Ground Feeder Guide

Trays attract most species of feeder birds, and placed near the ground they are most likely to attract juncos, doves and sparrows ¹. Song Sparrows, Fox Sparrows and many towhee species will readily eat fallen seed from the ground beneath your feeders ¹. Mourning Doves feed on the ground and in the open, pecking or pushing aside litter rather than scratching, and seeds make up 99 percent of their diet ⁴.

Millet is a favored food of many smaller ground-foraging birds, and cracked corn attracts doves, quail and sparrows ¹. All About Birds' advice for Mourning Doves is exactly this: scatter seed, particularly millet, on the ground or on platform feeders ⁴. Skip milo — it is not a favorite of most birds and the seed often goes to waste ¹.

Because the food sits in the open, offer only what is eaten in a day. Wet seed on the ground molds quickly, and a moldy feeding area is where salmonellosis spreads ¹².

Birds that spend much of their time on the ground are particularly vulnerable to prowling cats ⁴, and cats kill hundreds of millions of birds each year in North America ¹. A ground feeder belongs in an open spot a few feet from cover — close enough for birds to escape a hawk, far enough that a cat cannot ambush from it — and only in a yard where cats stay indoors.

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