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Attracting Southern Flying Squirrels

This can only be done during warm months: In my experience, in Maryland, USA, I could only attract them to a new internal feeder or nest box location from about early May -through- early Sept. None of the new boxes/feeders I put up in the winter were used unless I replaced an existing box that was already being used. I spent a lot of time and effort with disappointing results to learn this. Maybe your luck will be better than mine. Once the feeders have been found they will then be used year-round...esp in the winter. Once the nest boxes have been found they will then be used from Sept -through- late April. The flyers will leave on the coldest days if they have access to another warmer and more populated nest like one in an attic. I know they left my nest box on the coldest days and I'm speculating on where they went.

Feeders: It seems they will eventually find bird feeders on their own so I've done nothing special but wait for that. They like wire mesh peanut feeders. For feeders intended just for Flyers, I sped things up: At dusk I had placed peanut butter around the circumfrence of tree trunks about 6'-10' up that I believed the the flyers would frequent. I would wake up before the birds came out to check if it had been eaten. Problems with this are how determine what ate it. A raccoon, opossum, or mouse could also eat this. Dogs and cats kept all but the flyers out of my yard so I knew that flyers ate my peanut butter. I got my tip on using peanut butter from a naturalist at Long Branch Nature Center in VA. I attended one of his flying squrirrel feeding tours after reading about it in the Wash. Post.

Nest boxes: Like the bird feeders, it seems they will eventually find nest boxes on their own so I've done nothing special but wait for that between May and Sept. The boxes should be on mature trees about 8' - 10' up. Face the box away from evening sun unless it is shaded year-round. I noticed some problems with heat on warmer days in late winter. You can face it into rain or wind as long as there is a good overhang to keep the rain out. I never saw evidence that wind was a factor. Their nest inside of the box seems to keep drafts off of them. They close the top of the nest when it is cold. I would often see nest fibers moving from the wind that got in the box. Thicker wood or a double layer of wood helps when it is cold. The feeder I built used 2 layers of wood on the bottom half of it.

Nest boxes...a few steps further if you can (or would) do it: It is probably best to put up about 3 boxes: 1 would be a main nest box, 1 would be a backup box should they need one for any reason, and one would be a possible food cache. When I first noticed one of my nest boxes being used as a food cache, it was almost filled to the top with acorns. I have read that they might use a 4th location as a "rest room" but I just retrofitted mine with a separate room (or garderobe) instead of adding another nest box. This new room is both a vent and a self-cleaning latrine. (cleaning out the box was becoming a time-consuming hassle for me) The garderobe was specially designed so they would not be seen by predators and still have a place for their waste to fall through to the ground. Its floor much like that of a rabbit cage which is mesh. For the feeder, I built a special chute for the waste and that worked well. It even served as a trash chute for their nut & seed shells. Two more entertaining enhancements that I never got to was connecting 2 boxes together with a PVC tube as a tunnel and putting an exercise wheel in one of them.

If you are afraid to check your nest boxes: The first time I climbed 10 feet up on a ladder and opened up my bird house to see flyers staring me right in the face was quite shocking. It was the first time this happened to me. Another way to detemine whether you have flyers in your winter nest box is to check the bottom for urine stains. I was only able to notice this during the colder months though:

http://www.wap.atfreeweb.com/flyingsquirrels/images/flsq-hs2cam-hsg.jpg
http://www.wap.atfreeweb.com/flyingsquirrels/images/flsq-house9b.jpg (not easy to see)
http://www.wap.atfreeweb.com/flyingsquirrels/images/flsq_all.jpg (you don't need to open the box to see it)

How do you know if you have flyers?: They like unbroken forest with lots of mature hardwood trees that produce tree nuts like oaks and walnut trees. They also like tulip trees, maybe even more than some others. If you don't see the flyers then chances are that you can hear them if they are there. They make little "cheep" sounds at night when they notice a disturbance like someone going outside. Chipmunks make sounds just like this in the day but I couldn't find or make a recording of that yet. Flyer and chipmunk "cheeps" sound just like the sounds birds make.

Protecting flyers from snakes, woodpeckers, and gray squirrels: Extend the entrance depth over 2 more inches limit to the reach of a woodpecker's beak. A slightly deeper box will also help. A 1 1/2" steel portal will also help protect against woodpeckers and gray squirrels. On one wildlife nest box I added aluminum sheeting to the sides to keep gray squirrels from climbing on it and chewing it. For protection from snakes I used a multi-level nest box with 2 holes.

Chew damage by flyers to nest boxes is minor: I've only known of them to nibble a thin layer from part of the inside of nest boxes. Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers as well as Gray Squirrels have widened the size of entrance holes that were not protected by a metal portal. Properly placing Bluebird boxes as well as providing boxes for Flyers on trees should greatly lessen the chance of Bluebird boxes being used by Flyers. If you are excluding flyers from your attic, place a couple of Bluebird boxes 8-10 feet up on a nearby tree so they have a place to go and bring their babies there if they have any. Some can be bought for $9.99 each at 'Wal-Mrt' or 'L0wes'.

Please use adequate safety precautions when doing this technical work and when dealing with wild animals.