Feeder Types
Platform and Tray Feeders
No other feeder brings in as many species as a bare open tray. None of them costs you as much in spoiled seed, squirrels and cleaning if you get the drainage and the height wrong.
The short answer
- A platform feeder is an open tray with no seed reservoir. It attracts the widest range of species of any feeder because every bird can see the food and stand on it.
- Drainage is the whole design. A solid-bottom tray is a puddle waiting to happen; a metal or nylon mesh floor is what makes a platform viable.
- Height changes the guest list more than any other variable: ground level for doves, juncos, towhees and sparrows, waist height for cardinals and jays, hanging for a mixed crowd.
- Put out only what the birds will finish in a day. A platform has no roof and no reservoir, so leftovers get wet and stay wet.
- Everything else in the yard wants this food too. Assume squirrels, chipmunks and, in some regions, deer and bears.
A platform feeder is an open tray with no reservoir and usually no roof: a flat surface, a low rim, and a floor that drains. That is the entire design, and it explains both of its properties. Every bird can see the food, and every bird can stand on it, so a platform pulls in a wider range of species than a tube, hopper or suet cage will ever manage.
The same openness is the cost. Seed sits exposed to rain, droppings land directly on the food, and squirrels treat it as a plate. A platform is the highest-yield and highest-effort feeder in the yard.
This page is organized around the three decisions that determine whether yours works: how it drains, how high you put it, and how much food you leave on it.
Drainage is the design#
Everything else is trim. A platform feeder with a solid wooden or plastic floor becomes a shallow basin in the first rainstorm, and seed sitting in water for two days is unusable and mildly dangerous.
Three floor types, in ascending order of how well they work:
| Floor type | Drains? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Solid wood or plastic | Poorly, even with drilled holes | Holes clog with hulls within a week; wood stays damp underneath |
| Perforated metal sheet | Adequately | Better than solid; still traps fine debris in the holes |
| Metal or nylon mesh screen | Well | Water passes straight through, air circulates, hull dust falls out |
Mesh is the right answer. Look for a screen with openings around 1/8 inch (3 mm): fine enough to hold nyjer and millet, coarse enough that water and dust fall through. Galvanized hardware cloth and coated polyester screen both work; plain steel window screen rusts through in about two seasons.
Set the screen slightly proud of the frame rather than recessed into a lip, so water does not pool along the edges. If you are building your own, the sizing and joinery are covered in DIY platform feeder plans.
One inch of rim is plenty
A rim of about 1 inch (2.5 cm) keeps seed from blowing off without penning it in. Taller rims trap water at the corners, hide the food from birds flying past, and make the tray far harder to brush out. Deep-sided trays are the single most common design mistake in homemade platforms.
Ground, pole or hanging: three different feeders#
The same tray at three heights attracts three different sets of birds. Choose deliberately.
At ground level#
Set directly on the ground or on short legs 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) up, a tray becomes the natural feeding surface for the birds that would otherwise be picking through your lawn: mourning doves, dark-eyed juncos, white-throated sparrows, song sparrows and eastern towhees. Legs matter: they keep the mesh off wet soil and let air move underneath.
Ground trays need the strictest discipline. Bring them in at dusk, or you are feeding rodents, raccoons and, west and north of much of the country, worse. Site them 10 feet (3 m) or more from dense shrubbery so cats cannot ambush, a point covered in cats and bird feeders. The specifics of ground feeding are in ground feeders and catch trays.
On a pole at waist height#
A tray at 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 m) on a baffled pole is the most practical platform in most yards. You can reach it without a ladder, it stays clear of splash and snow, and it puts cardinals, blue jays and rose-breasted grosbeaks at eye level from a window. The baffle below does the squirrel work; the tray itself offers no defense at all.
Hanging#
A hanging tray at about 5 feet (1.5 m) is the easiest to protect and the easiest to move. It sways, which some heavier birds dislike and which is occasionally useful as a mild filter against grackles. Chains from four corners keep it level; a single central hanger will tip and dump.
What to put on a platform#
The open surface is the reason to offer things no other feeder handles well.
- Black oil sunflower and safflower for the general crowd.
- White proso millet for sparrows, juncos and doves, which is where millet belongs rather than in a tube where it gets raked out.
- Cracked corn in small amounts, kept dry. Corn molds fastest of anything you will offer.
- Peanuts in the shell for jays and woodpeckers, which is the food a platform delivers better than any hanging design.
- Mealworms in a shallow dish set on the tray, for bluebirds, wrens and chickadees.
- Fruit halves for orioles, robins and catbirds in spring and summer. See fruit for birds.
Small amounts of several foods beat a deep pile of one. A pile more than about an inch (2.5 cm) deep means the bottom layer is not getting eaten today, and it will be damp by tomorrow.
Droppings land in the food
On an open tray, birds stand where they eat. That makes platforms the feeder type most associated with disease transmission, including salmonellosis. Brush the tray daily, wash and disinfect weekly, and take it out of service entirely if you see a lethargic, fluffed-up bird that will not fly. Guidance is in there is a sick bird at my feeder and how to clean a bird feeder.
