text: Birds are messy eaters. There's a design flaw that allows the bird seed that is thrown around during feeding to slip behind the tray and get lodged between the backside of the feeder and the tray. It ends up pushing the tray out a little from the feeder and thus allows even more seed to get lodged. It's not a deal breaker but there are clear feeders out there where the tray is slid through an open bottom and the feed that's tossed around goes back into the feed tray or falls to the ground making clean up and waste much easier to deal with.