Complete Bird Feeder Station

The main consideration should be that the bird feeding station isn’t too close to somewhere for a predator such as a cat to hide. For example, avoid placing the bird feeding station close to dense bushes or shrubs. After that the location isn’t critical, so just choose the best place you can to watch the birds from inside your home - so perhaps the centre of your lawn or on a patio.  

Once the feeding station is in place and with the feeders filled with the right high quality foods, then birds will find it. This might be immediate or take a few days, but it would be very rare for a feeding station not to be used. 

There isn’t a clear-cut rule, with the bigger consideration being steps you can take to minimise bird strikes on windows. This is best achieved by having vertical blinds or just marking thin vertical lines on the glass with a suitable pen, with the effect of this being that birds see the lines as a barrier and won’t attempt to fly into the window. You can therefore position a feeding station as close to your house as you like. If for any reason such a solution isn’t feasible, then position bird feeders as far away from your house as possible. 

It doesn’t really make any difference, with the only possible issue being that suet products can become very soft and deteriorate if they’re in direct sun on a hot day in the summer. 

Garden birds feed throughout daylight hours, though can be especially active first thing in the morning. Interestingly, some species, and notably Robins, stay active into dusk and will continue to feed, whereas other species such as Blue tit do not.