Preferred Foods At Feeders

 

In order to have a page about the diet of birds and the type of feeders they prefer, I first decided to organize them into three groups-- the birds often seen at our feeders; the ones seen equally at feeders and foraging in nature; and the group of birds that never feed at a feeder.  The theory seemed ideal, until I tried to organize pictures and information.  It was as if I had tried to line up the birds themselves.  Some things defy outlines and lists.

 

All birds derive most of their diet, in warmer weather at least, from nature. (Grain, flower, grass and even seeds from trees; insects in trees, on the ground, and flying in the air;  nuts, fruit, and berries from trees and bushes; invertebrates, other birds' eggs, even garbage and carrion. But still they eat frequently from our feeders (it almost seems as if they eat constantly from our feeders- even in summer).

 

After searching my photo files, I realized that a lot fewer photos were taken of birds feeding on the natural things we hadn't provided first-hand. Feeders are conveniently placed near the large windows, along with water sources and branches and bushes positioned nearby. This often makes for great photos (if the windows are clean and the sun is just right).  But natural food can be found anywhere-- tree tops, under raspberry bushes, in the hedges, in snags and branch piles and behind and between out buildings and ,ugh, even on the roadside. Any great photos of birds feeding in outer locations are often taken by lucky chance.

 

So we're going ahead with a chart based on the observations of many. Added to this will be a few exceptions to the rules, from our own backyard and its cast of unruly (pun intended) thousands.

 

 

Name of Bird:	Blue Jay
Food Choices:	Peanuts, sunflower seeds and corn Ground feeding for insects, seeds, nuts, and berries; will eat eggs, nestlings and carrion; caches food and forgets some seeds thus perpetuating new tree growth
Type of Feeder :	Platform feeders, peanut holders; forages directly on ground
Eating Style:	Aggressive at feeders; good scouts and alarms for predator sightings Carefully turns peanut shell to see if peanuts are inside, puts into crop (a special pouch in the esophagus that temporarily stores food), and then snatches another full peanut before flying off to eat or bury in a cache (a storage area for food that may or may not be retrieved and eaten later)
	...more information and photos
Our Backyard:	Peanuts are a great favorite, but they also will take sunflower seeds (crack open on branches) and will cling to large suet holders
	...Blue Jay main page

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Name of Bird:	Cardinal
Food Choices:	Searches ground and low shrubs and trees for seeds, grain, insects and berries and fruit; ground feeders for cracked corn, sunflower seeds, and safflower seeds
Type of Feeder :	Low platform feeders and directly on the ground under feeders or spread by hand-tossing seeds
Eating Style:	Feeds early morning and dusk (usually first in and last out). Prefers to eat alone and not in crowds.
Our Backyard:	This winter in our backyard, the cardinals have no hesitation feeding during the day.  The three males and three females are freely mixing with other birds, even crowds of other birds. Some of their known associates (have the pictures to prove it) are mourning doves, blue jays, white throated sparrows, juncos, house finches, chickadees, red winged blackbirds, red and gray squirrels and even chipmunks (see below). ...Cardinal  main page

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Name of Bird:	Chickadee; Tufted Titmouse
Food Choices:	Black sunflower seeds, suet, solid seed blocks, peanut nuggets Insects and their eggs
Type of Feeder :	Small feeders to cling on; platform feeders; hopper feeders
Eating Style:	Quickly grabs morsel and flies to tree branch; holds large seed between feet on a perch and hammers open seed coating with small beak; repeats process many times. Travels on twigs and branches, sometimes clinging upside down, to search bark for insects
Our Backyard:	The chickadee leads a  flock of  small, mixed species birds to the feeders. He does not fight for position on a feeder but will easily move to another . He shows little fear of  Food Folks. The tufted titmouse is shyer. Our backyard seems to be the home for only a few of these little gray birds.
	...Chickadee and Tufted Titmouse main page

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Name of Bird:	Finches; Pine Siskin; Redpoll
Food Choices:	Seeds (sunflower, nyjer) and finch mix;  wild seeds, insects, and berries. Pine siskins eat seeds from alders, birches and spruce trees in Canada most winters (will come south when those foods are scarce) and feed with the finches.
Type of Feeder :	Sunflower seed from wire cages, hopper feeders and platforms; nyjer from net sacks or wire tube feeders; small finch seed from hoppers or tubes.  Will eat these seeds on the ground under feeders.
Eating Style:	Feed in flocks. Gregarious and tame. Finches slit open nyjer shells and remove the tiny seeds with their tongues. Most of the waste under a sack is just the shells - any intact seed is usually eaten by a ground foraging bird.
Our Backyard:	We have found that our peaceful finches are becoming as aggressive as our irruptive pine siskin visitors this year.  While we have many of their favorite foods in many bird feeders, the numbers of these small birds are enormous. The spirit of cooperation goes down with the mercury level on the thermometer and the seed level in the tubes. We often fill them twice a day (it's not bird feeder month for nothing!)
	...Goldfinch and Pine siskin main page

