A platform feeder is a tray with a screen bottom. That is the whole design, and it is why the birds that skip your tube feeder show up at it: cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves, towhees, juncos, grosbeaks and every ground-feeding sparrow want to stand flat-footed on something and pick, not cling to a perch. Put one up and the species list in your yard goes up by a third inside a week.
The catch is that a tray is open to everything: rain, squirrels, and the flock of grackles that empties it by nine. The seven feeders below are the ones that solve those problems at each price point, from a $12 mesh tray to a $35 poly-lumber ground feeder that will outlast the fence. Prices are Amazon list prices on September 21, 2026.
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The short version
- Best overall: Kingsyard hanging platform feeder ($27.99). Recycled poly-lumber frame with a mesh floor that drains and dries; holds 3 pounds; 4.8 stars from more than 1,800 buyers.
- Best cedar: Wild Wings cedar hanging tray ($15.55). Rot-resistant cedar with a screen bottom; the classic, and the cheapest good one.
- Best covered: Kingsyard platform with adjustable dome ($26.99). The dome keeps rain off and lowers to shut out grackles.
- Best ground feeder: Kingsyard elevated poly-lumber ground feeder ($34.99). Recycled plastic lumber, four inches off the ground, never rots.
- Budget ground tray: 11-inch steel mesh ground tray ($12.34). Sits on the ground or a stump; doves and juncos find it in a day.
- Squirrel answer: Kingsyard caged platform feeder ($26.99). A tray inside a cage; small birds in, squirrels and jays out.
- Deep tray for a crowd: Kingsyard deep hanging tray ($19.99). Holds a couple of pounds; fill it Sunday, forget it till Wednesday.
Why a tray gets birds a tube never will
Roughly half the common backyard species in North America feed on the ground or on flat surfaces. Cardinals will use a tube feeder if the perch is long enough, but they hate it; doves, juncos, towhees and most sparrows can’t use one at all. A platform feeder gives them what a patch of ground gives them, three feet up where you can see it and the cat can’t reach it.
The second reason is seed. A tray takes anything: black-oil sunflower, safflower, cracked corn, millet, peanuts in the shell, fruit halves in summer, suet nuggets in winter. Blue jays will carry off whole peanuts from a tray by the dozen; nothing else you own will feed a jay that well.
What to put in it by month is in our bird seed by season guide. The short answer for a tray is black-oil sunflower plus a scoop of white millet, and safflower if grackles or squirrels take over.
The feeders
1. Kingsyard hanging platform feeder — best overall
$27.99 · 11 x 11 in · recycled poly-lumber frame, mesh floor · hanging · holds 3 lb · 4.8 stars, 1,843 reviews
The reason this one leads is drainage. The floor is a ventilated mesh, so rain runs straight through and the seed dries out instead of turning into a mat of mold. The frame is recycled poly lumber, the material of a park bench, so it will not rot, crack or warp the way a wood tray does. It hangs from a stable suspension that keeps it from tipping when a jay lands, holds up to 3 pounds of seed or mealworms, and has more than 1,800 reviews averaging 4.8 stars.
Downside: no roof, so in a week of rain you’ll be dumping wet seed. Squirrels can and will sit in it; hang it from a baffled pole or accept the tax.
2. Wild Wings cedar hanging tray feeder — best cedar
$15.55 · 12 x 12 in · cedar frame, screen bottom · 4.6 stars, 3,600 reviews
The feeder everyone’s grandfather had. Western red cedar, which is what you want because it doesn’t rot, a galvanized screen bottom, four brass-tone hooks and a chain. It is the cheapest tray we’d recommend and the one with the most reviews of anything in this guide, because it works and it costs fifteen dollars. Doves, cardinals and jays are on it the first morning.
Downside: the screen is lighter gauge than the Kingsyard and a raccoon can push it out of the frame. Cedar grays in a year; some people like that.
3. Kingsyard platform feeder with adjustable dome — best covered
$26.99 · 12-in tray · 15-in clear dome, height-adjustable · 4.7 stars, 1,880 reviews
Same steel-mesh tray as the number one pick, with a clear polycarbonate dome on the hanger above it. Raised, the dome is a rain roof. Lowered to about three inches over the tray, it turns the feeder into a chickadee-and-finch feeder that grackles, jays and doves physically can’t get under. That single adjustment solves the two most common tray complaints without buying a second feeder.
Downside: the dome makes it top-heavy in wind, and it needs a hook with room above it. A 15-inch dome is not a squirrel baffle; they come up from below.
