I've had robins, morning doves, wrens, hummingbirds and cardinals all in my garden till the blackbirds came and started nesting here and eating all the other birds young. Now all I have is the blackbirds and can't get rid of them. Anybody have suggestions on how I might? I knock their nests out of the trees when I find them and shoot small cardboard pellets at them ( doesn't kill them but sure scares them momentarily) My feeders are all set for smaller birds and exclude the blackbirds but they eat what falls on the ground. Even the dogs don't scare them off.

That sounds like the problem we have in our neighborhood with the crows, is that what you are talking about? Or Grackles.

Blackbirds are in the same family but smaller than both crows and grackles. They are bullies and constantly raid the nests of other birds eating their chicks.

It makes me very sad to see that happen.
Are these blackbirds in your yard or just near by?

They nest in the cedar trees across the back of my yard. They seem to like my yard much better than the neighbours or the wooded area down the road.

I had a bunch of crows nesting in the pine trees across the street and I was going to make a scare crow this year. From what I have read its a simple solution. If you have anything shiny like old cd's or dvd's you can hang them around, they hate shinny stuff. These crows like to drop road kill in my bird baths.
Just don't be mean to them they have real good memories and they can recognize people. So in a friendly way just add stuff they don't like, that way you don't have to be looking over your shoulder.

Brian, I have heard there are crow controls such as recordings of crow calls that drive them away.

Googling 'get rid of crows' brought up some options.

Yes but it's blackbirds I have not crows, are there recordings of blackbirds that do the same thing?

I would google "remove Blackbirds".....

I did as you suggested, looks like other than shooting them (won't happen) not much else is a good deterrent.

Is someone feeding them Brian?

I feed other birds but the feeders are set to exclude the blackbirds. They do eat what the others knock to the ground though. I don't really want to give up on feeding the smaller birds as they add so much life to the garden. But I might have to stop for a year or two to see if that helps get rid of the blackbirds.

Sounds like you got the right idea, just wondering what would be attracting them? I will let you know if I get anymore information.

Thanks Susan.