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Name of Bird:	Northern Flicker
Food Choices:	Forages on the ground for insects (especially ants); captures flying insects (unusual in a woodpecker); fruit and berries (mostly in winter); will eat suet.
Type of Feeder :	Suet feeders or suet product placed directly on trees or stumps.
Eating Style:	Long, sharp beak allows penetration in the ground for ants
Our Backyard:	We've seen this strange colored bird several times this past year. He stays for a few days at a time looking for ants in the lawn or suet for energy.
	... Northern flicker main page

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Name of Bird:	Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Food Choices:	Insects (especially caterpillars, beetles and moths), seeds (especially sunflower seeds from feeders), fruits and their blossoms
Type of Feeder :	Hopper feeders with large perch area, platform feeders and suet cages
Eating Style:	Large beak (grosbeak/great beak) crushes sunflower seeds at a rapid rate (fastest of the seed eaters) right at the feeder
Our Backyard:	Rose breasted grosbeaks dominated sunflower seed feeders last summer, because of their general size and the fact that they don't need to fly off to crack the seed coverings.
	...Rose breasted grosbeak main page

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Name of Bird:	Ruby Throated Hummingbird; Baltimore Oriole
Food Choices:	Hummingbird: Nectar from flower centers;  eats small insects and spiders. Oriole:  Ants, caterpillars, moths, aphids, beetles and wasps; probe flowers for nectar; eats fruit (particularly orange pieces;) suet
Type of Feeder :	Hummingbird: Sweetened water (one part sugar to four parts water, boiled then cooled) taken from feeders (attracted to red feeders, but not red liquid) Oriole: Hummingbird feeders with perches; special orange, oriole feeders provide cups for jelly and sections for orange segments as well as nectar; will also eat  from suet cages
Eating Style:	Hummingbird: Uses tongue and long bill to extract nectar from blooming flowers, especially the red tube-shaped type; often drinks while hovering (extremely rapid wing beats- up to 75 per second); may also sit on perch at nectar feeder    Oriole: Gleans shrubs and canopy vegetation for insects; can cling to suet feeders and drink nectar on perch at hummingbird feeders
Our Backyard:	We tried several hummingbird feeders and purchased an oriole feeder we'll try in spring.  We had a female Baltimore oriole at our suet cages and many hummingbirds at the feeders and our shrubs and flowers.
	...Hummingbird and Baltimore oriole main pages

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Name of Bird:	Mourning Dove
Food Choices:	A ground feeder who loves millet, cracked corn, and in general seeds and grains;
Type of Feeder :	Low platform feeders or eats directly from ground
Eating Style:	Needs course sand or small gravel to aid in digestion; drinks water by sucking and does not have to lift head to swallow; needs seed that can be swallowed easily as mourning dove rarely opens seeds with beak.
Our Backyard:	Our mourning doves spend a lot of time eating from the ground. They usually come in a large crowd  and join with the cardinals and shyer sparrows. They seem to have developed a taste for safflower seeds. When that area is picked over, they walk, bobbing their heads to feed from the seeds under pole feeders.
	...Mourning dove main page

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Name of Bird:	Nuthatches-Red and White Breasted
Food Choices:	Insects, spiders, nuts, seeds; to feeders for sunflower seeds, and suet; loves peanut nuggets and peanut butter products.
Type of Feeder :	Wire cages for sunflower seeds; suet cages; posts with holes for stuffing and tube cages for peanut products; solid seed blocks
Eating Style:	Often walks on underside of branches and climbs headfirst down tree trunks to get insects that woodpeckers miss;  extracts sunflower seed, tucks into crack in tree bark, uses beak to expose seed; nuthatch from Middle English means hacking (the wedged seed open); may hide seeds near feeder.
Our Backyard:	We usually see one nuthatch at a time. While he comes to most feeders, he always starts and ends on our large maple tree, scurrying up or down and around the woodpeckers and squirrels.
	...White and Red Breasted Nuthatch main page

