Bloody Starlings, bloody squirrels, bloody birds

Put up feeders filled with expensive food for your birds, and what happens? It all gets noshed by Starlings (seriously endangered, my arse) and squirrels (they WILL be endangered if I can do anything about it), while your pretty birds perch at a distance wondering whether they could make a better living in the Algarve.
So, I spend megashekels to buy and put cages over my feeders that small birds can negotiate but larger creatures can't.
Sure, but nobody told the small birds that, so they are starving in the midst of plenty, because NOT ONE has yet worked out how to get through the cages.
Meanwhile, the squirrels and starlings have moved next door to pillage my neighbours' feeders.
Somehow, I don't feel that this is progress.