Tom's Hand-Built Bird Feeder

Hand-Built in a Songbird Rescue Near Magee Marsh, Ohio

Tom Cavanaugh, 69, spent 34 years as a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. He built this roofed feeder to fix the one thing that kept making backyard birds sick — wet, spoiled food.

“A wet feeder isn’t feeding birds. It’s a petri dish with a perch. Keep the food dry and clean, and everything changes.”
— Tom Cavanaugh, Founder, Marsh Song Bird Rescue

Why it works

• The Dry-Larder Roof — the pitched roof keeps rain, snow and hard sun off the food all year, so seed never molds and suet never melts or turns.
• The Lifted Suet Cage — suet hangs up in the airflow, not slumped in a wet tray, staying firm and fresh for clinging birds.
• The Draining Catch-Tray — catches every crumb and sheds water instead of holding it: no standing pond of hulls and droppings.
• The Take-It-Apart Clean — the tray pulls and the parts come apart, so a rinse takes a minute.
• The Safe-Wood Body — solid, untreated wood; nothing to off-gas or leach into food a bird eats daily.
• The Right-Height Mount — the included steel bracket sets it off the wet ground and out of the cat’s reach, where you can watch from the window.

In the box

• The feeder — roof, glass-sided seed hopper, green suet cage and draining tray
• Black steel L-bracket for wall, fence or post
• Mounting screws
• Tom’s note on placing, filling and cleaning it

Built to a rescue-grade standard

• Solid untreated wood — no sealant to leach into the food.
• A real roof — food stays dry through rain, snow and summer heat.
• Removable tray — comes apart to clean in under a minute.
• Predator-safe mount — hangs off the ground, out of a cat’s reach.
• Hand-built, one at a time — no two are exactly alike.

“The most common feeder-related illnesses I see — aspergillosis, salmonellosis — trace back to one thing: food left damp long enough to spoil. A covered, drainable, cleanable feeder isn’t a luxury. For the birds, it’s the whole difference between help and harm.”
— Dr. Alan Reese, DVM, Avian Veterinarian

Product details

Each feeder is made by hand from natural wood, so grain and tone vary piece to piece — the mark of a real one.