Pro tip: skip the fancy bird feeder and just put out a cheap tray one week

Last Tuesday I woke up at 5:30am and saw zero birds at my nice tube feeder with the perches and the seed guard. I got annoyed and just dumped some black oil sunflower seeds on a $5 plastic tray I had sitting in the garage. Within 20 minutes I had a dozen sparrows, a pair of cardinals, and a blue jay all fighting over it. The next morning I put the tray out again and got a goldfinch I've never seen before. That tube feeder has been sitting empty for 4 days now. Has anyone else noticed birds just ignore the fancy stuff for a flat open tray?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylor.sean4d agoMost Upvoted

Man I read somewhere that birds actually prefer open feeding areas because they can see predators coming from all sides. Those tube feeders with the little perches probably make them feel trapped or something. Makes sense when you think about it, they're just looking for the easiest and safest spot to grab a seed quick. I switched to a platform feeder last year and it was the SAME thing, the chickadees and nuthatches showed up way more. The fancy feeders probably look better to us but the birds clearly don't care about that.

amy9744d agoMost Upvoted

Funny you mention that, we had a robin absolutely lose its mind trying to get at a suet cage last spring, kept flying at it from every angle until it finally gave up and went for the ground crumbs instead! Guess they really do have their own way of thinking about what counts as safe.

anthony1294d ago

That's the thing, we ALWAYS overthink what looks nice instead of what actually works. It's like how people buy those fancy stainless steel dog bowls but the dog would rather drink out of a muddy puddle.