Wet Feeder Blues

The climate where I live here in the Pacific Northwest is very tough on bird feeders. In the last month I've had to throw two away, and one of them was fairly pricey, so I thought I'd take some time to share what I've learned about selecting feeders.

The problem here is rain. For a good part of the year, and certainly during the winter months, all the feeders in my yard are exposed to near constant rainfall. The first feeder I discarded was an inexpensive thistle feeder which I bought at the beginning of the season when I was suddenly inundated with American goldfinches. It was a tube feeder, made of fairly thin plastic with a plastic lid. It had what I was looking for (small holes so that the thistle wouldn't get wet as quickly as with wire mesh thistle feeders or thistle socks), and it was inexpensive.

As soon as I got it home, I took it outside and hung it up. The top slid up and down on the wire hanger in order to fill it with seed, and I noticed almost immediately that the top did not slide well. No problem, I thought, it isn't as though I'd be doing that constantly. Well, it turns out that it WAS a problem. The reason it didn't slide well is that the top wasn't quite big enough for the feeder. Result: rain seeped in around the edges and the thistle got wet. There was no way to repair the problem simply and inexpensively, so I threw the feeder away. Wet thistle turns very quickly to moldy thistle, and I didn't want to risk making any of the birds coming to the feeder sick by feeding them moldy thistle.

In contrast, my other thistle feeder has served me well for going on four years now. It looks nearly identical to the one I just threw away, but I paid more for it and it is much better made. The tube itself is thicker and heavier. The top and perches are metal (covered with plastic, in the case of the perches). It is sturdy, and it is easy to fill and clean. Now I know that when I pick out tube feeders I need to carefully check to make sure all parts fit securely so that no rain water can seep inside. I also think that the metal lid helps keep the seed dry simply because it is heavier, and doesn't blow around in the wind and let rain seep around the edges. That was definitely a problem with the plastic lid.

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