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Name of Bird:	Sparrows; Juncos; Towhee   Junco White Throated Sparrow
Food Choices:	Insects in summer; forages for grass and weed seeds (especially likes crabgrass, ragweed, dandelion and clover) and berries in fall by scratching ground or snow; wild bird seed from feeders; insects, caterpillars and spiders; eats seeds at and under feeders ; loves sunflower seeds
Type of Feeder :	Hopper, tube, platform feeders; on ground under feeders
Eating Style:	Forages on ground and in vegetation by double scratching (slight hop forward with both feet, then a sweep backward kicking aside debris exposing any food).  Chipping sparrow does not double scratch (also known as bilateral scratching).
Our Backyard:	Our backyard is full of happy, little birds hopping in the grass. Even as they move on to warmer scratching grounds, a new group arrives to frolic in the snow. We're glad to provide seeds in our feeders for the bigger, messy birds and these little guys provide the ground clean-up crew. Chipping Sparrow Song Sparrow Eastern Towhee American Tree Sparrow ...Junco, Chipping, Tree, White Throated and Song sparrow, and Towhee Pages

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Name of Bird:	Catbird
Food Choices:	Mostly insects (crickets, ants, grasshoppers and beetles); fruit and berries; feeder food: bread, cheese, raisins, peanuts and suet cakes
Type of Feeder :	Forages on ground, platform feeders, suet cages
Eating Style:	Spends time on the ground and in bushes and brambles looking for insects and berries.
Our Backyard:	It was always fun to see the catbird arrive in our yard to eat suet occasionally, but it was really gratifying to see a bird eat berries from all the bushes we had planted around our little pond. Shelter and beauty that all that planting provided the birds and the Food Folks and now even nutrition beyond the bird seed. Hurray!
	...Catbird main page

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	Woodpeckers-Downy; Hairy; Red Bellied; Pileated
Name of Bird:	Hairy Woodpecker	Red Bellied Woodpecker
Food Choices:	Insects (carpenter ants, beetles, tree boring types); seeds, nuts and berries; visits feeders for suet, and peanut products.
Type of Feeder :	Suet feeders with tail support; peanut nugget tubes; posts or logs with holes to stuff suet or peanut butter mixes
	Pileated Woodpecker	Downy Woodpecker
Eating Style:	Stores food by wedging in crevices; occasionally ground feeds; usually works up the tree trunk; stiff tail feathers for support; long barbed tongue to reach tiny insects imbedded in tree trunk
Our Backyard:	We've been able to observe that the smaller the woodpecker, the bolder and friendlier he is (maybe because he has more access to smaller feeders and even to smaller and higher tree branches than his larger cousins) Because of this, he has more chances for suet and tree dwelling insects.
	...Hairy, Red bellied, Pileated and Downy Woodpecker main page

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Name of Bird:	Larger Blackbirds-Grackles; Crows
Food Choices:	Omnivore; opportunistic scavenger; insects, seeds, grains, crops, including fruit  and berries; eggs of other birds, fledglings and mice; crows will eat garbage and carrion. Takes mixed seeds and suet at feeders
Type of Feeder :	Grackles can adapt themselves to any feeder or food available, crows are limited by their larger size, but not by their intelligence and problem solving abilities. Seem to prefer to ground feed for seeds, but can manipulate most suet feeders.
Eating Style:	Walks to forage on ground; searches for food in trees, shrubs, fields and may wade in water. Crows appear to approach food (even kernels of corn) very cautiously- body close to ground, head turned, and food is then  snatched quickly.
Our Backyard:	We've seen only the crows on a regular basis this past winter. They usually arrive in a threesome and walk along the outer fringes of our feeders, not really eating much.  They seem to find the snowy area under our largest cherry tree interesting. They busy themselves pecking at things that aren't apparent to us.
	...Grackle and Crow main page

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Name of Bird:	Brown Thrasher
Food Choices:	Insects (especially beetles), fruit and berries; feeds under trees and bushes; ground feeds on mixed seed and millet; suet
Type of Feeder :	Feeds on ground or ground platform; will cling to suet holders
Eating Style:	Noisy feeder due to foraging and tossing over leaves and debris
Our Backyard:	We first noticed this bright cinnamon bird as he struggled to master a suet cage with a roof. It took him quite a few tries before he could hang on and eat.  On all later visits he and some friends foraged under feeders eating seed on the ground.
	...Brown Thrasher main page
	...more at feeders and types of feeders