Window Feeder Guide

The birds that use tiny hanging feeders use window feeders too. Black-capped Chickadees do not mind tiny hanging feeders that swing in the wind and also readily visit window feeders ⁴; Tufted Titmice, House Finches, nuthatches and American Goldfinches follow. Feeders with short perches accommodate small birds such as finches but exclude larger birds such as grackles and jays ¹, which is exactly what a window feeder does.

Fill it with black-oil sunflower — the preferred food item for a wide variety of birds and a favorite of cardinals, chickadees, finches and sparrows ¹ — or sunflower chips, which leave no hulls on the sill.

The worry with a window feeder is the window. Collisions kill perhaps a billion or more birds a year in North America, and far more die at low-rise buildings and homes than at high-rises because there are so many of them ³. The current advice from the Cornell Lab is that older recommendations about safe feeder distances are no longer valid: if you have windows near a feeder, make them bird-friendly and do not worry about how far away they are ³.

Practically, that means treating the glass around the feeder so it stops reflecting sky and branches: markings spaced no more than 2 inches apart across the outer surface, tape or dot products, closely spaced cords, or a mosquito screen over the whole outside of the window ³.

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) — Black-capped Chickadee: Overview and Life History