Bird feeder types, and which one you actually need

A feeder is not a general-purpose object. Each type is a decision about which birds get to eat and which do not, and about how much of your seed ends up in a squirrel. The store shelf does not explain this, so here is the whole picture in one place before you spend anything.

The one-table version

Feeder descriptions and the species each type attracts come from Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Project FeederWatch. The squirrel column is ours, and it is a judgment about the design, not a test result.

How to choose in about a minute

If you want the most birds for the least thought, buy a tube feeder and fill it with black oil sunflower. Project FeederWatch calls black oil sunflower the preferred food of a wide variety of birds, and a tube keeps it dry. That combination is the reason nearly every experienced feeder-watcher still runs one.

If your yard has cardinals and you want them, a tube alone will disappoint you. Cardinals are heavy-bodied and want somewhere to stand. Add a platform tray or run a hopper with a long perch rail.

If you are starting in the fall or winter, add a suet cage. Suet is the highest-energy thing you can put out and it brings in woodpeckers, which are the birds most likely to make somebody new to this actually stop and look.

If you have no yard, your options are a window feeder or a rail-mounted small tube. Both work. See feeding on a balcony.

The thing nobody tells you first

Which feeder you buy matters less than where you hang it. A cheap tube on a properly baffled pole, ten feet from the nearest fence, will lose less seed to squirrels than an expensive weight-closing feeder hanging off a branch. The distances are specific and they are published — Duncraft's 5-7-9 rule is the clearest version — and we walk through them in where to hang a bird feeder.

So: pick a type from the table, then read the placement guide before you drill anything. If squirrels are already the problem you are trying to solve, start with whether anything is really squirrel-proof instead — the answer changes what you buy.

What each feeder costs you in maintenance

Every feeder has a cleaning cost, and it is the part beginners underestimate. Project FeederWatch recommends cleaning seed and suet feeders every week or two, and more often in heavy use or wet weather. Tube feeders with a removable base take about two minutes. Tube feeders without one take twenty and therefore never get cleaned. Platform trays with a screen bottom rinse in seconds. Big hoppers are the worst offenders, because twelve pounds of seed can sit damp in the bottom for a month.

Buy for the cleaning, not just the capacity. Full instructions are in how to clean a bird feeder.