This is surprisingly difficult to find, and many squirrel proof feeders on Amazon actually get destroyed by squirrels in no time. Those that can resist the squirrel assaults have a cage that's too narrow for robins to get inside.
And it was just the feeder, btw. So nothing else.
Well, with a feeder you need to put it somewhere. Tried trees. It was a squirrel feeder.
Then I got a pole for the middle of my yard, away from all high objects a squirrel could jump from. Quickly became a squirrel feeder, as they can climb the pole. Looked at greasing the pole, laying out with a BB gun, and other options, but settled on a metal cone below the feeder.
The squirrels in my neighborhood have bad short term memory, so they will see the feeder, make the association with food, start to climb the pole, get under the cone, and then sit there for a couple of seconds before forgetting their mission.
I’ve had squirrels try to reach to the exterior of the cone, but it’s not stable, so as soon as they put weight on it they fall.
I’ve heard squirrels elsewhere are smarter than this system (not sure how - team work?) but here they can’t figure it out.
All that said, the “gift” of the bird feeder lead to $100 in purchases, regular seed refills, and hours of research. But I ended up with birds near my office window, so that’s nice.*
6/10 would receive again.
Feeder pole: Your friend has shared a link to a Home Depot product they think you would be interested in seeing.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-84-in-Black-Steel-Traditi...
Feeder: Audubon NAGOGREEN1 Going Green Ranch Style Bird Feeder
Cone: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0010QD5QO?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_...
* in searching my Amazon order history to find the products I got, I realized we also had a ton of bird strikes into our windows, to the point that I had to get clings to go on the windows. These have been mostly effective in stopping birds from hitting the house.
One solution is cage suet feeders. Squirrels can't peck into them.
Another is throwing out enough seed / feed on the ground over a large enough area so that a variety of critters can get access. Crows, finches, jays, wild turkeys, and deer would feed at the same time.
Yet another solution is to place a tree feeder on top of a greased pole away from trees so squirrels can't jump down to it or climb up it.
Bird baths or other fresh water sources that are kept from producing mosquitoes larva are also good.
The other critters of concern in the area were red foxes, vultures, hawks, and black bear.