Bird Watching: Recommendation for a bird feeder and hummer feeder, 1 by Chillybean

Chillybean wrote:
I too live on an acreage and have plenty of feeders. I am out in the country, so we get a lot of birds that may not go in town. I like platform feeders which are used by most birds and have three of those. I also have one hopper with a tray underneath, various suet cages/nesting material holders, etc...

We made our own platforms, but I like the ones Wild Birds Unlimited sells. We have one tray attached below one of their hopper feeders. Their poles are great because you just screw them into the ground, no digging required.
http://shop.wbu.com/c/tray-feeders-for-birds.

I really like the Hummzinger feeder for ease of cleaning and it has a built in ant moat. http://www.duncraft.com/Aspects-HummZinger-Ultra-Hummingbird...

Last year I was seeing more hummingbirds at my flowers out back than the feeders, so if you have the time, plant some hummingbird flowers (Just make sure whatever you get was not treated with neonics which harm pollinators and hummingbirds.) The hummingbirds here seem to have a preference for Bee Blossom over Colimbine. I put a Trumpet Creeper in the ground yesterday and hope this one lives. I had cuttings last year that didn\'t make it.

I also use ant moats as feeders for Orioles. I\'ll post a picture instead of explaining. This one was attached to the window, but I also put them on shepherd\'s hooks. You still have to have a moat filled with water above this to keep the ants out of the jelly.

Nails are pounded into one of our platforms and on a tree stump for holding orange halves. In the second picture, you can see I filled an empty orange half with jelly. I do that until the orange half gets icky than just pitch it. Literally, my lawn looks littered with orange peels, but I do that to keep cats away.

You may get some undesirable birds, so adjust the feed or feeders to limit them, but it is hard to completely exclude those if you want the others. My overall favorite family of birds are North American sparrows, but to feed them the millet they prefer, I am going to have grackles, cowbirds and house sparrows. By breeding season, most native sparrow species have moved north, with only the Chipping sparrows coming to the feeders, so I put out less millet and they find other foods.

I hope you find something that works for you and can enjoy a lot of birds. :)