Each year at this time, I discuss the feeding of birds.
It is worthwhile to provide some information on how to do it.
While there are many nice feeders available in stores, one of the feeders in your yard should have a large floor area and be open to the sky, like the one shown here. This will be visible to birds as they fly by and serves as a sort of advertisement that food is available.
There aren't any large open feeders to be purchased. You must make this type yourself. It is important that you have a large area that is not covered by a roof. The food and the birds feeding there will be visible to birds that happen to fly by.
A simple and effective feeder can be constructed as shown in the illustration, by nailing four pieces of 1-by-½-inch wood in the form of a square. Diagonal braces must be installed from corner to corner. A piece of fly screening can be stapled on the frame to serve as a floor. Drainage keeps food dry.
The screening allows rain or melted snow to pass through without soaking the food. If the floor is made of wood, you should provide a few quarter-inch holes for drainage.
A piece of wood about 6 inches square is installed in the center, where the braces cross. The post can be nailed to this board or a pipe flange can be installed there and a metal pipe used as a support.
Such an open feeder must be cleared of snow, but birds are not afraid to use it. Generally they are timid at first about going under a roof. Later on, when birds have found your feeder, you could roof over one end, as shown by the dotted lines. A strong and lightweight shelter can be made of reinforced plastic (a sort of plastic sheeting with wire screening imbedded in it to provide strength).
Choose a good location. It should be no more than 10 feet from the protection and shelter of shrubbery or evergreens.
If it is farther out in the open, birds may be timid about using it. If it is very close to the bushes, a cat hiding there could easily catch a bird feeding on spilled seed below the feeder. Thus a distance of about 10 feet is a good compromise.
Benjamin P. Burtt writes about birds every other week for Stars. Write to him by mail to:firstname.lastname@example.org in care of Stars Magazine, P.0. Box 4915, Syracuse, NY 13221; or send email to email@example.com ( put "birds" in the subject field).