Bird Watching: Feeder geometry problem?, 1 by sunfarm

sunfarm wrote:
When the bottom of my cage-type feeder rusted out and dropped the plastic seed tube onto the ground, I wanted something a bit more decorative to replace it. The Sonoma feeder is prettier (on the left in photo) than the old one, but the birds were not patronizing it. I think the problem is that the mesh of the inner tube that holds the seed is so close to the size of the black oil sunflower seeds and the tube is so much smaller than the outer cage that there is a problem with the birds being able to reach and grasp the seeds easily. Part of the problem may be the angle of the birds' bills in trying to reach through the screen. A coarser mesh would allow too much seed to fall out, but will try to get DH to modify it or put in a plastic tube with separate ports, like the old one. We put the old one back up (with temporary fix to the base) and at least the birds are happier. Anybody else had this problem or have a solution?