Bird feeder

(ok, I'm really looking for excuses not to study right now! )

I'd like to buy a birdfeeder for this winter... but I really don't want to spend much money on it (money's thight, plus I'll be moving next year, so I might just leave it behind). I thought of just buying those bell-shaped clumps of seeds that you just hang in a tree, but I'm not sure where I would hang it from.

Ideally, I'd like to have it outside one of my front windows. I live on the second floor and the windows are fairly close to a tree, but not close enough to reach (at least not without putting myself in danger of falling ). So I'd like to be able to attach it to the window somehow.

Or else, I could always keep it on the balcony, but the cats would prefer to watch the birds from the front windows (they'd be closer to them)

any advice?

By the way, I'm not all that concerned about keeping squirrels away. The cats like those big furry birds too

You can get some feeders that will attach to the window with suction cups - I've seen hummingbird feeders like that - sure you can find the others as well. How about suction cups with a seed bell or thistle bag hanging from it?

I agree, get the feeders with suction cups

I have a yard full of birdfeeders, and even have a "wild spot" for the birds and other critters....and believe it or not, my favorite feeder is also the cheapest, and totally disposable. It is the "finch sock". It's not much more than a mesh bag filled with niger thistle seed, and the finches actually hang from the bag and pluck the tiny seeds out through the mesh. The bag with one filling of seed is about $4 USD, and it is refillable using less expensive large bags of thistle.

I have goldfinches, house finches, and some little gray finches that I keep planning to look up in the birdbook and keep forgetting.

Finches are little clowns of birds, and will hang from the socks sideways, upside down, hang from the bottom of the sock.....my cats love 'em. And our goldfiches stay all year, it's just than in the wintertime, they take on a muddy brown color and lose their black crowns. (I guess being a bright yellow bird in a bare tree isn't really a good idea)

do the suction cups really hold? I wouldn't want them to fall on the head of somebody walking on the sidewalk...

If you want to be really cheap, get an old china or heavy plastic plate/platter and put the seed on it. You did say you have a balcony? Less risk to you when putting seed out.

I have a couple of cheap plastic tube feeders bought at Wal-Mart (less than US$5.) Our feathered friends all seem to like black oil sunflower seed. The mixtures are okay, but the birds seem to eat the sunflower first then just scatter the rest. We also put out suet. The feeders hang from garden hooks by our front porch where Ari can watch and meow at them.

We get the various finches and sparrows, chickadees (who seem to be first to find the filled feeder and then proceeds to announce it to the entire neighborhood! ), tufted titmice, nuthatches, cardinals, blue jays, and the occasional woodpecker.

Mike? I think my fav time of year is when the male goldfinches start getting their breeding color back!

Originally Posted by gemlady

Mike? I think my fav time of year is when the male goldfinches start getting their breeding color back!

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Oh, I love that time of year....when the little brownish finches are preening out the old feathers and those bold spots of yellow are starting to come through.

It's like their picking off the last of winter and throwing it away

I know you can make a bird feeder out of a two liter soad bottle and some dowels. Can't get too much cheaper than that!!
I too have several feeders and do my own birdseed mixes. Some hardware stores sell bulk birdseed and then come home and mix. You can store the birdseed in unused cat litter containers or small rubbermaid tubs or I suppose plastic shoe boxes. I don't mix corn in the spring and summer/early fall as I will have lots of crows/grackles then. I use the black oil sunflower seed/safflower seed and millet mixed together and niger/thistle seed for the finches. Kaytee seed (Made in Chilton, WI) has some preety good mixes.

Originally Posted by marie-p

(ok, I'm really looking for excuses not to study right now!

)

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...you should to study my friend! ..........


.take a little rest!...

......
what a noble action yours about the birds! I´m clapping you!

We used to have the suction cup ones on our sliding door... Unfortuantely we had to discontinue that. When a bird landed on it, it looked like something out of a cartoon, cat goes running, jumps at the feeder and goes SPLAT! Literally...it looked like something out of a cartoon. I had one cat that decided she was going to jump from the chair to the top of the feeder when no bird was there just for the heck of it. It was another cartoon moment. Not to mention the birds got horribly scared and decided it wasn't worth the fright.

It might be worth a try if your cats aren't as crazy as mine .