Different type of bird feeders

Bird feeders come in all different shapes, materials & sizes all with the same goal of attracting the widest variety of birds as possible to your garden to feed.
What you put in the feeder is the key factor to attracting the birds into your garden. So whether its a seed, peanut or suet feeder its important to try a variety of foods in the feeders to find out which birds like what food. The important factor is ensuring what ever feeder you use that the food can flow easily from it.
Keeping the feeder clean will help ensure any trapped food is removed allowing it to flow freely and at the same time reduce the risk of any bacteria.

Seed feeders are one of the most popular type of feeders probably because of the wide variety of foods you can get to fill them, and the more feeders you site with a variety of different seeds the wider species of birds you are likely to attract.

Seed feeders come in a variety of designs from tubular feeding stations to hopper type feeders with a trough at the base for the birds to eat from. They all come in many different designs to not only appeal to the birds but also to the bird watchers.

Seed feeders are designed to dispense various types of different seed like wild bird seed blended mixes, sunflowers - black, striped or hearts. Some seed requires a specially designed feeders like Niger/thistle seed feeders.  Niger/thistle seed is very light and small and without using a specific feeder the seed can blow away and fall through the holes of standard seed feeders.

Tubular style seed feeders come with a various number of feeding ports where birds can hang or perch to feed. The more ports you have the more birds that can feed at anyone time, and quiet often the more confident the birds feel feeding as there is safety in numbers. Ensure feeders with more than 2 ports are tall enough to enable birds of all sizes to perch or hang utilising all ports at once.

Hopper style feeders -  the lantern feeder is an example of a hopper feeder. The seed is dispensed through positioned gaps in base of the casing, and with these type of feeders the seed falls into a small trough round the base of the feeder and the birds perch and hang onto the perches to feed on the seed.

Feeders can be hung from a bird table, post, wall, fence or suitable branch of a tree using a bracket, hook, rope or other secure suitable anchor point.  Its important that the fixing is secure at all times as when the feeders are full of food and the birds are feeding the weight and movement can result in them becoming insecure.
It is also important to ensure you place feeders in a suitable location, away from areas that cats can easily reach without being seen.

Suet feeders are plastic coated wire holders designed to hold fat balls or suet blocks efficiently while birds feed.

The suet block holders are designed for holding suet blocks but are also idea for placing toast or bread and scrap in.
Fat ball feeders are designed to hold fat balls. The plastic netting that fat balls come wrapped in ideally should be removed and the fat ball placed in a suitable feeder to reduce the risk of the birds becoming trapped in the fine netting or choking on the plastic netting as they peck at the suet.

Suet feeders due to the nature of the food that goes in them require regular cleaning to avoid any remains of the food going rancid. They should be cleaned everytime before being replenished.Wash in hot soapy water first rinse well and then clean with a cleaner disinfectant like bug gard.
Suet is high in fat which is a good source of nourishment and attracts many different birds in particular nuthatches, woodpeckers, Tits and Starlings. Starling can ly devour your suet treat in no time at all and to ensure others birds get the chance to feed from them you might want to place the suet in an area of the garden that the larger birds like starling find more difficult to feed from or place the suet feeder inside a metal cage to restrict access to the larger birds & squirrels.