Looking for low-mess wild bird feeder or birdseed recommendations
I live in an apartment on the third floor, and have a cat. She loves watching birds from our balcony, so we got her a bird-feeder to put in our balcony.
It has done a great job of bringing in more birds (primarily finches and sparrows) for her to watch, except the sunflower seeds we got for it result in an extreme mess all over the balcony and I worry our downstairs neighbors likely hate us as a result, so we’ve taken it down.
Wondering if anyone has recommendations for a bird feeder or bird seed that would be less messy? Or should this just turn into a “when we move to a first-floor apartment or a house” sorta dream.
Unfortunately, my wife is allergic to peanuts, so any bird seed that is made with peanuts (and from what we’ve seen, almost all are) is not an option.
My wife won’t let me hang bird feeders on our deck unless they are no mess or no waste seeds. They are the same seeds as in wild bird feeders bags, but without the shells. Before I moved we had a local shop that sold it, now there isn’t one close. I now hang my hummingbird feeder on the deck and regular feeders elsewhere.
Alternatively we bought one that hung off a window for my son when he was younger so he could have one on the 2nd floor. It would allow regular feeders but the shells would not be over the balcony if you have other windows.
Seed: sunflower chips, aka “sunchips.” Sunflower seeds without the shell. More expensive, but one of the best seeds out there. You’ll even get non-seedeating birds who otherwise couldn’t crack the shell.
Feeder: any feeder will work with the sunchips. If you stick with a shelled seed, you could try a tray underneath the feeder, but I can’t guarantee the meds will stay contained. For feeders in general, I’m partial to the Squirrel Buster series. Very well built, easy to take apart for cleaning, and the mesh grid allows clinging birds to feed too.
I'm not sure what season it is for you but suet might be a good option as there are "no mess" and "no melt" varieties (the second one on this list does not contain peanuts).
If it's specifically the shells from the sunflower seeds that concern you then you could also get a bag of hulled sunflower seeds which would result in less mess overall. Semi-related, if you're having fun with seeing the birds, I'd HIGHLY recommend getting the Merlin Bird ID app. It is SO helpful with things like identifying bird song but also a lot of fun to record all the birds I see day to day.
Merlin Bird ID App is great!
I did look at some suets but none available at the stores near me were peanut free, and I was struggling to find ones online that were.
Thanks for the list, that second one does look promising.
I have trouble getting good pics of birds, it's with pointing out that it can id via sound as well.
The no mess stuff they have at Wild Birds Unlimited has made a huge difference on my deck. I think it might be the store brand. It did NOT make a difference on how much bird poop ends up on the rails and anywhere else they like to perch.
My cats absolutely adore watching hummingbirds. Those feeders are practically free to fill and I also really enjoy watching them. If they hang out over winter and it freezes where you live, you can get a little shoe thing for the feeder that has an incandescent bulb in it to keep the food from freezing.