4. Kingsyard elevated poly-lumber ground feeder — best ground feeder
$34.99 · 12 x 12 in · recycled poly lumber, steel mesh · 4-in legs · 4.8 stars, 650 reviews
Ground feeders are for the birds that won’t come up: juncos, towhees, white-throated sparrows, doves in numbers. The trouble with wood on the ground is that it rots in two years. This one is recycled plastic lumber, the material of a park bench, with a steel mesh floor and four-inch legs that keep the seed out of the mud and let it drain. Put it near a shrub and watch what shows up under the shrub first.
Downside: it is heavy enough that squirrels sit in it like a bathtub. Feed safflower or use it only in winter, when the ground birds are around and the squirrel pressure is lower.
5. 11-inch steel mesh ground tray — budget ground tray
$12.34 · 11 x 11 in · steel mesh, 1-in feet · 4.6 stars, 1,450 reviews
A mesh tray with short feet. That’s it, and at $12 that’s enough. It sits on the ground, a stump, a deck rail or the flat rock you’ve been meaning to use, and it drains. Buy two: one under the hanging feeder to catch spill and feed the doves, one out by the hedge for the juncos.
Downside: an inch of clearance is not much; in a wet lawn the seed will sit in water. Move it to a paver or a stump.
6. Kingsyard caged platform feeder — the squirrel answer
$26.99 · 12-in tray inside 1.5-in cage · steel · 4.3 stars, 760 reviews
A tray inside a wire cage. Chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, finches, wrens and sparrows slip through the inch-and-a-half openings; squirrels, jays, grackles, doves and cardinals don’t. That is the trade: you lose the big birds to keep the small ones fed in peace. In a yard where squirrels empty every tray by noon, it’s the only platform that stays full.
Downside: cardinals can’t get in either, which for most people is the whole reason they wanted a tray. Use it as the second feeder, not the first.
7. Kingsyard deep hanging tray — for a crowd
$19.99 · 12 x 12 in, 2.5-in deep · steel mesh · 4.7 stars, 590 reviews
The standard tray holds about a pound and a half; this one holds double that, because the sides are twice as high. Fill it Sunday and a busy yard is still eating from it Wednesday. The deeper wall also stops jays flinging seed to the ground while they hunt for the peanut.
Downside: deeper sides mean slower drying after rain. Fill it half-full in wet weeks, or you’ll be scraping the bottom.
Side by side
| Feeder | Price | Size | Material | Placement | Rain | Squirrels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingsyard platform | $27.99 | 11 x 11 | Poly lumber / mesh | Hang | Drains | No |
| Wild Wings cedar | $15.55 | 12 x 12 | Cedar / screen | Hang | Drains | No |
| Kingsyard dome | $26.99 | 12 tray / 15 dome | Steel / polycarb | Hang | Roofed | No |
| Kingsyard ground | $34.99 | 12 x 12 | Poly lumber | Ground | Drains | No |
| Mesh ground tray | $12.34 | 11 x 11 | Steel mesh | Ground | Drains | No |
| Kingsyard caged | $26.99 | 12 tray | Steel | Hang | Drains | Yes |
| Kingsyard deep tray | $19.99 | 12 x 12 x 2.5 | Steel mesh | Hang | Drains slowly | No |
The three mistakes
Filling it to the top. A tray is not a hopper. Put out what the birds eat in a day, an inch deep at most. Seed that sits wet for two days grows mold that kills finches, and a full tray is an invitation to every grackle in the county. Less seed, more often.
Hanging it without a baffle. A tray on a shepherd’s hook is a squirrel’s dining table. Put a pole baffle under it and keep it ten feet from anything they can jump from. Our squirrel guide has the setup that works, and the grackle guide covers the other tray raider.
Never cleaning it. Once a week, dump it, scrub the mesh with a brush and hot water, let it dry. Trays get more droppings than any other feeder because birds stand in them. A bleach rinse (one part to nine) once a month in summer, then a thorough rinse and dry.
Platform feeders are the cardinal’s favorite design; our cardinal feeder guide ranks the trays and hoppers built for them.
Bottom line
Hang the Kingsyard platform or the cedar Wild Wings ten feet from the tube feeder and put a $12 mesh tray on the ground under it. That pair feeds everything from a chickadee to a mourning dove. Add the dome version if it rains where you live or grackles find you, the poly-lumber ground feeder if the juncos are worth the money to you, and the caged tray when the squirrels win.
