If you're a nature lover, feeding the wild birds around your home is a simple and relatively inexpensive way to help out our feathered friends. It's not just winter-time that birds need food put out, a year-round food supply can ensure birds and their offspring thrive. In spring and summer, birds are nesting and looking after their young, so need a quick and easy food source. Investing in a bird feeder that's suitable for the wildlife in your area is a great way to help birds, and you get to enjoy watching them feed. Win-win!
Gray Bunny Classic Tube Feeder
Finches, chickadees, titmice and sparrows
This affordable Gray Bunny feeder is a classic hanging tube design perfect for helping out the smaller birds such as finches and sparrows with a steady supply of seed. This four-port version is 12 inches tall, made of hard plastic with a stainless steel hanger, and offers a simple top-fill top-up process.
Nature's Hangout Window Bird Feeder
Purple finches, chickadees, cardinals, bluebirds and warblers
Nature's Hangout's window bird feeder means you can feed birds even if you have no outside space. Made of high transparency, see-through acrylic, it has drainage holes, so the seed doesn't get soaked, a removable tray for easy cleaning, a protective cover, and a padded perch-grip.
Perky-Pet Copper Panorama Bird Feeder
For all clining and perching birds
An attractive option, thanks to its rust-resistant antique copper finish and stylish design, this has a tray-style feeding port, and circular perch lets birds feed from all angles, rather than compete for perches. This feeder lets seed evenly dispense into the seed tray as it's eaten.
First Nature 32-Ounce Hummingbird Feeder
The top hummingbird feeder
First Nature's hummingbird feeder's bright red base is the perfect hue to attract the tiny birds. The perch surround provides the perfect position for birds to comfortably feed on a nectar solution at any of the ten ports. The wide-mouth reservoir is designed to be easy to fill and easy to clean.
Brome Squirrel Solution200 Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder
Only for the birds
If you're plagued by squirrels stealing all your bird food, consider this option that automatically closes the shroud when it sense the weight of a squirrel. Also, it's "chew-proof" in case the rodents get desperate. Made of UV resistant materials to keep the feeder looking good, it comes complete with a seed funnel.
Droll Yankees Yankee Whipper Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder
Entice the warblers
Another squirrel-proof option, this is a large capacity feeder that holds a whopping five pounds of birdseed, which is distributed to the four seed ports evenly via the internal baffle. The curved perches can hold a bird's weight, but collapse from the weight of a squirrel. It's made from durable, weather-resistant materials.
Perky-Pet Wilderness Lantern Wild Bird Feeder
Sparrows, juncos & finches
If you want something more good-looking than a plastic tube hanging in your garden, take a look at this decorative lantern-style seed feeder with its lovely wildlife silhouette design. With capacity for two pounds of seed and four feeding ports, it has a sure-lock cap to keep squirrels out and drain holes to prevent water-logging.
Wooden Red Cardinal Hanging Bird Feeder
Bluebirds, cardinals, blackbirds, songbirds, pigeons and woodpeckers
Made of long-lasting, hand-painted metal with a wooden base, this fun feeder has a touch of novelty about it, but still works as a seed feeder for a variety of wild bird visitors to your yard. It's simple design sees a hole on the top of the feeder to pour seed in, which is then accessed at the bottom-feeding port area.
No No Yellow Straight Sided Finch Feeder
All finches, pine siskins and redpolls
This 360-degree feeder has no wood and no plastic, just an all-metal construction. The wire mesh has a powder-coated finish to resist rust, while the sturdy metal construction is designed to stop squirrel damage. Dispensing 1.5 pounds of thistle seed, it has "Evenseed" tech to distribute the seed through the length of the feeder.
Evergreen Garden Sunflower Hanging Mesh Bird Feeder
Finches, chickadees, nuthatches, grosbeaks, cardinals and jays
Another decorative option, this nonetheless functions as a wild bird feeder for use with larger seed-type bird food, such as sunflower seeds as smaller seed will fall through the holes. It measures around 12 inches tall, comes with a hanger, is made of wire mesh, and has lovely painted glass detail to make up the sunflower's petals.
My feeder brings all the birds to the yard
Our overall staff pick, the Gray Bunny Classic Tube Feeder, is an inexpensive way to start feeding the wild birds that are around your yard. Simply fill it with a low-cost small bird food seed, and you'll soon be able to enjoy watching smaller perching and clinging birds, like finches and sparrows, feed.
If you're lucky enough to live on the Western Coast and have hummingbirds visit your garden, help out these tiny flyers with the First Nature 32-Ounce Hummingbird Feeder and a simple nectar solution.
Anyone troubled by squirrels in their backyard would do well to invest in a more expensive squirrel-proof feeder like the Brome Squirrel Solution200 Feeder. It's not the cheapest option, but just think how much money you'll save in buying seed...
