outdoor bird feeder finish

[bairdy380]

Hi, just about completed a bird feeder stand from mainly cypress pine and spotted gum base. Just curious what would be a recommended finish?...cheers

[cava]

Personally, I would just let it weather naturally. Sometimes, and depending on it's location, the natural look works best.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

It depends on what birds will be using it... which are not necessarily what birds you would expect or want to visit.

eg. are there Sulfur Crested Cockatoos in your area? Then it probably won't last long regardless of any finish you apply. Maybe a nice, toxic arsenic based finish would work? Otherwise you want something that'll stand up to the weather... and regular cleaning for health reasons. Yours and the birds. A good, UV-resistant spar varnish perhaps?

Me, I'd leave it au naturale, as Cava suggested. (But we have cockatoos, so our feeders are repaired/replaced long before the weather does more than minimal damage. )

[Robson Valley]

Leave it natural to weather. The birds constantly watch eachother so it doesn't need to be more than
waterproof.

At least you don't have squirrels. They will open it up so that they can pack their cheek pouches faster,
run off to hide the seed and come back for more. It will be empty by tomorrow.

[soundman]

if you expect it to survive the various animal attacks and you want it to be long term durable, you need to be looking at some sort f opaque exteriour finish...like house paint.

Any clear product will suffer from UV atack in very short order.


cheers

[bairdy380]

cheers all, was being a bit shorthand using phone prior. The timber is actually using spotted gum footing and supports. Then a turned baltic post...these are the bits I am looking at how to finish...the actual bowl on top, yeah...the birds will make short work of anything there!
How does tung oil go outside....used it heaps internally, but never on an outdoor project. My quick/dirty solution was to just use some leftover aquadeck...

[soundman]

As I say, there is NO clear finish that is long term weather durable.....that includes oils and decking finishes.

The general expectation is that decking finishes will be reapplied annually.

The question is how often do you want to be refinishing this feeder and how good do you want it looking between refinishes.

tung oil will be fine if you don't mind slapping more on every couple of months.

cheers

[Ponzu]

if youre attracting parrots in your area (rosellas, cockatoos etc), then dont finish it with anyhting. Birds are very sensitive to chemicals and can sicken and die from ingesting treated woods. Parrots have an insatable urge to chew stuff so, you can expect your feeder to be chewed on, and as such just dont treat it.

If youre getting non hookbill birds (sparrows, finches, myna etc) then finish away as you please, these birds dont chew things up so are unlikley to ever ingest the wood.

alternatively if youre just wanting to attract birds and the feeder is merely a conduit (and not a piece of decorative furniture for the garden) considder hanging some seedbells or rings around the garden. As you attract the birds start replacing these with threaded cut fruits etc. The waste will go to fertilising your trees

[ubeaut]

Real tung oil should be fine. After all the great wall of china was coated in it and so far it has stood the test of time.

Be wary of tung oil, as the old oil advert used to say "Oils ain't oils!" Many tung oils are a concoction of oils solvents and even polyurethane. Some have no tung oil in them at all and are just called Tung Oil as that's the sellers brand name.

If it ain't marked as pure Tung Oil then it quite probably isn't. If I was selling Tung Oil I would have Pure Tung Oil proudly stamped on the label and in all the literature.

Cheers - Neil