Zanthe, I would think that Vinyl is more sanitary than wood,and is maintenance free, It should hold the weight,and you could (if need be)tape some kind of grip for the birds.

It seems to me that birds are adept at perching on just about any surface there is -- wood, metal, plastic, what have you -- so I can't think of any reason they wouldn't perch on vinyl. As long as it can hold their weight, I think they'll perch on just about anything, particularly if there's food to be had.

Jann

My husband is laughing at me over this dilemma. "Why is it always for the birds??" he says. I hadn't thought about vinyl being more sanitary as well; I can hose it off easily. I just didn't want to be responsible for a birdie back injury if they slipped on my new vinyl arbor!

Zanth, I think it would be more of a Wing displacement if anything,so not to worry.

I can fully understand the desire to create a pleasing appearance on your house.

On the other hand, I live alone in a rented room on the back side of a rural house totally out of public view and I have not had a visitor since last September so I am not in the least concerned about what others might think of my arrangement. My principal interest is two fold. Since I retired last June my primary hobby is nature photography and 2. Since the weather is too bad to take long nature walks or sit for hours in the woods, camera in hand, it was my desire to find ways to attract birds and critters of all sorts to a point where I could view them from my window.

I began with a simple wooden hopper feeder and a couple suet cages attached to a tree about 50 feet from the window, then I decided I wanted something a bit closer so I took an old pipe garment rack and stood it about 12 ft from the window and hung two tube feeders on it. After noticing that birds liked to perch on the metal rail while waiting their turn at the feeders I got the silly idea to punch a couple holes in an old plastic pail lid and tie it on top of the rack to be used as a tray feeder.

I then filled all the bird feeders, poured some seed in the pail lid and sprinkled some excess seed on the ground along with a loaf of stale bread scattered on the ground.

Since I began scattering the stale bread the squirrels comes down immediately and grabs a slice of bread, runs up the tree and sits on a limb to eat the bread totally ignoring the bird feeders. The starlings, Doves, Juncos and Hosps seem to prefer eating the bread on the ground so I have very little competition at the feeders, and too top it off, this morning they were joined by two huge crows. Oh yes, did I mention that I also have a small flock of wild turkeys and a couple rabbits that show up occasionally?

The more desirable birds, Cardinals, Blue Jays,Chickadees, Finches, Tutti's and Nuthathes seem quite content to feed from either the wooden hopper, plastic tube feeders or the vinyl pail lid and while the Woodpeckers are generally on the suet feeders they are equally happy to grab seed from any of the afore mentioned locations.

From my experience it would seem that the key is the volume and availability of the food rather than the type of feeder.

You can use an old tree branch on your station if you are concerned about perching. I have a few on mine and the birds love it!

This is a window view - it's good for closeups

I like my feeding station to look pleasing, although it is of secondary concern and the birds couldn't care less what feeders look like. My primary concerns are functionality and the safety and health of the birds. Are the feeders easy to access for filling, cleaning, and maintenance? Is there cover nearby? And such.

Personally I think the white vinyl is garish and cheap looking, although many people use it and I used it for some bannisters on the front steps of a rental property. But I would not use it for my own home.

My other thought is - can you baffle your feeders on the arbor? Mine are pole-mounted with squirrel/raccoon baffles, which prevents access for squirrels, chipmunks, rats, raccoons, cats, etc. The only thing that can get to the feeders is the birds and no doubt a bear, but we don't have them around here!

These are all great suggestions. I have 4 feeding stations in my yard and 3 bird baths so luckily I'm not terribly new to this whole process. The songbirds have their own station and this is the one I'm looking to modify since it's almost in the front yard (we live in town). Basically I would like to have the station look part of the house rather than just on poles by the windows. I did find a beautiful redwood arbor but I think it's going to be very hard to keep clean.

Thank you for the great pics as well. We always love to see how others take care of their backyard friends.

We have a cedar arbor that we've let weather and it is a nice silvery gray now. If you want wood but don't want to paint it to keep it up you could look into that. I hang a glass feeder off one side at the top and no animal has bothered it, and you could do the same on the other side.
Actually I'm thinking of hanging a hummingbird feeder on the other side this summer.