Bird feeder on the cheap

The earthiest bird feeder you’ll ever know is one made from an onion sack filled with suet and hung from a nail in a tree. Next earthiest is two old hubcaps, held apart by a 3/4” wooden dowel, concave sides facing each other. Put a screw through the bottom hubcap into the dowel and a screw eye through the top to give you something to hang it with.

About what to feed ...

If you don’t want to feed English sparrows, blackbirds, grackles, starlings and cowbirds, then don’t feed anything with cracked corn in it.  Most effective in driving them away is the feeding of nothing but sunflower seeds.  But if you do this, you’ll also drive away juncos and mourning doves. Sunflower seeds will attract finches, nuthatches, chickadees, grosbeaks, redpolls and crossbills. All this according to the National Wildlife Federation, from a 1975 publication.