How to attract · guide

Balcony Birding

Balcony birding works because birds do not need a yard: Audubon says that if you have no yard you can still help birds with a native plant container garden on a patio or balcony, and that even very small patches of habitat give tired, hungry birds what they need during migration ³.

Feeder, food and water advice below is FeederWatch's ¹; plant advice is Audubon's ³; glass safety is from All About Birds ²; the birds are from All About Birds species accounts ⁴⁵.

Male house finch at a small feeder — the most reliable bird in balcony birding — Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Balcony birding setup: feeder, water, containers

Use a small feeder: feeders with short perches accommodate small birds such as finches but exclude larger birds such as grackles and jays ¹ — a suction-cup window feeder on the door glass or a short tube on a railing bracket. Fill it with sunflower chips or hulled seed so no shells fall on the floor below, and offer only what is eaten in a day. Add a shallow dish of water with a stone in it; birds are attracted to water just as they are to feeders ¹. In containers, choose natives: Audubon suggests sunflowers, asters and coneflowers for seed and red tubular flowers such as columbine and honeysuckle for hummingbirds ³.

Balcony birding: which birds come

House Finches are the most dependable: they are birds of human-created habitats, and if they discover a feeder of small black-oil sunflower they may bring flocks of 50 or more ⁴. Black-capped Chickadees do not mind tiny hanging feeders that swing in the wind and readily visit window feeders ⁵; goldfinches use almost any feeder type; doves and sparrows find spilled seed on the floor ¹. Height matters less than a clear approach — birds want to see the feeder from a tree or roofline and have somewhere to retreat.

The one real hazard is the glass door. Treat it with markings no more than 2 inches apart, dot tape, cords or an exterior screen rather than trying to keep the feeder far from it ¹².

Keep the birds you attract safe: windows, cats, clean feeders

Window collisions kill perhaps a billion or more birds a year in North America, and far more die at homes and low-rise buildings than at high-rises simply because there are so many of them ². Older rules about safe feeder-to-window distances are no longer thought valid; the fix is to make the glass visible — markings spaced no more than 2 inches apart on the outside, exterior screens, or hanging cords ¹².

Cats are the most numerous pet in North America and kill hundreds of millions of birds each year; ground-feeding birds, ground-nesting birds and fledglings are at greatest risk, and feeder birds are easy prey, so FeederWatch strongly recommends keeping cats indoors ¹. Clean seed and suet feeders every week or two — more often in heavy use or wet weather — with warm water and dish soap, since leftover seed and hulls harbor pathogens ¹.

More attraction guides

Attract birds to your yard →Attract birds to a feeder →Attract birds to a new feeder →Attract birds to a bird bath →Attract birds without a feeder →Bird calls to attract birds →Attract birds to your hand →Attract birds in winter →Attract birds to a birdhouse →Birds that eat yard pests →How to attract american goldfinches →How to attract northern cardinals →How to attract black-capped chickadees →How to attract ruby-throated hummingbirds →How to attract baltimore orioles →How to attract bluebirds →All guides →

Frequently asked questions

Can you attract birds to a high balcony?

Yes — house finches, chickadees, goldfinches and doves all use upper-floor feeders; Audubon notes even tiny habitat patches help migrants ³⁴⁵.

How do I keep a balcony feeder from making a mess?

Hulled seed or sunflower chips, a day's portion at a time, and a sweep of the floor so spilled seed does not mold ¹.