Birds don’t care what a feeder looks like, but you do. The Dragonfly garden bird feeder is for people who want the feeder to belong in the bed as much as the plants do. A detailed dragonfly perches on the feeder, and the whole piece is finished in Copper Verdigris, the blue-green of old copper roofs. It sells well as a garden gift and as a memorial piece.

The dragonfly

The dragonfly on the Dragonfly garden bird feeder is cast as part of it, with the wing veins and body segments picked out in relief. It’s the kind of detail you notice up close while you’re filling the feeder, and from across the yard it reads as a glint of green. The Verdigris finish is the only color offered, and it’s the right one for this design.

Why cast aluminum for a Dragonfly garden bird feeder

Feeders live outdoors, get wet every time it rains and get scrubbed when they’re cleaned. Steel ones rust and plastic ones crack. This one is cast in the USA from recycled aluminum, so it won’t rust, and the all-weather coating is covered by a five-year warranty. It can be rinsed and scrubbed without worry.

Placing it

Set the Dragonfly garden bird feeder where you can see it from a window and where birds have a shrub or branch nearby to retreat to. Keep it a few feet off any fence a cat can use. Rinse it out when you refill, and give it a proper wash every few weeks.

If you want a feeder for suet rather than seed, the bird feeders category has nuthatch, oak leaf and pinecone cages in the same aluminum. And a bath draws more birds than a feeder alone, so look at the bird baths too. There’s no personalization on this piece, so it ships as cast.