How to attract birds to your backyard

The fastest way to attract birds is food they already prefer. Black-oil sunflower is the preferred food item for a wide variety of birds and a favorite of cardinals, chickadees, finches and sparrows; nyjer draws goldfinches, siskins and redpolls; millet and cracked corn feed the ground birds; suet brings woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees ¹. Large hoppers attract most species, tubes with short perches keep to small birds and keep seed dry, and trays near the ground draw juncos, doves and sparrows ¹.

Placement matters as much as seed. Put the feeder near cover such as trees or shrubs but about ten feet from branches squirrels can jump from, keep the seed dry, and clean the feeder every week or two — more often in wet weather — because leftover seed and hulls harbor pathogens ¹². A new feeder can sit unvisited for days while birds find it by sight and by watching each other, so give it time before changing anything ¹.

Water works as well as seed, and it attracts species that never visit a feeder. Birds are attracted to water just as they are to feeders, prefer baths at ground level, and come fastest to dripping or moving water; keep the bath shallow — an inch or two — add a stone or branch so small birds can drink without getting wet, and change the water daily ¹.

Nothing provides an easier or more dependable food supply than birdscaping with native vegetation ¹. Audubon's method is habitat in layers — canopy trees, fruiting shrubs, seed-bearing perennials, and leaf litter for insects — with fruit staggered from serviceberry in summer to cedar and holly in winter ⁴; a native oak supports over 500 caterpillar species against five for a ginkgo, and a chickadee brood needs more than 6,000 caterpillars ⁵.

Cover is what turns a visit into a habit. Feeder birds want evergreens or dense shrubs within a short flight of the food, ground birds want a brush pile to dive into, and fledglings need thickets to hide in — so leave some of the yard untidy, and lay off pesticides that remove the insects nestlings are fed ¹⁴.

Food and water bring birds through; nest sites keep them. Shrubs and small trees hold songbird nests, dead trees and limbs left standing where they are safe give woodpeckers and chickadees cavities, and a nest box built to the right dimensions — with ventilation, drainage, no perch and a guard against predators — adds the fourth thing cavity nesters need ⁴. Which birds nest in your area, and when, is in the state pages below.

Window collisions kill perhaps a billion or more birds a year in North America, and older rules about safe feeder-to-window distances are no longer thought valid; make glass near feeders visible with markings no more than 2 inches apart, exterior screens or hanging cords ³. Cats kill hundreds of millions of birds a year — keep them indoors ¹. If birds with swollen eyes or fluffed, lethargic postures appear, take feeders down for a couple of weeks and disinfect them ².