Hopper vs Platform Feeder

Trays attract most species of feeder birds; placed near the ground they are most likely to attract juncos, doves and sparrows ¹. All About Birds' advice for Mourning Doves — scatter seed, particularly millet, on the ground or on platform feeders ⁴ — and for Blue Jays, which prefer tray or hopper feeders on a post ⁵, both point to the platform. The weakness is weather: an open tray needs drainage and daily portions, and cleaning more often in wet weather ¹.

Large hoppers attract most species of feeder birds and let doves and grackles feed ¹, and their roof keeps several days of black-oil sunflower dry. What a hopper does not do well is serve the ground birds: juncos and sparrows will still take the seed that falls beneath it ¹, but they rarely climb onto the tray.

A platform is the better single feeder for variety and for doves, juncos and sparrows; a hopper is the better single feeder for a busy yard that cannot be refilled daily. Either one on a baffled pole, ten feet from branches, with a day's worth of millet scattered below, covers nearly every backyard bird ¹.

Place feeders close to natural cover such as trees or shrubs, which offer birds refuge from predators, but not so close to strong branches that squirrels can jump across — a distance of about 10 feet is the usual guidance ¹. Windows are the other hazard: collisions kill perhaps a billion or more birds a year in North America, and older rules about safe feeder-to-window distances are no longer thought valid — if a window is near a feeder, treat the glass with markings spaced no more than 2 inches apart, external screens or cords, rather than worrying about the distance ³.

Squirrel baffles — barriers placed between squirrels and feeders — are usually the best defense. Squirrels can jump to feeders placed less than ten feet from a tree or building, so a pole-mounted feeder in the open with a baffle below it, or a tilting baffle at least 18 inches in diameter above a hanging feeder, is the arrangement that works ¹.

Clean seed and suet feeders regularly — every week or two, and more often during heavy use or wet weather — by scrubbing off debris and washing the parts thoroughly with warm water and dish soap ¹. Hummingbird feeders need cleaning far more often, every couple of days and ideally every time they are refilled; discard the solution and clean immediately at any sign of cloudy water or black mold ¹.

If a sick bird appears — House Finch eye disease shows as red, swollen, runny or crusty eyes, and avian pox as wart-like growths around the eye, bill, legs and feet — remove the feeders the bird is using for a couple of weeks and clean the feeders and the area thoroughly, so disease is not spread at the feeder ². Salmonellosis, caused by Salmonella bacteria, is a common cause of mortality in feeder birds and spreads the same way ².

1. Project FeederWatch (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) — Feeding Birds: feeder types, food types, placement and cleaning
2. Project FeederWatch — Sick Birds and Bird Diseases
3. All About Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) — Why Birds Hit Windows, and How You Can Help Prevent It
4. All About Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) — Mourning Dove: Overview and Life History
5. All About Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) — Blue Jay: Overview and Life History