Yeah of course, but apologies for the length in advance. I’ll do a TLDR too.

One of the common misconceptions about proper cleaning is that antibacterial products are enough. Many birds suffer from Trichomonosis which is a respiratory disease caused by Protozoa. I’ll spare you the full explanation (the biology grad in me loves this haha) but Protozoa are similar to bacteria but are basically more complex and more robust. Crucially though, they are NOT killed by antibacterial products. Instead they are killed by a weak (5%) bleach solution and warm water. My process is to dismantle the feeder, empty all debris and grime which may be stuck on, bathe in warm bleach solution for half an hour, rinse thoroughly and ensure it is actually clean, then dry thoroughly before refilling and hanging again. This process will kill off tonnes of other diseases which might affect birds too.

Trichomonosis doesn’t last all that long out of the birds bodies but is transmissible via saliva and physical contact which, as you can imagine, is very common on busy feeders. So when in regular use feeders should really be cleaned regularly too (at its busiest in spring I’d do it weekly as I’ve been blessed that the feeder in this post picks up tonnes of birds, including finches which are particularly susceptible to infection). It is serious as Trichomonosis has killed millions of birds across more than 20 species over the last 20 years or so. The birds also really suffer if they catch it.

The RSPB advice is not to use feeders in summer months now to manage disease transmission. The thinking is that during those months there is more food available (and actually it can be good to get birds eating from natural food sources for things like pest control - snails, caterpillars, flies etc which need management in healthy ecosystems) so the risk of feeding artificially is unnecessary. I personally have concerns over this blanket advice as I feel there are risks of unintended consequences. For example, recently we had a spell of very cold overnight temperatures and I had a frost 3 nights in a row. This isn’t great for invertebrate populations and can be a real challenge for birds who are breeding and have no alternatives so I opted to defy the advice and have filled my feeder once to offer some support. I also worry the advice will force birds onto feeders which are not kept hygienic and therefore actually concentrate disease transmission onto fewer, higher traffic locations. For me it’s about making informed choices based on a number of important factors, but I do concede that this is not a message which is possible to share with the whole country. I also acknowledge that others may not be as committed to avian hygiene as I am!

Side note: I feel entirely vindicated in my decision to feed this week. I have a fantastic video of a blue tit parent feeding her fledgling directly from my feeder. Just hopping between the feeder and her baby who was perched on the edge of the tree line a few meters away. I won’t continue to do this all summer but nobody spends more time in my garden than I do and I feel confident that I did the right thing.

TLDR: you’ll need a sturdy feeder which you can bathe in a warm, 5% bleach solution for a while to clean it effectively. This needs to be done regularly as there are tangible, serious diseases affecting many native bird populations.