Recently, while I was giving a presentation on the backyard birds of Connecticut, someone asked me which type of feeder I recommend. I told them I liked the fly-through feeder, because it allows for a far greater variety and number of birds to feed. Little known and hard to find, the fly-through feeder works great when pole mounted with a squirrel baffle.

You ought to find these feeders at your local agricultural supply store or garden center. However, they were not in stock at some places when I checked. Fortunately, you can turn to the Internet and find a good one there. The best are made of rot-resistant materials or treated wood. It should have a classic pitched roof and two-inch sides to keep seeds in place.

Mount the feeder on a powder-treated, weather-proofed sectioned pole, and be sure it is securely screwed into the base of the feeder. The pole needs to have a squirrel baffle set at no less than five feet. Squirrels can jump onto the pole above the baffle if it is lower than that. It may seem a bit high and even require an additional section of pole, but the feeder itself will be better protected when mounted higher than five feet ten inches. You might need a step ladder to fill it, but it will pay off in the end when you find it is truly squirrel proof.

The fly-through feeder only works when it is mounted in this way — otherwise it becomes a free diner for hungry squirrels. I never liked the name given to these feeders, but it is an apropos moniker because they have no walls. They consist of a base with a roof held up by four posts at each of the four corners. It is a simple but ingenious design.

While tube feeders spin and sway in the wind, the mounted fly-through feeder stands steady even when covered with birds. Such stability allows species such as cardinals and blue jays to feed comfortably. Tube feeders may be fine for chickadees and tufted titmice, which have evolved to feed at the very ends of branches, but they don’t work for most of your backyard birds.

Tube feeders limit what you can feed your birds, too. With a fly-through feeder, you cannot only offer any kind of seed but also place a suet block on it. In the spring when catbirds, orioles and rose-breasted grosbeaks return, you can mix in fruit or even a container of jelly for these tropical species. I sometimes mix in meal worms to entice bluebirds or retain a migrating warbler.

When the feeder is properly stocked with fruit, suet, worms and different kinds of seed, I have dozens of birds fighting for a spot to feed. Even now, at the end of winter, it is not unusual for me to count eight different species at once. In the early spring, with the return of the breeding species, the number grows to 12 or more. This is something the tube feeder cannot typically offer.

So be sure to set up your own fly-through feeder as soon as you can, and be ready for those tropical species. Imagine the sight of brilliant red cardinals, boisterous blue jays, flashy black-and-white checkered red-bellied woodpeckers and those strikingly plumed early migrants feeding all at once before your winter-weary eyes.

Robert Tougias is a birding author living in Colchester. You can email him questions at rtougias@snet.net.