Feeder type guide

Peanut Feeder Guide

A peanut feeder is a wire-mesh cylinder or tray that offers whole or shelled peanuts — the food that brings in the birds with the strongest bills: jays, woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and titmice ¹.

Everything below about feeder design, foods, placement and cleaning is drawn from Project FeederWatch ¹² and All About Birds ³.

Blue jay grabbing a peanut from a peanut feeder — Photo: Kate Ter Haar from Cedarville, MI, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Whole peanuts or shelled peanuts?

The two forms serve different birds. Larger birds like jays may grab several peanuts at a time and fly off to hide them for later, while smaller birds like chickadees, nuthatches and titmice have more success feeding on shelled peanuts ¹. A wire-mesh peanut feeder holds shelled pieces so small birds can peck at them; a tray or hopper takes whole peanuts in the shell for jays.

Which birds come to a peanut feeder

Blue Jays prefer tray or hopper feeders on a post rather than hanging feeders, and they prefer peanuts, sunflower seeds and suet; they cache what they cannot eat, so a tray of whole peanuts empties fast ⁴. Downy Woodpeckers, the woodpecker most likely to visit a feeder, take peanuts and chunky peanut butter as well as suet ⁵. Black-capped Chickadees take mostly sunflower seeds, peanuts, suet and peanut butter at feeders ⁶, and Tufted Titmice take suet, peanuts and other seeds besides their preferred sunflower ⁷.

Keeping peanuts safe

Peanuts spoil and can grow mold when they stay damp, so use a feeder that drains, offer small amounts, and discard anything that smells musty or shows discoloration. Squirrels take peanuts readily, so give a peanut feeder the standard defenses: a spot at least ten feet from trees and buildings and a baffle between the squirrels and the feeder ¹.

Placement, squirrels and windows

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.

Keeping the feeder clean and the birds healthy

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.

More feeder guides

Platform Feeder →Hopper Feeder →Tube Feeder →Suet Feeder →Hummingbird Feeder →Window Feeder →Tube vs hopper feeder →Suet vs seed feeder →Black oil sunflower feeder →Squirrel proof bird feeder →No birds at the feeder? →

Frequently asked questions

Which birds eat peanuts from a feeder?

Jays take whole peanuts and cache them; chickadees, nuthatches, titmice and woodpeckers do better with shelled peanuts in a mesh feeder ¹.

Are salted or roasted peanuts okay for birds?

Use plain, unsalted peanuts. Keep them dry — damp peanuts mold, and moldy food should always be discarded ¹.

How often should I clean a bird feeder?

Every week or two for seed and suet feeders, more often in wet weather or heavy use; every couple of days for hummingbird feeders. Scrub, then wash with warm water and dish soap ¹.

How far should a feeder be from a window?

Distance rules are no longer considered valid; instead make any nearby window bird-safe with markings spaced no more than 2 inches apart, exterior screens, or hanging cords ³.