The Feeder Log
A working record of backyard bird feeders.
What they cost, how they hold up through a winter, and what it takes to keep them clean enough to be worth hanging.
What gets logged here
Feeders
Which type brings in which birds, why disassembly is a specification, and where in the yard a feeder can safely go.
Food
What each seed attracts, what gets kicked to the ground, and where the money in a cheap bag actually goes.
Upkeep
Cleaning schedules, the parts that fail first, and when to take a feeder down entirely.
Visitors
Squirrels, rats, bears, and cats. What stops each one, and which are a safety matter rather than a nuisance.
Water & Shelter
Bird baths, the hazard hiding in heated ones, and the single measurement that decides who nests in a box.
If you are wondering whether to feed birds at all
That question has an answer in the population data, and it is not the one the alarming articles suggest. Across 135 species tracked over decades, the birds that use feeders most have been doing better. Disease is the real entry on the other side of the ledger, and it is the one that depends on you. What the research actually found.
Latest entries
All articlesBinoculars for Bird Watching: What the Numbers Mean and What They Cost
Binoculars for bird watching: what 8x42 means, the eye relief range Audubon publishes for glasses wearers, and what its under-$200 tier actually tested.
A Bird Feeder for a Deck Railing Is in Two Wrong Places at Once
A bird feeder for a deck railing sits too far from the glass to be safe and zero feet from a squirrel launch pad. What the published distances say.
A Bird Feeder for an Apartment Balcony: What Falls, and Whose Problem It Is
A bird feeder for an apartment balcony goes on the glass or the inside railing. Seed hits the neighbor below. The lease, not bird law, usually decides it.
Bird Feeder Pecking Order: Why Birds Chase Each Other
The bird feeder pecking order is measurable, not random. Size predicts most of it, but the flocking species lose one-on-one, which surprised the researchers.
Bird Feeder Types: Which Birds Each One Lets In
Bird feeder types work as guest lists: perch length, hopper size, and suet cage design decide which species can feed and which are shut out.
A Bird Hit Your Window: What to Do in the Next Hour
A bird hit your window and is still alive: how to tell dead from stunned, why a rehabilitator beats a shoebox, and why one that flew into glass gets no water.
About the photographs
The backyard photographs here were taken by two people who feed birds in North America, yuanyuan and Kevin Hu, and are used with permission. Every image carries the name of whoever took it. They are not our photographs and they are not our yards, and every caption says so. More on how this site works.