When you first start, you want a hopper feeder. That is a feeder that holds a lot of seed and requires that birds perch and peck to fetch their food. These are called hopper feeders because the seed is stored in a cannister or hopper and let out to the birds by gravity through small holes. Most people use these year-round. I use them in winter, preferring platform feeders in the summer.
There are several types of these, ranging from massive ones that look like farms and fill up a trough for the birds, to multi-silo versions that let you put out different foods in the same feeder. When I first started, I bought a lot of these things, looking for one that would be easy to fill, able to last a few winters, not require a lot of upkeep from me, and stay pretty safe from throngs of starlings and adventurous squirrels.
This Brome feeder is now going on its fourth year with me and I am more pleased with it than I ever have been with any others. So it is the one that I recommend.
You’d be surprised at how disappointing most hopper feeders can be. On some, the ports clog up or the little plastic additions that provide the perches fall out never to be found again. As the seed is used, fewer and fewer of the perches offer available food. They are still much less work than most other types.
While I’ve not had this one, Kingsyard has proven itself to me to be a high quality manufacturer of bird feeders, so I think I’d also recommend you look at this feeder. It’s also squirrel proofed, so it’s a good choice for hanging from a tree. In general, squirrels have trouble with hopper feeders like this, as the design requires they hang off the sides of it like gargoyles to get anything to eat. That little apron does dual duty of keeping rain away and making a fresh hell for an attempting squirrel,
