Both of my parents loved birds- not in a "birder" way. They liked looking at them and watching them up close. Daddy built a large platform out of an old metal card table nailed to the stump of a china-berry tree. Every day, he dumped a bucket of birdseed on it, and Mom and Daddy watched the birds either from the patio or through the patio sliding doors. I should add that Daddy complained about the cost of birdseed almost every day, also. I'm not sure how much it cost back then. They had a large plastic trash bin with a lid that daddy constantly dumped bags of feed in. That platform would be covered by dozens of birds until the birdseed was all consumed.