Tube Feeders: The Best Backyard Bird Feeder

The perch and port mimics how birds gather food for themselves, which makes it widely desirable to a vast majority of backyard birds. Over 40 species of birds like to use a tube feeder, including chickadees, finches, nuthatches, titmice, sparrows, cardinals, and juncos.

Black Oil Sunflower Bird Seed is the best seed for a wide variety of birds. However, depending on the port size of the feeder, Nyjer is a popular Tube Feeder seed because of the gorgeous finches it attracts.

TIP: A lot of seed blends include fillers that birds can’t eat like red milo, wheat, oats and flax seed. Choosing a blend with none of those can make your seed last longer and your birds come back more often. (All of Birds Choice Wild Bird Seed contains no filler)

Tube feeders are the most popular because they contain the seed keeping it dry, and less waste ending up on the ground. This makes them easy to maintain and easy to clean. The perch and port system allows birds to cling and eat appealing to more species than other feeders.

Squirrel resistant cages, weight-activated ports, and feeder placement are all solutions to Squirrel based problems. Squirrel resistant cages sit around the feeder keeping larger pests from accessing the ports. Weight activated ports sense when a squirrel climbs on the feeder and closes all ports allowing zero access to your seed. Keeping feeders at least 5 feet off the ground, 7 feet away from jump-off points (like trees), and 9 feet below overhead branches prevents squirrels from reaching them entirely.

TIP: Adding a Squirrel proof baffle to your feeder pole makes ground based pests (like squirrels and chipmunks) slide right down and keeps your feeders out of their reach.

Keeping feeders at least 5 feet off the ground, 7 feet away from jump-off points (like trees), and 9 feet below overhead branches prevents squirrels from reaching them. Placing any feeders you have within eyesight from a window of your house also makes knowing when to refill that much easier.

Every 1-2 weeks you should take apart the feeder as much as possible and wipe down the inside with warm soapy water mixed with vinegar. Harmful bird diseases can be traced back to improperly maintained bird feeders. Clean surfaces promote better songbird activity.

TIP: Use the Birds Choice Bird Saver Cleaner and take the guesswork out of your cleaning mixture.

Tube feeders provide more controlled feeding with the limited amount of ports, which also limits the amount of waste. The food is contained so less falls to the floor and less is exposed to the elements, leaving more for your birds. While a hopper feeder also protects your seed from the elements it holds more seed on average which can cause it to sit and go bad. Hopper feeders also are not as squirrel resistant compared to Tube feeders.

There are several reasons why seed could not be coming out of your feeder, a quick fix is taking it apart and wiping down the inside(especially the ports) with warm soapy water. Clumping can occur when seed is left sitting too long, try removing all old feed and replacing with fresh feed. Cheap seed mixes contain fillers which birds won’t eat and will junk up the ports, switching to a high quality feed with no fillers(like any of Birds Choice Wild Bird Seed) could solve the problem if it's reoccurring.

Yes, some tube feeders are compatible with peanuts. Stay away from Finch feeders and other Nyjer focused feeders as it’s a much smaller seed. However mesh feeders are far more geared to be filled with peanuts.

The best port size for you depends on your backyard bird interests. 7/16th of an inch port size is compatible with Black Oil Sunflower Seed which is broadly desired by bird species. However if you're aiming to bring more finches to your yard 1/8th inch is geared for Nyjer Seed, their favorite.

Yes, tube feeders are ideal for beginners because they are easy to clean, keep your seed protected(from weather and squirrels) and appeal to a wide variety of backyard birds

This depends on how many ports and perches a tube feeder has. Amount of perches = amount of birds able to feed at the same time.

Yes, the polycarbonate body keeps seed safe from moisture and the elements keep fresher for longer.

The best tube feeders have a blend of metal and plastic components. Metal provides unmatched durability, while plastic gives you crucial visibility to your seed levels.