University Project - Design a bird feeder/bird box (1 Viewer)

Hello Bird Forum,

I am a first year design student at Northumbria University in Newcastle Upon Tyne and I have just been given a design brief in which we are to design a bird box or a bird feeder for a client. As a starting point, I wanted to ask people who are interested in the subject a few questions about their bird feeders / boxes. If you could give a few minutes of your time to answer my questions that would be greatly appreciated. If the questions are too long, I would be grateful if you could give any information on the subject area . Finally, if its not too much to ask, it would be most excellent if you could post a picture of your bird feeder so I could see what type of bird feeder people are using out there .

Here are the questions:


What do you look for in a bird feeder?

Do you aim to attract a specific species of bird, or a general variety?

What is your general price range for a bird feeder (without camera)?

What issues do you encounter with your bird feeder that you would want improved upon regarding design?

If you aim to attract a specific bird, how do you go about doing this?

Do you often encounter problems in which the birds that you are hoping for do not come because larger, or different types of bird, take the feed?

What is your aim for attracting birds, do you want them to make nest, or simply feed them?

Thank you very very much for taking your time to help me out,

Nwilkin92

There are a huge variety of feeders already on the market, catering for many different species. However, there is one area that still could do with someone designing something.....! The type of feeder that has perches can be fitted with a tray to catch most of the bits, the idea being that pigeons/doves etc won't find food on the floor, and so can be discouraged. However, they soon learn to land on the tray itself, so that doesn't work. This is the item I mean http://www.birdfood.co.uk/product_details.php?area_id=2&group_id=17&nav_id=172&prd_id=152 (there are other types available!)
If someone (you?!) could design a feeder (not a 'caged' type but cylinder with 'portholes' )with a largish tray to catch bits that allowed small birds to land and access the ports, but stopped larger birds landing, well, could make a fortune! But.... it has to be easy to take apart to clean and no more than about £15-£20. Good luck!