Birds and Feeders -My Take

"Best-1" Hummingbird Feeder

A couple of Finches on my new Aspect Goldfinch Feeder

I get so totally obsessive with the bird feeders, that I wear myself out by the end of the summer. Last summer, I took a sabbatical from my feeders altogether. But after our visit to Israel, that longing for amazing flora, fauna, AND birds came back…so I'm at it again. Thankfully, I have a couple of years under my belt with feeders, and we have a great feed store that has local wild bird supplies.

I was just talking to my mom, and her one complaint about a feeder was the "messiness" of them. I have four feeders (ok, so now you know), and they rank from neat and tidy to extremely messy. Neat and tidy-the "Best-1" hummingbird feeder. It's like an upside down jar with a plastic base for the hummingbirds to feed. 

The original "Best-1" feeder was a quart sized jar, which was frustrating for me the first year I used it. Who has SO MANY hummingbirds that they go through 32 ounces of sugar water in 3-7 days? You are supposed to clean and refresh the sugar water once to twice a week, so I made tons of sugar water, did not swap it out often enough, and ended up with ants and black mold in my feeder. Finally, I put it in the dishwasher, and hid it in the back of a cabinet-chalking it up to the fact that hummingbirds "weren't my thang".  

This year, I found the EIGHT OUNCE (not 32) "Best-1" feeder. It's super cheap, and I have instant boiling water at my sink, so making the sugar water is easy for me. The ration is 1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup water. I just fill a mason jar (small) 1/4 full of sugar,and then a little boiling water to get the sugar melted, then the rest of the way with water. I pour some of this into the feeder, and keep the rest of this (labelled), in the fridge. Ahh, the smallness of it, and the light weight make this one a keeper!  I tried the beautiful glass feeders, but the hummers did not seem to like them as much and they leaked…. Hummingbirds are fun to watch, and there is no seed on the ground when they finish. It's a tiny bird, tiny cheap feeder, and cheap food. If you will notice in my hummingbird photo, I have a plant in the yard that the hummingbirds naturally love, so I put my shepherds crook right in the middle of that planting.

The next favorite feeder is the Goldfinch Feeder. Nyjer seed is the seed of choice for these birds. Make sure they (goldfinches), are in native to your area, and prepare to wait a couple of weeks before you get your first bird. Goldfinches love coneflowers (Echinacea), so you can plant a couple near your feeder, but the best part is you won't be getting doves, crows, squirrels (i've never gotten squirrels on this feeder), and other undesirable, messy, big birds. Also, the seed does not need to be "cracked", they just consume the seed when they poke their beak through the wire. As you can see by the photo, I'm starting to get some (finally). My finch feeder has been hanging in that spot for about a week and a half. Well…not exactly in that spot. I've moved it four times. But in the general vicinity-

If you are going to get normal bird food-just a big bag of mixed seed, get ready for mess, and squirrels. For some reason, I finally got the right balance this summer. I got a four foot long "crook" with a hook on two ends and hung my "general" feeder from the crook and hung the crook on a branch that was not too near other branches. The thing is so tall and long, the squirrels seem to instinctively know, they will never be able to get to this feeder, so they just eat feeder "droppings" underneath. I've bought several "squirrel proof" feeders, but this little trick has worked better than any of the squirrel proof feeders, and I found a lovely extra large capacity general feeder (again from the Aspects brand), that is gorgeous, and now squirrel proof with my long "string". I originally thought of string or wire, but then the feed store (always so handy with answers), had this crook thing in several sizes-all under $10 each, which I will save that in not feeding squirrels for one summer.

My final feeder is a one foot square platform tray. I also have this hanging from a Shepherds Crook (just happened to have these on hand), and every bird in the area comes for a daily feeding frenzy. It's the messiest, yet most filled with life and quickly (only wait 5 minutes after hanging this one up, and you will have birds. Once I run out of my Costco bag of birdseed, I will probably put this one in storage, but for now, watching 20 doves try to crowd onto the platform and the Shepherds Crook almost crash to the ground is amazingly entertaining for our five kids, so we live in a sort of bird paradise/Spring jungle party state of mind, and I like it.