Tube feeder vs platform feeder, picked the wrong one for cardinals

I set up a tube feeder last month after reading it keeps seed dry, but the cardinals in my Nashville yard wouldn't touch it. Swapped to a platform feeder a week ago and now I'm getting 5 cardinals a day plus a pair of blue jays. Anyone else have birds that just refuse certain feeder types?

3 comments

3 Comments

harpery477d ago

Same thing happened to me with finches last year. Built a whole fancy tube setup and they just stared at it like I was trying to trap them. Platform feeders are basically bird buffets, hard to go wrong with those.

terryw677d ago

lol yeah @harpery47 that's exactly what happened to me. I spent like an hour setting up this super complicated feeder with perches and everything and the birds just looked at it like it was a spaceship. Platform feeders are just way more natural for them I think. At this point I'm starting to agree with Wesley a bit though. Some days I just toss seed on the ground and the cardinals and doves go nuts for it with zero fuss.

wesley_adams7d ago

Harper says "hard to go wrong" but I dunno, I've seen plenty of people mess up platform feeders too, like leaving old seed in there for weeks until it molds. Honestly, are we overthinking this whole bird feeding thing? They ate fine before we started building all these contraptions and probably still would if we just threw some seed on the ground.