Is It OK to Feed Wild Birds?
Find out what to feed birds in your backyard or garden. Our handy wild bird food chart lists the types of seeds, nuts, and other foods that are liked most by different types of wild birds so that you can enjoy visits from many feathered friends!
Is It Good or Bad to Feed the Birds?
When it comes to general backyard birds, it鈥檚 fine to offer these supplements. During times of extreme weather, studies show that extra bird food can provide a nutritional boost and provide a helping hand.
That said, the best way to feed the birds is to create a bird-friendly habitat with natural food; this means native trees and shrubs.
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Beyond the natural habitat, it鈥檚 important to:
- Feed safe, appropriate food for birds. See our chart below. NEVER feed bread which not only provides little nutrition but also may cause an unhealthy condition referred to as 鈥渁ngel wing.鈥
- Clean bird feeders. Owning a bird feeder is a responsibility. Properly clean to avoid the spread of viruses and parasites.
- Do not feed birds if it significantly changes their behavior (for example, aggressive birds such as seagulls, endangered birds such as snow owls, etc.).
Your reward is the opportunity to attract some feathered friends to your backyard and garden鈥攁nd enjoy watching wild birds from your window!
What little food that is available can get buried under deep snow. The bird feeder that you place in your backyard aides the survival of birds in harsh winters.
Wild Bird Food Preferences
For most wild birds, seeds are the best source of high energy food for wild birds. (Do not feed birds bread.)
The seed that attracts the widest variety of birds, and so the mainstay for most backyard bird feeders, is sunflower.
Other varieties of seed can help attract different types of birds to round out your backyard visitors. In general, mixtures that contain red millet, oats, and other 鈥渇illers鈥 are not attractive to most birds and can lead to a lot of waste as the birds sort through the mix.
Click here for a larger PDF of the below Wild Bird Food Chart.
Sunflower Seeds
When it comes to sunflower seeds, note that there are two kinds of sunflower鈥攂lack oil and striped. The black oil seeds (鈥渙ilers鈥) have very thin shells, easy for virtually all seed-eating birds to crack open, and the kernels within have a high fat content, extremely valuable for most winter birds. Striped sunflower seeds have a thicker shell, much harder for House Sparrows and blackbirds to crack open. So if you鈥檙e inundated with species you鈥檇 rather not subsidize at your black oil sunflower, before you do anything else, try switching to striped sunflower.
People living in apartments or who have trouble raking up seed shells under their feeders often offer shelled sunflower. Many birds love this, as of course do squirrels, and it鈥檚 expensive. Without the protection of the shell, sunflower hearts and chips quickly spoil, and can harbor dangerous bacteria, so it鈥檚 important to offer no more than can be eaten in a day or two.
Sunflower is very attractive to squirrels, a problem for people who don鈥檛 wish to subsidize them. Some kinds of squirrel baffles, and some specialized feeders, are fairly good at excluding them. Sunflower in the shell can be offered in a wide variety of feeders, including trays, tube feeders, hoppers, and acrylic window feeders. Sunflower hearts and chips shouldn鈥檛 be offered in tube feeders where moisture can collect.
Suet Cake
Birds love a simple suet cake, especially chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, and bug-eating birds. Note that a lot commercial suet cakes have too much filler (oatmeal, cornmeal, millet) and very little of the peanuts and high-quality ingredients that birds actually need when temperatures become severe. See how to make suet here. Even better is straight suet though it鈥檚 expensive. You can generally get chunks of suet at the butcher鈥檚 or supermarket.
Read more about gardening for the birds.
Learn about choosing the right bird feeders.
See our video demonstrating how to feed the birds in winter.
Catherine Boeckmann
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Chuck, I too, live in South Florida. I would caution you about the wild parrots. They can be very aggressive and take command of you yard. Also, they are off spring from escaped caged birds that survived devastating hurricanes, such as Andrew. And P.S., they can be extremely noisy if they are in large groups congregating for food.
Hello, I recently purchased a suet cage feeder that I attached to my tree to feed my feathered friends. Since bird feeding is new to me I was told that I should purchase a cake with hot pepper included in the ingredients to discourage squirrels. I purchased this from a store, however, the Audoboun society recommended the product....No creature has visited my cake in a cage; was I given misinformation? I should have purchase a loose seed without the hot peppers and just let the squirrels eat this also? Please advise, as I am a newbie at this. Thank you, Evie
I had the same thing with my birds and the suet feeder I put out. I finally put a suet cake out in the open that they could peck at outside the feeder. It was like they'd never seen the feeder before so once they discovered the cake was yummy they started using the feeder. Maybe this will work for you too.
I have several woodpeckers and flickers who live at my feeders filled with black oil sunflower seeds. I have suet there also, but I rarely see them on that. They are literally on the sunflower feeders all day long. If I walk within a few feet of the feeders, there's one in particular, who will watch me carefully but won't fly off unless I head straight for him. I also have a cardinal who did not get the memo that he's a ground feeder. He's on the feeder along with the woodpeckers.
I have a red bellied woodpecker that visits regularly. Not only does he come for the straight suet and the store bought suet cakes (which he seems to like more, the little junk food junkie that he is) he also scarfs up the black oil sunflower seeds.
My feeders are filled only with black oil sunflower seeds. I have a woodpecker who no one told that he doesn't like to eat these! He practically lives on the feeder munching away all day. And yes, I'm 100% certain he's a woodpecker.
Some species of woodpeckers aren’t too picky and will happily feast on sunflower seeds! Looks like you’ve got one in your yard!
I didn鈥檛 see Bluebirds listed.
I want to feed birds but I'm concerned that more pigeons will come for food also. My neighborhood is overran with them. How can I make sure I'm not attracting them.
Hi, Venita: This is always a tough challenge. We assume that you are talking about hanging feeders, which is what you should be using. One solution is to hang the feeders on branches or poles that will not allow the pigeons to alight on nearby perches and sit on them to access the feeder. Another solution, although hard to do, is to put some sort of cage or large wire mesh around the feeder that will allow small birds through, but not pigeons. A third way is to get an anti-squirrel type of cannister feeder that slides down and covers up when too much weight—such as that of a pigeon—is on it. Good luck, and thanks for asking!
