Platform feeders, and the cardinals you have been missing

There is a specific disappointment familiar to new feeder-watchers: cardinals in the neighborhood, a tube feeder in the yard, and no cardinals at the tube feeder. The cause is not the seed. It is that a cardinal is a heavy, broad bird that wants to stand on something while it feeds, and a two-inch tube perch is not that.

A platform tray is.

What it is

Project FeederWatch defines a platform feeder as “any flat, raised surface onto which bird food is spread,” and adds the design requirement that matters most: “the platform should have plenty of drainage holes to prevent water accumulation.”

That is the whole product. There is nothing to break and nothing to adjust, which is part of its appeal.

Who it brings

Trays attract most species of feeder birds. Placed near the ground they are most likely to attract juncos, doves and sparrows — species that, as FeederWatch notes, will rarely land on a feeder but readily eat fallen seed.

Raised on a pole, a tray brings cardinals, jays, grosbeaks and everything that already uses your tube. It is the least selective feeder there is, which is either its best or its worst feature depending on your view of grackles.

The two rules

1. It must drain

A screen bottom, or plenty of holes. Nature's Way publishes a removable screen tray that encourages drainage and airflow; that removable part is also what makes cleaning quick. Standing water plus seed equals mold within days, and mold is the one thing at a feeder that genuinely harms birds.

2. It must be baffled

A tray is an open dish of seed. There is no mechanism, no port size, no perch length — nothing between the food and whatever climbs up to it. On a baffled pole in the open, a tray is fine. Anywhere else it is a squirrel feeder with a bird-shaped logo. Baffles here.

Use it differently from a tube

• Put out small amounts. A tray has no roof. Fill it with what will be eaten in a day, not a week.
• Empty it before rain if you can, or accept a clean-out afterwards.
• Clean it more often than a tube. It is exposed, droppings land in it, and it is used by more birds. The upside is that it cleans in about a minute.
• Vary what goes in it. Striped sunflower, safflower, peanuts, fruit and mealworms all work on a tray and would not work in a tube.

Ground-level trays

A tray set low or on the ground is the honest way to feed juncos, doves and towhees, which largely will not use a hanging feeder. It also feeds every rodent in the neighborhood, so use small amounts, clear leftovers each evening, and read rodents and unwanted visitors first.

Platform or hopper for cardinals?

Both work. A tray is cheaper, more inclusive and more exposed; a hopper keeps seed dry and can be made squirrel-resistant with counterweighted perches. If you already run a tube and want to add cardinals cheaply, add the tray. If you want one feeder to do everything, buy the hopper.