How to Set Up a Bird Feeding Station: Essential Tips and Best Practices
“With so many different bird feeding stations available on the market, how do I know I’ve selected the best one for my garden?”
Bird feeding stations come in all shapes and sizes: some are ornate and more closely resemble garden ornaments whilst others look like they’re capable of the next moon landing. My personal favourites sit somewhere in-between; pleasant to look at and yet serviceable. In other words, they have to work. They have to…
- be safe for birds
- withstand strong winds
- not rust too easy
- be easy to assemble
- be fairly portable
- spike into the ground for safety
- not look out of place in a garden
Ornate swirls and elaborate patterns would put me off buying a bird feeding station – I’ve seen some designs that seem to be unsafe to me and might even trap a bird’s foot or damage a wing. Form follows function and I only want a bird feeding station to be a bird feeding station.
The best analogy I can offer to illustrate what I mean is this: consider a teapot in a garden centre restaurant… it’s the cleanest, brightest bone china and the garden centre in question has selected it because it fits perfectly well with their Victorian tea garden setting. So far so good! Until…I try to pour the tea and the liquid goes everywhere apart from the tea cup. The teapot only has one thing to do and it’s failed to do that.
The moral: select a bird feeding station based on serviceability, not looks.
Written by Simon H. King
