Bird feeding station ideas (Five of the best feeders)

Advanced Pole System offers bird feeding solutions

If you are serious about birds, purchasing or building a comprehensive bird feeding station is likely one of the best decisions and investments you’ll make.

Twenty years ago, I would never have thought our single pole bird feeding station would continue to be the central focus of our bird feeding station today.

But it continues to perform as well, if not better, than it did the day I purchased it.

A high quality, comprehensive bird feeding station not only helps to focus the feeding in a specific area of your garden where you can watch the birds, it allows you to customize it with optional feeders to attract a greater variety of birds and easily adapt the feeders to seasonal needs.

While I get great enjoyment from my bird feeding stations, providing natural food sources to our feathered friends is always the goal we should aspire to in our gardens. I have written a comprehensive post on feeding birds naturally. You can read about it here. If you are looking for high quality bird feeders, consider spending a little more and purchasing recycled resin feeders like the ones in the photo below. Be sure to check out my post on why resin feeders are better than wood.

Our Advanced Pole System from Wild Birds Unlimited with the dual baffles and a couple of Wild Birds Unlimited recycled resin feeders. For more on the resin feeders go to my post on why resin feeders are better than wood ones.

The pole system I use, for example, changes throughout the year depending on what I am feeding. Smaller optional feeders that easily attach to the main pole are used at different times of the year to provide fruit, while others are ideal for offering meal worms, peanuts or jelly for orioles.

Other optional accessories provide different landing and perching spots for the birds as well as add-on trays to catch seed and provide an area for larger birds to feed.

Here you can see the Advanced Pole system in action. Five Baltimore Orioles take advantage of their many options with oranges, jelly and nectar all available to them in addition to a compresses seed cylinder (top), and suet. The “Decorative Branch Perch” provides them with an ideal place to land and feed.

There are many systems available that offer an array of options, but one of the most comprehensive and customizable systems is the Advanced Pole System from Wild Birds Unlimited. (Check out WBU on-line brochure of the entire system)

If you are not familiar with the franchise, it offers brick and mortar stores throughout Canada and the United States as well as a comprehensive on-line store.

Another, simpler, but convenient and high quality pole is available through Gardener’s Supply Company on-line store. It is particularly adaptable for decks or other locations where you may want a feeder close to a window.

Gardener’s Supply describes it as a kit that includes five 16-inch sections of 1-inch diameter pole. you can use as many sections as you like for the desired height. The kit also includes two adapters that allow you to mount a wooden or metal item at least 3-inches square on the bottom. Black, powder-coated steel pole is unobtrusive, letting your feeder or birdhouse take center stage.

Gardener’s Supply also offers some of the finest bird feeders you could find to hang from the pole system. The company’s on-line store has a complete offering of bird feeders that are certainly worth checking out here.

I purchased our bird feeding station pole from a local Wild Bird Unlimited store at least 20 years ago and it has performed exceptionally well since then. Even after several moves around the garden, it continues to stand up to the rigours of a host of heavy, seed-laden feeders, birds, squirrels and difficult Canadian winters.

To see the pole in action, check out my earlier post on attracting blue Jays and my article on my two favourite Blue Jay feeders. And, be sure to check out my post on why seed cylinders are a must for any feeding station.

This woodpecker is feasting on a seed cylinder on the Advanced Pole feeding system in our backyard.

Five of the best optional bird feeders for your pole system

1) The Spike: By far my favourite option is a simple spike that fits on top of the feeder pole to hold compressed seed cylinders. The seed cylinders are woodpecker magnets but they also attract Blue Jays, nuthatches, chickadees and cardinals just to name of few. The key to the cylinders is that they not only attract the birds, the birds stay longer because they have to work at removing the seeds from the cylinder.

2) Catch Tray Feeder: WBU offers a catch tray that attaches directly to the pole and catches much of the feed that is cast aside by birds that are more interested in their prized sunflower seed. The tray is perfect for feeding larger birds by offering shelled peanuts and other larger snacks to our feathered friends.

3) Suet cage: The built-in suet cage that attaches directly to the WBU pole is just a simple way to offer suet or compressed seed cakes to the smaller birds throughout the year. Although I also use a separate WBU suet feeder complete with a tail feather prop for larger woodpeckers, the pole mounted cage offers convenience and is used to provide nesting material to birds in the spring. Spent grasses, and other goodies are stuffed into the cage for the visiting birds to take with them after their snacks.

4) Half ball: For special treats, including oranges in the spring and suet balls in winter, WBU offer optional, clip-on, steel half balls that are perfect for holding dried fruit and other smaller offerings including a handful of meal worms. They are available in basic black and orange to attract orioles.

5) Covered plastic dishes: The plastic, removable dishes are ideal for offering special treats that benefit from being somewhat sheltered from the elements. The roof is separate and can be adjusted to suit the heights of the birds you expect to be attracting or to ensure the food is properly covered. Fresh berries and meal worms are perfect offerings for these small dishes. Because they are easily removed from the steel carrier, they can be brought in the house for a quick cleaning.

Give birds a place to land near your feeders

There are two excellent accessories that I consider almost essential to my Advanced pole system.

The first is the Decorative Branch Perch that serves not only as an additional source to hang various feeders, but more importantly a comfortable perch for birds to land on before moving in on the feeders. The perch fits directly on the Advanced Pole and allows easy positioning 360-degrees around the pole.

The wire “leafs” are the ideal spot to squeeze in large orange halves for orioles or hang smaller feeders.

One of my favourite options on the pole system is a simple, small, open cylinder that fits on the pole and provides a holder for a good-sized natural tree branch. The option is perfect for photographers looking to capture natural images of birds at the feeder. The ability to position the branch anywhere in the 360-degree circle around the feeders is perfect for taking advantage of different lighting situations and backgrounds.

It’s also super easy to swap out different branches so that not all of the bird photographs contain the same branch images.

Why use a pole system to feed birds?

A key benefit to using a single pole system as your primary feeding station for birds is the ability to keep unwanted visitors from eating all your seed. Squirrel and raccoon baffles are a must to keep the critters from getting up and feasting on your expensive feed and potentially destroying expensive feeders.

With the single pole system, you can focus all your efforts on deterring the squirrels and other mammals rather than fighting to keep them away from various parts of the garden with expensive feeders designed to spin-off squirrels or close down feeding opportunities for our non-feathered friends.

Placing the pole system in an inaccessible spot is vital to success. Keep the pole system about 10 feet away from trees and other structures (including your home or a shed) where squirrels can jump aboard.

Depending on the athletic ability of your backyard squirrels, you may have to move the pole even farther away. I have an Olympic-calibre black male squirrel that can jump vertically higher than most of my baffles. I’m hoping all the high-quality seed he is feasting on will eventually cause him to get too fat to continue these medal-winning high jumps.

There is no doubt that a concentrated feeding area can bring in unwanted visitors to your feeders, including mice and rats. There are important steps you can take to keep these unwanted visitors from your yard. Be sure to check out my comprehensive post on Keeping Rats and Mice out of your yard.

Check out my best birding buys article for more on bird-feeding poles and other optional feeders

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