to provide magnetic attraction to the magnets 120, 220. The perch members 102, 202 need not be attracted to magnets 120, 220 but that can be an option, if desired. Also, the reverse is possible where the coil spring 110, 210 is magnetic while the perch member 102, 202 secured on the bottom of the base 104, 204 is metal.
It would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made to the illustrated embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention. All such modifications and changes are intended to be within the scope of the present invention.
This patent document claims priority to earlier filed U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/127,521, filed on Mar. 3, 2015, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62127521 | Mar 2015 | US |