The Everything you Want to Know About Bird Feeders Guide

According to my cute-as-a-button five year old niece, a bird feeder is not that collection of wood, wire, and plastic that I have sitting so proudly in my backyard. It is in fact, as she so proudly and logically informed me, herself. Now, I know that might sound confusing to everyone out there who thought that their bird feeders were inanimate objects acting as receptacles for any food that you might put in it. But you'll be glad to know that in my case at least – and yours too, according to my niece – it's the person who goes out there and puts the food in the bird feeder who is the actual bird feeder, not the feeder itself. Hopefully that wasn't too confusing, but just to be sure let me clarify the point and tell you verbatim what my niece said. "No, no, no. That's not the bird feeder, silly. I'm the bird feeder." At this point she looks up at me with her big eyes and her lower lip sticking out and asks me, "Don't I feed the birds good then?" Naturally I start to feel like a heel and rush in to tell her that she "feeds the birds good" and that yes she's the bird feeder and not that pile of cedar or glass and copper that's standing so proudly in front of my living room windows. Besides, who can contradict such an abundantly clear cut piece of five year old logic? From her point of view she really is the bird feeder, so who am I to go against it. Having now satisfactorily disposed of that little piece of nonsense out of the way (I read the whole thing back to my niece who was tickled pink at having been mentioned in this book) we can hopefully now move on to matters of great import that concern all bird lovers, namely that of bird feeders. I know that the topic of bird feeders is an odd choice of book to write about, but to me it encompasses the best of both worlds. Not only do I get to write about my favorite subject (birds, just in case you didn't guess), but I also get to tell it to a bunch of enthusiastic birders who understand the absolute necessity of having their own bird feeder in their backyard. If you're reading this introduction and are wondering just what I'm talking about or think that I'm just plain off my rocker, two reasons could account for this. You're getting this book for someone else who's a bird enthusiast and just wanted to see whether it's worth your while giving it to them; or you've only just started on your life of birding and haven't as yet become as far-gone as I have in my birding pursuits. If it's the former case then let me assure you now that it's highly worth your while giving this book to your favorite birder; and if it's the latter case then rest assured that before very long you will understand what I'm talking about. As an ardent birding enthusiast I have sometimes been accused of speaking a different language by my family. So be warned fair bird reader, though I might sometimes lapse into this strange and wonderful language at times, I will always do my utmost best to explain such terms to you. In fact I'll start right now and tell you that when I say, birder – I mean a person who's enthusiastic about birds and particular bird related pursuits birding – means the actual pursuit of all things birds hummer – is an affectionate shortened term for the tiny little hummingbirds bird feeder – I use this term interchangeably throughout the book and it's mainly case-specific, so although most times I will be referring to the actual bird feeding stations, there are times when I'll take a leaf out of my niece's book and be referring instead to you. Hopefully that will avoid some confusion as you read along.