Last week the neighbors out our bedroom window jerkily cut down the tree that provided both privacy for our window and a staging area for birds coming in to land at the window feeder. This assassination is part of the "renovations" of the house (which they bought and have yet to live in). Not only did they cut down the tree, but they added an addition, so we went from nice tree, with trees behind to no tree with a stark wall. Thanks guys. To recover from this situation, we trolled the neighborhood for fall cuttings, and attached them to the shelf bracket holding up the feeders. Happily, we get a little shielding and the birds are coming back to the feeders again.
I don't have any "before" pictures, but the improvement is substantial. Plus, we got to use this crabapple branch and other good ones, picking out favorites from the piles.
I highly recommend this technique for any dwellers who need to being a little nature to their window. It is especially nice paired with the feeder because the birds clearly prefer a feeder with a staging area where they can land, plus it provides cover which they like. The implementation is just a shelf bracket with a metal piece attached across the end to hand the feeders, and then a bunch of branches bound to the bracket by twisting pieces of 20 gauge wire.
