Location of Your Garden Bird Feeder

Location, location, location...

Set up your FEEDER in a quiet place where it is easy to see and convenient to refill. The feeder should be close to natural shelter (cover) such as trees or shrubs, which offer refuge to birds as they wait their turn to feed. Evergreens are ideal—their thick foliage buffers winter winds and offers year-round hiding places from predators.

Be careful not to locate your feeder too close to cover, though. Nearby branches can provide good jumping-off points for seed-hungry squirrels and bird-hungry cats. A distance of about 10 feet seems to be a good compromise, but try experimenting. You can provide resting and escape cover for ground-dwelling birds such as Song Sparrows, by placing loosely-stacked brush piles near your FEEDERS.

Beware of placing your feeder near windows; birds may collide with them. Ornithologists estimate that window strikes kill millions of birds each year.

Hummingbird feeders:

If you're putting out a hummingbird feeder, make sure it's protected from the wind; a swaying feeder may spill sugar solution. Also, try putting the feeder in the shade because sugar solution spoils quickly in the sun.

To attract hummingbirds, tie red ribbons around the feeder so they flutter in the breeze.

No birds?

At first you may have no feeder visitors. Be patient—the local birds first have to discover there's free lunch in the neighborhood! As with any new restaurant, you may need to do a little advertising to get some clients—if no birds visit your seed feeder within a few days of setting it up, try sprinkling seeds on the ground nearby to make the feeder more obvious. If birds congregate nearby but just don't come to your feeder, place a feed pile between the favored area and the feeder. As the birds start to use the feed pile, move it closer and closer to your feeder.

If the seed in the feeder is blowing out or getting wet, your birds are probably getting the same treatment. Try moving the feeder to a calmer, more sheltered spot.