DIY Project

DIY Platform Feeder Plans

A tray feeder is the easiest thing in the yard to build and the hardest to build badly enough that birds ignore it. The only real decisions are the wood, the floor, and how it drains.

This is a 12 by 16 inch (30 by 41 cm) open tray with a 1.5 inch (4 cm) rim and a floor of 1/4 inch galvanized hardware cloth. It hangs from four corner chains or bolts to a post cap, holds about a quart of seed, drains completely after rain, and cleans with a hose and a stiff brush.

Build time is roughly two hours if you have a saw, a drill and no interruptions. Materials come from one 8 foot (2.4 m) cedar 1x2, one short length of 1x3, and a 12 by 16 inch piece of mesh.

Every dimension below is given as a finished cut length, not a nominal one. Cedar 1x2 measures 3/4 by 1-1/2 inches (19 by 38 mm) in the real world, and the cut list is calculated on that.

Cut list#

The two short rails sit between the long rails, which is why they are 10-1/2 inches rather than 12: 12 inches minus two rail thicknesses of 3/4 inch each. Finished outside dimensions are 16 by 12 inches (41 by 30 cm).

Hardware

• 16 exterior deck screws, #8 by 1-1/2 in (38 mm), stainless or coated.
• 8 exterior screws, #6 by 1 in (25 mm), for the keeper strips.
• About 30 stainless staples, 1/2 in (13 mm) crown.
• 4 stainless screw eyes, 1/4 in (6 mm), plus four 12 in (30 cm) lengths of light chain and one quick link, if you are hanging it.

Tools#

• Miter saw, or a hand saw and a miter box. The cuts must be square or the corners gap.
• Drill or driver with 3/32 in (2.4 mm) and 1/8 in (3 mm) bits, plus a countersink.
• Aviation snips or heavy tin snips for the hardware cloth. Household scissors will not do it.
• Staple gun.
• Tape measure, combination square, pencil.
• 120-grit sandpaper.
• Safety glasses and leather gloves. Cut hardware cloth is genuinely sharp.

Choosing the wood#

Cedar and cypress are the right answer. Both resist rot without any treatment, both are soft enough to drive screws into without splitting if you pilot the holes, and both last a decade outdoors bare.

Untreated pine or spruce works and costs less. It will go soft at the corners in three or four seasons. That is a reasonable trade for a first build.

Building it, step by step#

Allow about two hours.

1. Cut the rails (15 minutes)#

Cut two long rails at 16 in (406 mm) and two short rails at 10-1/2 in (267 mm). Check each cut against a square. Sand the ends and both faces with 120-grit until nothing catches a fingernail.

2. Pilot and assemble the frame (20 minutes)#

Stand a short rail between the ends of the two long rails to form a butt joint. Drill two 3/32 in (2.4 mm) pilot holes through the long rail into the end grain of the short rail, spaced about 3/8 in (10 mm) from the top and bottom edges. Countersink, then drive #8 by 1-1/2 in screws. Repeat at all four corners: eight screws total. Check the frame for square by measuring both diagonals, which should match within 1/16 in (1.5 mm).

3. Cut the mesh (15 minutes)#

Lay the frame on the hardware cloth and mark 12 by 16 in (305 by 406 mm). Cut along the middle of a wire square rather than right against a cross wire, so the cut leaves no stub sticking out past the edge. Wear gloves. Lay the mesh flat and press any curl out of it with a block of wood.

4. Staple the floor (15 minutes)#

Turn the frame upside down, lay the mesh over the bottom, and staple it every 2 inches (5 cm) all the way around, pulling it taut as you go. Start with one staple at each corner, then work along each side.

5. Fit the keeper strips (20 minutes)#

Screw the four 3/4 by 3/4 in cedar strips over the stapled mesh edges, using #6 by 1 in screws into 3/32 in pilot holes, two per short strip and three per long strip. The strips do two jobs: they clamp the mesh so staples are not carrying the load, and they cover every cut wire end so nothing can snag a foot.

