Home : Do It Yourself : Build Your Own : Bird Watcher's Digest: Build a Platform Feeder

Backyard Airport: Constructing a Platform Feeder

I have been watching birds for 36 years. One evening when I was eight years old I saw what was to be my spark bird in the backyard. It was the most beautiful bird I had ever seen -- bright red with black wings.

I ran into our house and said, "Mama, I've just seen the most beautiful bird in the whole world." She went outside with me, but she didn't know what kind of bird it was either.

The next day I had my first bird book, Birds: A Guide to the Most Familiar American Birds, by Zim and Gabrielson. I still have that book today. The bird was a scarlet tanager.

Since that time, I have gone far beyond that first bird book. I now count birds for the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology for its Project FeederWatch program. I have participated in its nest-box studies and its study of house finch disease. I also do nest-box studies for the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin. For many years I collected data on hummingbirds for Hummertime in Elgin, Ontario, Canada. I have never lost my enthusiasm for bird watching. In fact, everyone close to me has also learned a great deal about birds. I believe bird watching is infectious.

Recently, my husband, John, designed a new platform feeder for our backyard. At our local electric company we picked up a medium-sized wooden electrical spool. Then at a lumber yard John bought a 4 x 8 sheet of 1/2-inch plywood, three 1 x 2 eight-footers, and 2-inch galvanized screws. The shingles and tar paper for the roof we already had.

Construction began with cutting the roof. The dimensions of the two boards used are 27 inches by 48 inches, each. A 1 x 2 board was screwed on to the two boards to make the pitch of the roof. Next, 1 x 2s were cut and put on for trim to strengthen the roof. Then vertical support poles were cut to 14 inches. (You could cut them to any height you desire.)

John cut the leftover plywood into a circle to cover the top of the spool. The spool had holes in it that could have been plugged, but there were nails in the top. John was afraid I might scratch or cut my hands when I brushed old seed hulls off the platform, so he added the cover.

Then six "legs" were attached to the circle, and the roof was added on top of them. The roof was then tar papered and shingled.

I stained the feeder and let it dry for a week before I began feeding the birds. You could eliminate the roof in the right climate, but we included it to keep snow off of the platform feeder during Wisconsin's snowy winters.

The first animals to use the feeder were the local resident chipmunks, sucking the seeds up like little vacuum cleaners. They were followed by gray squirrels and then curious blue jays. Next, dark-eyed juncos arrived. They also used the bottom of the spool, the ledge nearest the ground. I scatter seed there too. Then chickadees, tufted titmice, cardinals, and American goldfinches came to dine at the new feeder.

We hope to enjoy our "backyard airport" for many winters to come.