Have you seen the actual Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill? What about the Chestnut-backed Chickadee? Or the Pygmy Nuthatch? How about the California Towhee?
These tweeters (and many more) like to hang out in San Francisco, so if you're curious about what they look like, a good place to start is with a bird feeder.
We love Amy Adams's glazed ceramic Perch Birdfeeder because it's beautiful and scaled for city living. Smaller and less expensive than Vessel's classic Malcolm Leland bird shelter, Perch is just right for a small urban garden, balcony or fire escape.
$76 from Velocity.
I just bought something really similar to this at a garage sale for a dollar, except it's sort more tall than squat. The problem is, I can't get the birds to use it! They will eat the birdseed that falls out of it onto the deck... but they won't venture into the feeder. How do you convince birds that your feeder is nice?
Aquarabbit, do you think the birds are being scared away from the feeder by the squirrels, and are just sticking to eating what the squirrels drop overboard? Also, while I love the look of this feeder, certain birds, like hummingbirds, need a brighter color (red for hummingbirds) to be attracted to a feeder. I wonder if that might be part of it too.
We don't actually get too many squirrels back there. And my upstairs neighbors have a bird feeder located directly above mine, and the birds love it. I can only guess that, while my feeder is attractive to my modernist sensibilities, birds have more traditional tastes.
My parents would probably be more than happy to send you some squirrels for your feeder...
The birds don't use it because there's no place for them to perch and get a grip. It's a putrid design--no actual investigation into what would serve birds, just snazzy selling.
Hmm... mine is actually more egg-shaped than this one, so I thought the hole would give a nice place to perch. I wonder if I can drill a hole in it and insert a wooden dowel for a perch...?
Aquarabbit, if you check the NYC greenest thumb contest entries, the Guerrilla garden has a standing version of one of these. Perhaps a post to the people whose garden it is will help you out?