Downy Woodpecker Feeder

Mainly insects — beetle larvae inside wood or bark, ants and caterpillars — with about a quarter of the diet plant material such as berries, acorns and grain ⁴. At feeders they prefer suet but are also fond of black-oil sunflower seeds, millet, peanuts and chunky peanut butter, and occasionally drink from oriole and hummingbird feeders ⁴. Suet is a good choice for attracting insect-eating birds generally ¹.

Suet cages that are only accessible from the bottom tend to be starling-resistant but allow woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees to feed ¹. Hang the cage near a trunk so the bird can approach along wood, close to natural cover but about ten feet from branches squirrels can jump from, with a baffle above ¹. A mesh feeder of shelled peanuts beside it adds a second food they take ¹⁴.

Place feeders close to natural cover such as trees or shrubs, which offer birds refuge from predators, but not so close to strong branches that squirrels can jump across — a distance of about 10 feet is the usual guidance ¹. Windows are the other hazard: 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 — if a window is near a feeder, treat the glass with markings spaced no more than 2 inches apart, external screens or cords, rather than worrying about the distance ³.

Squirrel baffles — barriers placed between squirrels and feeders — are usually the best defense. Squirrels can jump to feeders placed less than ten feet from a tree or building, so a pole-mounted feeder in the open with a baffle below it, or a tilting baffle at least 18 inches in diameter above a hanging feeder, is the arrangement that works ¹.

Clean seed and suet feeders regularly — every week or two, and more often during heavy use or wet weather — by scrubbing off debris and washing the parts thoroughly with warm water and dish soap ¹. Hummingbird feeders need cleaning far more often, every couple of days and ideally every time they are refilled; discard the solution and clean immediately at any sign of cloudy water or black mold ¹.

If a sick bird appears — House Finch eye disease shows as red, swollen, runny or crusty eyes, and avian pox as wart-like growths around the eye, bill, legs and feet — remove the feeders the bird is using for a couple of weeks and clean the feeders and the area thoroughly, so disease is not spread at the feeder ². Salmonellosis, caused by Salmonella bacteria, is a common cause of mortality in feeder birds and spreads the same way ².

1. Project FeederWatch (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) — Feeding Birds: feeder types, food types, placement and cleaning
2. Project FeederWatch — Sick Birds and Bird Diseases
3. All About Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) — Why Birds Hit Windows, and How You Can Help Prevent It
4. All About Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) — Downy Woodpecker: Overview and Life History