Where to Hang a Bird Feeder: Placement That Actually Brings Birds In

Where you hang a feeder changes how many birds use it more than which feeder you bought. Here is what the placement actually needs to do.

Close to cover, but not too close

Small birds will not feed in the open with nowhere to escape to. They want a shrub, a hedge or a low tree within about ten feet \u2014 close enough to reach in one flight when a hawk goes over.

But cover that is too close becomes an ambush point for cats. Around ten feet is the compromise: near enough to feel safe, far enough that nothing can spring from it.

The window problem

Window collisions kill a very large number of birds every year, and feeder placement is one of the few things an individual can control.

The counterintuitive rule: put the feeder either within three feet of the window or more than thirty feet away. Very close means a startled bird cannot build up enough speed to be injured. Far away means it is unlikely to mistake the reflection for open sky in the first place.

The dangerous zone is the middle \u2014 roughly five to twenty feet \u2014 which is unfortunately where most people hang them.

Shade, sun, and the solar problem

Birds prefer some shade. Seed keeps better out of direct sun, suet does not melt, and the birds themselves are less exposed.

If you have a camera feeder with a solar panel, this creates a genuine tension: the spot the birds want is the spot the panel does not. This is worth thinking about before you mount anything. Either accept a partly sunny position, or use an extended solar panel on a cable so the panel can sit in sun while the feeder stays in cover.

Wind and rain

Face the feeder away from prevailing wind. Wet seed spoils quickly and clumps, and a feeder that catches driving rain will need cleaning constantly.

Think about the ground below

Birds drop a lot of seed. Whatever is underneath will get hulls, sprouting seedlings, and the ground-feeding birds that come for the spill.

Avoid directly above a patio, a path, or a car. Over a border or rough grass is ideal. Hulls are mildly allelopathic \u2014 they suppress growth \u2014 so do not site a feeder over a prized lawn.

Height

Five to six feet suits most feeders. High enough to be out of reach of cats and awkward for squirrels, low enough that you can actually reach it to refill and clean without a ladder.

The feeder you can refill easily is the feeder that stays full.

Where you can see it

Obvious, and routinely forgotten. The best-placed feeder in the world is wasted if it is round the side of the house.

Put it where you look from \u2014 the kitchen sink, the desk, the chair you drink coffee in. If a camera is doing the watching for you, this matters less, but the background still does: a hedge or a fence gives you a clean backdrop, while a shed wall or a neighbour's window does not.

Give it time

Two to three weeks before birds treat a new feeder as reliable. Moving it because nothing has come in five days resets that clock. Leave it, keep it filled, and let them find it.