How to Attract the Widest Variety of Wild Birds

It's the holiday season, Thanksgiving is over, now the worrying starts... What do I give to my wild bird loving mom and dad this Christmas?

When mom and dad already have a lot of feeders in their yard we can still help to add to their collection of birds. We do this by attracting more varieties using specific food with specific feeders. Let's  go through a couple of examples.

Female northern cardinal on a "tube" feeders

Tube feeders like the one pictured above are the most common type of mixed seed feeders. They typically have 2 to 6 feeding ports. Each port is just big enough to handle a typical seed mix of millet, sunflower hearts, black oil sunflower, peanuts and safflower. This wide variety of grains and seeds gives the user the best chance to get a large variety of birds. Typically cardinals and smaller birds can handle this type of tube feeder.

Eastern bluebird family eating mealworms

Probably the second type of feeder we get asked about here at the Wild Bird Center of Johns Creek is a live or dried mealworm feeder. Feeding mealworms is an easy way to separate bluebirds, warblers, wrens, grey catbirds, robins and many other wild birds. A mealworm feeder is typically small and holds just a few ounces of worms. Mealworms can be served both live and/or dried. The birds will eat them both, however, if you start with live mealworms it can be hard to get the birds to switch to the dried worms at a later date.

Blue Jay with a roasted peanut

I personally like the blue jay. I love hearing its call just before it hits the feeder. In my backyard here in the NE Atlanta suburbs I separate the blue jay by offering roasted peanut halves and raw in-shell peanuts in the "fly through" feeder you see pictured above. If you supply a platform or fly through feeder and you fill it with nuts all your larger birds and "bully birds" like the jay will come to it instead of the smaller tube feeder which is harder for them to eat from. Along with crows, blackbirds, grackles and blue jays the morning doves, woodpeckers, titmouse, nuthatches and cardinals will come to this feeder all day long. It is just too easy for them to use.

Suet feeder with a brown thrasher

Another feeder to gain a larger variety of birds is a "suet" feeder. Suet is an animal fat that has been rendered to become hard. It is mixed with a variety seed, grains, berries, or mealworms to try to attract different birds. Suet feeders typically attract birds that normally don't go to seed feeder. As an example the brown thrasher shown above is usually on the ground rummaging through the grass and leaves. Gray catbirds, thrushes, downy woodpeckers, will regularly visit the suet feeder while ignoring the seed feeder right next to it.

There are many other types of feeders at your local wild bird store. Squirrel Busters, caged feeders, platform, ranches, hoppers, seed cakes and many other. Visit your local store to find the right one for your mom and dad this holiday season.