Tips to keep ground under bird feeder clean?

https://dengarden.com/landscaping/8-Easy-Ways-to-Landscape-Under-Bird-Feeders

I don't have an answer but would love to here it too! Also a Coopers hawk saw all the traffic and now is trying to eat my doves. Thoughts?

Yes, that happens, birds are very messy! How about decorative pavers surrounding your feeders so you can sweep up the mess? I feed mine primarily black oil sunflower seeds and let it go as there are sunflowers always popping up.

My neighbor made a lovely area by using various sizes of stones with a couple of stepping stones mixed in, she also planted some tall grasses and lavender in that area. Some birds like to eat off of the ground and some on the feeder and some seeds actually sprout in between the rocks but it always looks nice to walk by her "bird feeder" garden.

https://www.wildbirdscoop.com/bird-feeder-mess.html

You could place a larger dish right under the feeder to catch the remnants. If you purchase a good plastic plant saucer and either screw it or glue it on the bottom this should work for you.

If you are referring to messy bird food and lots of seeds, you may consider what type of food you are providing and monitor to see if your birds are getting help from other nature friends (squirrels etc). There is a lot of “fillers” in generalized big bag bird feed; as in dog foods etc. Some smaller bags ( that seem to cost more) have less wasted seeds due to the birds not picking out the “goodies”.

If other creatures or natural culprits ( wind, rain etc) are robbing the feeders and leaving a mess, you may need screens or different type of feeders.

If the mess is creating “weeds”..... SEVERAL layers of the black weed out garden sheeting may help under pavers or other ground. Don’t ask me how I know... lol. I hope this helps.

I have that same problem with my bird feeders. But I don't have to do a thing about it. I have ground feelers such as, Doves, Quail, Mocking birds, Thatcher birds, etc. etc. and they clean it all up. Not a thing left. You might wait and see if you have any of these ground feeders at your home. You might be cleaning it up too soon and the ground feeders don't know about it. So just wait for a couple days or so and see it they start coming around. I live out away from the city so I even have mice cleaning all that up for me. I do have some crows that come along to eat it but I really don't want them around because they attack my birds and my birds are afraid of them. I just walk out, there, towards them and they fly away.

Our chipmunks and squirrels clean up a lot of the mess under our feeders, I have even seen the little birds going down there to eat when there are too many waiting to eat.