How to protect birds at feeders on deck from hawks

I've been feeding the birds in feeders on the deck and also right on the deck floor with loose seed. There is a very small tree hanging over the deck but it's not much. I'm feeding them that way because the weather has been extreme and they are struggling. (I mean I wouldn't normally put seed on the floor of the deck but a lot of birds naturally eat on the ground - but that is covered with snow). I've also got 2 bird baths that sit close to the floor. 2 days ago I looked out and a hawk was there. I won't say more but how do I protect the birds? I thought about attaching some wood to the railing and then making some kind of leaning structure with branches or something. I'm not super well either and today have a migraine so I don't feel I can do anything at all today. I tried to put the seed and feeders close in to the tree. But does anyone have other ideas? I can hang the feeders at the property line trees but I think they go into those trees to rest and sleep and I don't really want to attract cats to those trees. I have an indoor cat that will tell me if a cat is on the deck. Thanks.

We have hawks as well and once in awhile they get a bird off of our deck. I don't worry too much about it as I think that is part of nature. I'm not sure what you can do. I have a tree line as well in the back of my yard which is not very far from the deck. Usually, when hawks are around, the birds stay in the trees and don't come to the feeders until the danger is gone. Birds survive.
You don't feel well, have a migraine, hey, just relax and watch the birds they will basically take care of themselves. It's great that you are feeding the birds.

I agree with the other commenter... it's just nature, when it comes to HAWKS or other birds of prey. Personally, I no more want to see a starving bird of prey than I would a songbird. Now, when it comes to CATS... that's a whole other matter.

If you look online, Audubon etc, there are articles talking about how cats kill BILLIONS (not a typo) of birds and mammals every single year. BILLIONS. If you know who the cat belongs to... talk to the owners about it and educate them. Not only do cats prey on birds and their young and kill them for no reason, the cat itself shortens it's life by more than half when outdoors.

"A cat's instinct to hunt is independent of it's hunger." In other words, a cat with a full stomach will stalk and kill birds and small mammals. I have a serious problem with free-roaming cats, meaning.. I'm intolerant. Most cities and counties have laws against allowing pets to free-roam. I tell the owners ONCE, maybe twice... then I call animal control. Hit them where their wallet is. If the cat is caught and/or trapped by animal control... the owners pay a fine to pick it up.

Here's another thing about feeders and yards. Our front and back yards are a haven for birds. We live in a heavily wooded private drive of 9 houses, and our back yards terminate in a heavily wooded bluff. This means tons of wildlife, including birds of ALL kinds, including hawks. Our birds have many areas to flee, to hide, to seek shelter should an aerial predator show up (cats are another story). Our property is surrounded by MANY native trees, shrubs, vines, etc., so the birds have easy access to shelter when there's danger. If your yard is bare, lacking in shrubs and/or trees for them to hide in... plant some. The trees will take a long long time to do them any good as for shelter, but they mostly shelter in shrubs anyway.

A good habitat for birds is not one of those well-manicured yards were shrubs are thick, tight, and impenetrable. A 'scrubby' shrub is best, especially a row of them. Do a search like "How to create a safe habitat for wild birds" and read what comes up. The wilder the yard, the more of a haven it becomes for birds.

Now, I saw a youtube video the other day of a Sharp Shinned Hawk that caught a bird trying desperately to hide under a patio table in someone's back yard. There were no trees or shrubs, but there was a bird feeder. The hawk, as you probably have guessed, caught the little bird. It had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. Sharp Shinned Hawks are beautiful raptors, about the size of a crow (if male), and a female is about the size of a Cooper's Hawk. And they are WICKED fast and maneuver like an F-16 jet flown by a highly skilled pilot. We only see those types of hawks in Winter here (they're migrants), but we have red-shouldered and red-tailed and Cooper's Hawks all the time.

My point is this... you don't have to stop feeding your birds, because a hawk will hunt them whether you have a feeder or not. Just do some research and see what you can do to make your yard more bird-friendly, and bird-safe.

Our Sharp Shinned Hawk was hunting heavily in our front and back yards, and the chickadees and carolina wrens were sounding the alarm whenever it was out there. All I could do was accept that this is nature's way, the food chain as it were, and that we have everything the birds need to have a chance at survival.

I wanted to share a pic of the Sharp-Shinned Hawk perched on one of the feeder poles but can't seem to find a way to add it to my post. BTW, they're diet consists of about 99% songbirds. Red-shouldered hawks eat songbirds as well, but not as much (they mostly prefer mammals), and red-tailed hawks mostly hunt mammals. In fact, the red-tailed hawks... some birds will nest near a red-tail's nest tree and territory.. better the devil you know, as they say.