Can someone suggest a good feeder for large bird feed?

I use the Wild Bird Fruit and Seed feed and have a problem with it getting stuck in my feeder. Any suggestions? Im a pretty novice bird watcher so yall be gentle ;)

Welcome to the world of bird watching. It has brought us so much joy and expense, when it all began with a milk jug feeder made as a science project. :)

Hmmm... What kind of birds are eating from this? And what type of feeder is it? Is the feed caking or just getting trapped? Sorry for the questions, I am trying to picture your quandary.

Can you put up a platform or hopper style feeder? This would allow a great variety of birds to feed as well as not getting stuck. Our favourite feeders are the type that do not hang. We have severe winds out on our wannabe prairie and have to take them in. Otherwise we are just ground feeding a lot of critters. :)

I recently moved into an apartment and am on the third floor, so I have to have hanging feeders. I used to have hanging feeders, platform feeders, and bird baths... I miss them!

I mostly see chickadees which I have taken care of with sunflower chips in a small bird feeder. I also get cardinals who do not seem to like the small feeder.

I will try to take a picture tomorrow of what I have set up and post it. It may help to see a layout of the area.

Thanks for your response :)

Hi JenniferLynne,

If you're mostly getting Chickadees and Cardinals, you can simplify your life by just buying Black Oil Sunflower seeds. This is probably the most common bird seed and it's also the one that the majority of birds prefer which might even attract other birds. You can also buy one or two feeders of different types that both the Chickadees and Cardinals will be happy with.

Chickadees aren't fussy about the type of feeder. I have tube feeders, tray feeders, screen-types made from galvanized hardware cloth and more. The Chickadees eat from all of them as well as off the ground. Cardinals are basically ground feeding birds, but they do come to feeders. They prefer either a tray type feeder or a tube or hopper feeder with an attached tray.

By-the-way, Chickadees will grab a seed, then fly to a perch to crack and eat it. If you can hang a branch nearby they might use it. I also used to have a feeder that attached to a window and the Chickadees loved it. There are different types and they generally attach with suction cups.

Do you have a balcony? There are birdbaths that attach to deck or balcony railings as well as ones that are like a tray or shallow bowl that can you can hang on a hook.

Oh, there is one problem...feeding the birds can be addicting!

That is some great advice, nutsaboutnature!

I used to live in apartments, but didn't care about birds then. It is nice you can attract them to your place.

I have lots of Cards, Chickadees, Titmouses, etc. I buy the tube type feeders from Lowes (the cheap ones) and then attack plastic plates (I get them from Amazon) to the bottom of the tube feeders. I use the pointed tip of a soldering iron to melt holes in the plates (tried drilling, but cracked the plates too often). To actually attach the plate to the tube feeder, I use black zip ties. I thread them up through one of the holes I made in the plate, around the bottom perch pegs, back through another hole in the plate and zip together beneath the plate - and it's done. Works great - and is inexpensive.

If can't see in your "mind's eye" what I did, then if you want, I can go out and snap a pic of one of my rigs. Right now it is raining, or I'd do it anyway.

I used to buy the expensive copper looking ones with the plates already on them, but they where stolen by some neighborhood crook(s).

My cheap-o rigs work just fine - and I can make 2-3 for what one of the copper feeders cost.

Hack

Thanks yall!