Bird Feeding FAQ

The short answer

• A one-feeder station costs roughly $70 a year to run on black oil sunflower at our benchmark prices; a three-feeder station with suet and nyjer runs closer to $135.
• Nothing on this site requires you to feed year round, and nothing bad happens to the birds when you stop.
• The risks that are real at feeders are disease, window collisions and cats, and all three are things you control rather than reasons not to feed.
• Every guide carries its own questions in context; this page collects all of them so you can scan instead of hunting.

Every guide on this site ends with the questions people actually ask about that subject, answered in the context of that subject. That is the right place for them: "how often should I clean it" has a different answer for a nectar feeder than for a suet cage, and splitting the difference on a general page would make both answers worse.

This page does two jobs. It collects every one of those questions in a single list, grouped by cluster, so you can scan or use your browser's find function instead of guessing which guide covers your problem. And it answers the twelve questions that belong to no single guide, in the section below this index.

Every question on the site#

The twelve that belong nowhere#

Some questions cut across everything: what this costs, whether it is safe, whether it is legal, whether it matters. They sit awkwardly on any one guide, so they are answered below with the detail they deserve.

Four of them have a longer treatment elsewhere and the short answer here is a summary. Cost is worked properly, per pound eaten rather than per pound bought, in cost per calorie, and you can run your own numbers in the seed cost calculator. Whether birds come to depend on feeders is covered in do birds depend on feeders. The squirrel answer is a geometry problem worked through in baffles and poles. And the claims that keep circulating despite the evidence get their own page, bird feeding myths.

If a term in any answer is unfamiliar, the glossary is the fastest route to it.

Frequently asked questions#

How much does feeding birds cost a year?

Using the benchmark prices in our dataset, one tube feeder holding black oil sunflower and getting through about a pound a week costs roughly $70 a year in seed. Add a suet cake every two weeks through the cold months and a nyjer feeder for finches and the working figure is about $135 a year. Hardware is a first-year cost, not an annual one: a pole, a baffle and two feeders is typically the largest single outlay you will make, and a metal feeder outlasts a plastic one by several years. Buying seed in 40 lb sacks rather than 5 lb bags is the biggest lever on the running cost, provided you can store it dry.

Do I need to feed birds year round?

No. Birds do not need you in any season, and feeding is a supplement rather than a food supply. That said, the two periods that reward feeding most are late winter into early spring, when natural seed stores are at their lowest and before insects appear, and late summer, when adults are molting and juveniles are learning where food is. If you feed only part of the year, feed then. In bear country, take feeders down from spring through autumn regardless, and follow your state or provincial guidance on dates. See the feeding calendar.

Is bird feeding bad for birds?

Feeding done badly is bad for birds. Feeding done properly is neutral to mildly positive. Three risks account for nearly all of the harm: disease spread at dirty feeders and in wet spilled seed, window collisions at feeders placed in the danger zone between 3 and 30 ft from glass, and cats hunting birds that have been concentrated in one spot. All three are under your control. Clean on a schedule, put feeders either under 3 ft from the window or beyond 30 ft, and keep cats indoors. See diseases at feeders and window strikes.

What is the single best bird seed?

Black oil sunflower. It has the broadest appeal of any single seed in our preference data, it works in almost every feeder design, and it is cheap enough to be the base of a station rather than a treat. Its weaknesses are hull mess, since about a quarter of the bag weight is hull that ends up on the ground, and the fact that squirrels and grackles like it as much as songbirds do. If either of those is your problem, safflower is the usual swap and sunflower hearts are the no-mess swap. See best bird seed.

How long does it take birds to find a new feeder?

Anywhere from a day to three weeks, depending on whether birds already move through your yard. In a garden with mature trees and existing feeders nearby, expect chickadees within a week; chickadees and titmice investigate new things first and everything else follows them. In a new-build yard with no cover, four weeks is normal and the fix is cover rather than seed. If nothing has come in six weeks, something specific is wrong, and the diagnosis list is on no birds at my feeder.

How often do I really have to clean a feeder?

Seed feeders: every two weeks in mild dry weather, weekly in heat, humidity or heavy traffic. Nectar feeders: every two to three days in warm weather and daily above about 90 °F, because sugar water ferments fast. Suet cages: monthly, or whenever fat has smeared over the wires. The method is the same for all of them, hot soapy water, a ten-minute soak in one part household bleach to nine parts water, a thorough rinse and full drying before refilling. Full routine on how to clean a bird feeder.

Do I need to stop feeding before I go on holiday?

No, and you do not need to arrange cover either. Feeder birds visit many food sources in a day and treat your feeder as one patch among dozens. When it empties they use the others, which is what they were doing before you arrived. Two practical points: empty the feeder rather than leaving it full for a fortnight in summer, because unattended seed goes moldy and moldy seed is genuinely dangerous, and take nectar feeders down and clean them before you leave rather than letting syrup ferment in the sun.

What feeder should a beginner buy first?

A tube feeder with a seed tray at the base, filled with black oil sunflower, mounted on a pole with a baffle rather than hung from a tree branch. The tube covers chickadees, titmice, nuthatches and finches, and the tray adds cardinals, juncos and sparrows that a bare tube excludes. The pole and baffle matter more than the feeder: they solve squirrels, raccoons and cat ambush in one purchase. Add a suet cage second for woodpeckers. Full sequence on starting a feeding station.

How do I stop squirrels getting at the feeder?

Geometry beats gadgets. A squirrel can jump about 4 ft vertically from the ground and 8 to 10 ft horizontally from a launch point, so a feeder on a pole with a baffle whose top sits 4.5 ft up, at least 10 ft from any fence, roof, branch or deck rail, is genuinely out of reach. No baffle works if the pole is inside jumping range of something. Where a pole is impossible, a caged feeder is the next most reliable option. See stopping squirrels.

Is it legal to feed wild birds?

In most of North America, feeding songbirds in your own garden is legal and unregulated. The exceptions are local rather than national: some municipalities restrict or ban feeding wildlife, many bear-country jurisdictions prohibit bird feeders outside winter months, some areas restrict feeding that concentrates deer or waterfowl, and rental agreements and HOA rules often say more than the law does. Check your city ordinance and your state or provincial wildlife agency before assuming. Handling, keeping or relocating wild birds is separately regulated and generally not permitted.

What should I do if I see a sick bird at my feeder?

Take the feeders down, all of them, for at least two weeks. Clean them fully, rake up and bin the spilled seed underneath, and let the birds disperse, because concentration is what spreads feeder-borne disease. Do not handle the bird. Report what you saw to your state or provincial wildlife agency, particularly if you find several dead birds, since agencies track outbreaks through reports like yours. Signs worth reporting are swollen or crusted eyes, birds that sit fluffed and will not flush, and dead birds with no obvious injury. See diseases at feeders.

Does feeding birds actually help conservation?

Not directly, and it is worth being honest about that. Feeders support common, adaptable species that are mostly doing fine, and they do nothing for the specialists in decline, which need habitat rather than seed. What feeding does well is create attention: people who feed birds notice birds, and that leads to native planting, keeping cats in, treating windows and contributing to counts that ecologists genuinely use. If you want your feeding to have ecological value, plant the native species that feed insects, and submit your sightings to a monitoring project.

Sources and further reading

1. Project FeederWatch Cornell Lab of Ornithology Feeder-bird guidance, cleaning practice and sick bird reporting
2. Wildlife Health Information USGS National Wildlife Health Center Disease outbreak response and reporting
3. Bird Feeding and Care National Audubon Society General feeding, placement and habitat guidance