Reference Desk
Four pages that sit under everything else on the site, plus a short explanation of how the rest of it is arranged.
The short answer
- This cluster is the site's support layer: definitions, cross-cutting questions, the source list, and the claims that need correcting.
- Every other cluster follows the same shape: a hub that maps it, one or two pillar pages that make the big decision, and guides that answer one thing each.
- If you are stuck on a word rather than a decision, the glossary is faster than the guide it came from.
- Numbers on this site are reproducible: each one traces back to the published dataset and the methodology page.
Most of this site answers a specific question: which feeder, which seed, which bird, what went wrong. The four pages in this cluster do something different. They support the other pages by defining the vocabulary, collecting the questions that turn up everywhere, listing what we read, and dealing with the claims that keep circulating whether or not they are true.
What each of these four pages is for#
The glossary defines the terms in the sense this site uses them, which is not always the sense a seed bag uses them. "Thistle" on a label is nyjer, and nyjer is not thistle. "Hulled" means the hull has been removed, so hulled sunflower and sunflower hearts are the same thing sold under two names. If a page uses a word you have to stop and parse, the glossary entry is usually shorter than the paragraph that sent you there.
The FAQ index is two things at once. Every guide on this site carries its own questions in its own context, and that page collects all of them in one list you can scan or search. It also answers the dozen questions that belong to no single page: annual cost, whether to feed year round, how long birds take to find a new feeder, whether any of this helps.
The source list is the standing bibliography. Individual pages cite what they lean on, but the source list shows the whole set at once, which is the honest way to let someone judge whether a site is reading agencies and university extension services or reading other blogs.
The myths page handles the claims that survive by repetition. Some are simply wrong. Some are partly true in a way that matters, which is the more interesting case, and the page says so rather than flattening everything into "false".
How the site is arranged#
There are ten clusters. Each one answers a different shape of question, and the fastest way through the site is to pick the shape first rather than searching for a keyword.
| If your question sounds like this | Cluster |
|---|---|
| Which feeder should I own, and what does this design do well? | Feeders |
| What is in this bag, and is it worth what it costs? | Bird food |
| What is that bird, and what does it actually want? | Birds |
| Something is going wrong at my feeder | Problems |
| Where do I put it, and how do I keep it safe and clean? | Setup and care |
| What should I be doing this month? | Seasons |
| Which of these two, specifically? | Comparisons |
| Do the arithmetic for me | Tools |
| Show me the numbers behind the advice | Data |
Inside a cluster, pages come in three sizes. A hub maps the cluster and links to everything in it. A pillar settles the biggest decision in that cluster and is the longest page there. A guide covers exactly one thing: one feeder design, one seed, one species, one problem. If you land on a guide from a search engine and it assumes context you do not have, the breadcrumb above the title takes you up to the pillar that supplies it.
The three routes through a question#
Start from the bird. You saw something, you want it back. Go to the species page, read the food ranking, buy that food, use the feeder design it lists. This is the shortest route and it works for a single target species.
Start from the food. You already own a feeder and a bag, and you want to know what that combination will bring in. The food pages carry the species list for each seed, so you can check before you buy the second bag rather than after.
Start from the failure. Nothing is coming, or the wrong things are coming, or the seed keeps going bad. The problems cluster is organized by symptom, not by cause, because the symptom is what you actually have.
Where the numbers come from#
Any figure on this site that involves cost, kernel yield, energy density or preference comes out of one published dataset rather than being written into a sentence by hand. That is deliberate: it means the preference chart, the calculators and the tables inside guides cannot drift apart from each other, and it means a reader can check the arithmetic instead of trusting it. The methodology page gives the formulas and, more usefully, says which numbers we are confident in and which are working estimates.
Prices are the weakest part of the dataset by design. They are benchmarks for comparing foods against each other, not a claim about what you will pay this week in your town. Use them as ratios, not as quotes.
When a page here disagrees with a page elsewhere#
Two rules. Where a wildlife agency, a state or provincial authority or a public health body issues specific guidance for your area, that overrides anything written here, particularly on disease outbreaks and on feeding in bear country. And where this site contradicts itself, tell us: corrections get logged with a date rather than edited away, and the editorial standards page explains what we will and will not publish, including why there are no product recommendations anywhere on the site.
Frequently asked questions#
Where should a complete beginner start?
Not here. Go to starting a feeding station, which walks through one feeder, one seed and one location, then come back to this cluster when a word or a claim needs checking. The reference pages are written to be dipped into and read out of order, which is the opposite of what a first setup needs. The one page here worth reading early is the myths page, because it will save you from at least two purchases you do not need to make.
What is the difference between a hub, a pillar and a guide?
A hub is a map of one cluster and links to everything in it. A pillar is the page that settles the biggest decision in that cluster, such as which feeder to buy or which seed to buy. A guide covers one subject in depth: one feeder design, one seed, one species, one problem. Hubs are short, pillars are long, guides are specific.
Do you update these pages?
Yes. Every page carries an updated date at the top. Disease guidance and agency advice change, seed prices drift, and our own dataset gets revised as we log more feeder time. Substantive changes to a published figure are logged on the corrections page with a date, rather than quietly edited in and forgotten. If a page has not been touched in a long time, that means we still stand behind it, not that nobody has looked.
Can I trust a table more than a paragraph?
Only if you know what went into it. Our preference scores condense published species accounts and our own observation onto a five-point scale, so the extremes are solid and the middle carries real uncertainty. A bird scored 4 on sunflower will definitely take sunflower; a bird scored 2 might, in your yard, in some months. The methodology page says how each number is built and where our confidence is low.
Sources and further reading
- Project FeederWatch Cornell Lab of Ornithology Feeder designs, species accounts and feeding guidance underlying the site
- Wildlife Health Information USGS National Wildlife Health Center Disease guidance referenced across the setup and reference clusters
- Bird Feeding and Care National Audubon Society General feeding and habitat guidance