Managing the mess underneath#
An open tray sheds hulls, and hulls kill grass. They also contain growth inhibitors, particularly sunflower hulls, so the bare ring under a busy platform is not just trampling.
Three things reduce it:
- Switch to hull-free food. Sunflower hearts and no-mess blends eliminate most of the debris. They cost more per pound and less per calorie actually eaten.
- Put a catch tray under the platform, or rake the area weekly. A tarp pulled out on refill day and shaken into the trash works too.
- Move the feeder occasionally, 10 feet (3 m) or so, in the same general area. Grass recovers, and the birds follow within a day. The technique is in moving a feeder without losing the birds.
The wider problem, including what to do about a permanently dead patch, is covered in seed mess, hulls and dead grass.
Squirrels, chipmunks and larger visitors#
A platform feeder has no exclusion features whatsoever. This is worth stating plainly because platforms are frequently sold with squirrel-related marketing that the design cannot support.
What works:
- A baffle on a smooth pole, correctly sized and correctly placed: at least 4 feet (1.2 m) up the pole, with the tray 10 feet (3 m) from any launch point. Sizing is in baffles: types, sizing and placement.
- Serving less food. A tray emptied by dusk is a poor rodent restaurant.
- Accepting the ground tray is shared. Chipmunks will use a ground platform. If that is unacceptable, do not run a ground platform.
In bear country, take every platform in before dark during the active season and consider suspending feeding entirely from spring through fall. This is a safety issue for you and a death sentence for the bear. See bird feeders and bears.
The overnight rule
Whatever is on the tray at dusk is not feeding birds. It is feeding something else, getting wet, or both. Sweep the remainder into a bucket at the end of the day, and put out a smaller amount tomorrow. Within a week you will know your yard's real daily consumption.
When a platform is the right first feeder#
If nothing is coming to a new feeder, a platform is the fastest fix. Food on an open surface is visible from a distance and requires no learning: a bird does not have to work out that a port dispenses seed. A tray of black oil sunflower on a stump will usually be found before a new tube on a pole, which is why it is a standard trick in how long until birds find a new feeder and in why are no birds coming to my feeder.
The sensible progression is a platform first to establish traffic, then a tube feeder and a hopper to spread the crowd out and cut the mess, keeping the platform for ground-feeding species and the extras like fruit and mealworms.
A platform setup that works#
- A mesh-floored tray, roughly 12 by 16 inches (30 by 40 cm), with a rim of about 1 inch (2.5 cm) and no deep corners.
- Mounted on a baffled pole at 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 m), or hung from four chains at 5 feet (1.5 m).
- Sited 10 to 12 feet (3 to 3.5 m) from cover and clear of any branch or rail within 10 feet (3 m).
- Loaded with one day's food at a time, in small quantities of two or three types.
- Brushed out daily, washed weekly, and taken out of service at the first sign of sick birds.
- A second tray at ground level, brought in at dusk, if you want juncos, doves and native sparrows.
Do that and a platform earns its keep. Neglect the drainage and the daily brush and it becomes the one feeder in the yard actively working against the birds it attracts.
Frequently asked questions#
What birds use a platform feeder?
More species than any other feeder type. Cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves, juncos, towhees, all the native sparrows, grosbeaks, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, woodpeckers, robins and bluebirds if you offer mealworms or fruit. The open surface and stable footing exclude almost nobody, which is both the appeal and the drawback.
How high should a platform feeder be?
It depends which birds you want. Ground level or about 6 inches (15 cm) up suits doves, juncos, towhees and sparrows. A pole-mounted tray at 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 m) suits cardinals, jays and grosbeaks while staying easy to clean. Hanging trays at 5 feet (1.5 m) reach a mixed crowd and are the easiest to protect from squirrels.
Do platform feeders attract rats and mice?
They can, mainly through spillage rather than the tray itself. Rodents are drawn to seed on the ground under the feeder, so the fix is a catch tray beneath, putting out only what gets eaten by dusk, and bringing ground trays in overnight. Hull-free seed reduces the debris that feeds the problem.
Should a platform feeder have a roof?
A roof helps in wet climates and costs you some species, because a covered tray has less headroom and birds like jays and doves are more reluctant to enter. If you get frequent rain, a roof mounted well above the tray with open sides is the compromise. Good drainage matters more than a roof either way.
What should I put on a platform feeder?
Almost anything, which is why they are useful. Black oil sunflower and safflower for the general crowd, white millet and cracked corn for ground-feeding sparrows and doves, peanuts for jays, mealworms for bluebirds, and fruit for orioles and robins. Put out small amounts of several foods rather than a deep pile of one.
How often do I need to clean a platform feeder?
Weekly at minimum, and after every heavy rain. An open tray collects droppings directly onto the food, which is the transmission route for salmonella and other feeder-borne disease. Brush it out daily, wash and disinfect it weekly, and never let a wet layer sit at the bottom.