6. Add the mount (15 minutes)#

For a post mount, screw the two 1x3 cleats across the underside, spaced to straddle your post, and bolt or screw through them into the post cap. For a hanging mount, drill 1/8 in (3 mm) pilots and turn a stainless screw eye into the top of each corner, then run four equal 12 in (30 cm) chains to a single quick link.

7. Final check (10 minutes)#

Run a bare hand slowly around every inside edge and across the mesh. Anything that catches gets sanded or clipped now. Confirm the tray sits level: an out-of-level platform pools water in one corner, which defeats the whole design.

Mounting height and placement#

Set the tray 5 feet (1.5 m) off the ground on a smooth steel pole, 10 feet (3 m) from anything a squirrel can launch from, with a baffle at least 15 inches (38 cm) wide beneath it. That geometry is the whole squirrel defense, and it is covered fully in how to stop squirrels raiding feeders and baffles: types, sizing and placement. If you would rather build the baffle than buy one, see DIY squirrel baffle.

Keep it 10 to 12 feet (3 to 3.5 m) from a shrub so birds have an escape route, and site it over mulch or lawn rather than a deck. Platform feeders spill more than any other type, which is a feature for ground feeders and a nuisance for everyone else. Managing that fallout is the subject of seed mess, hulls and dead grass.

Who uses a platform feeder#

This is the feeder that serves the birds a tube excludes: heavy-bodied, wide-stanced species that want somewhere to stand.

Expect Northern cardinals at first and last light, mourning doves settling in for long stretches, dark-eyed juncos in winter, and blue jays arriving loudly and leaving with as much as they can carry. Sparrows, towhees and grosbeaks all use it.

Fill it with black oil sunflower as a base, add white proso millet if you want sparrows and juncos, and use cracked corn sparingly because it draws grackles and spoils fast when wet. Half an inch (13 mm) of seed across the tray is plenty; a deep pile just goes stale underneath.

Sizing up and sizing down#

The cut list scales cleanly. Keep the rails 1-1/2 inches (38 mm) tall at any size, because a deeper rim traps seed against the corners and makes cleaning worse.

• Balcony version, 8 by 12 in (20 by 30 cm): short rails at 6-1/2 in (165 mm), long rails at 12 in (305 mm), mesh 8 by 12 in. Fits a railing bracket. See feeding birds on a balcony.
• High-traffic version, 16 by 24 in (41 by 61 cm): short rails at 14-1/2 in (368 mm), long rails at 24 in (610 mm). Add a center brace across the short dimension or the mesh sags.
• Ground tray: same build, set on four 6 in (15 cm) legs. Only sensible if you accept the rodents, cats and squirrels it brings within reach.

Cleaning and upkeep#

An open tray gets rained on, snowed on and defecated on. Plan on a full clean every one to two weeks, more often in warm weather.

Tip the seed out, brush the mesh from underneath so hulls fall clear, wash with hot soapy water, rinse, then let it dry completely in the sun before refilling. The disinfecting step and safe dilutions are in how to clean a bird feeder.

Twice a year, check the screw eyes for corrosion and the mesh for a bulge or tear near the keeper strips. Both are ten-minute fixes and both are how this feeder eventually fails if ignored.

Common mistakes to avoid#

• Half-inch mesh. Small seed pours through it. Use 1/4 inch (6 mm).
• A solid plywood floor with a few drain holes. It holds a film of wet hulls that never dries. The mesh floor is the reason this design works.
• Deep sides. Anything over about 2 inches (5 cm) traps seed and slows drying.
• Galvanized staples in a stainless-fastened frame, or the reverse. Mixed metals corrode faster where they touch. Pick one and stick with it.
• Filling it to the rim. A quart of seed spread thin gets eaten. Three quarts piled deep gets damp underneath.
• Skipping the baffle. A platform on an unbaffled pole is a squirrel feeding table with a nice view. Build the rest of the setup properly using building a complete feeding station.