How to attract · guide

How to Attract Birds to a New Feeder

How to attract birds to a new feeder is a short list: the right seed, a spot near cover, dry fresh food, and time — birds find feeders by sight and by watching each other, and a new one can sit unvisited for days.

Everything below about foods, feeder types, placement and cleaning is from Project FeederWatch ¹; window advice is from All About Birds ².

American goldfinch on a tube feeder — how to attract birds to a new feeder is mostly seed choice and placement — Photo: Robert Taylor from Stirling, ON, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How to attract birds to a new feeder with the right seed

Start with black-oil sunflower: it is the preferred food item for a wide variety of birds and among the favorite feeder foods of cardinals, chickadees, finches and sparrows ¹. Skip mixes heavy in milo, which is not a favorite of most birds and often goes to waste ¹. Once regulars arrive, add a second feeder for a second crowd — nyjer for goldfinches, siskins and redpolls; suet for woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees; millet on the ground for juncos and sparrows ¹.

Match the feeder to the birds: large hoppers attract most species and let doves and grackles feed; tubes with short perches suit finches and exclude jays and grackles; trays attract most species and, near the ground, juncos, doves and sparrows ¹.

Feeder placement and the wait for the first birds

Place the feeder in a quiet area where it is easy to see and convenient to refill, close to natural cover such as trees or shrubs — evergreens are ideal — but not so close to strong branches that squirrels and cats have a jump-off point; about 10 feet is a good compromise ¹. A loosely stacked brush pile near the feeder gives ground birds resting and escape cover ¹.

Then wait. Keep the seed dry and fresh — clean feeders more often in wet weather and discard wet seed ¹ — because stale food will not draw a first visitor. If nothing comes after two or three weeks, the site guide on why no birds are coming to a feeder walks through the usual causes: natural food in season, a hawk or cat, a window reflection, or simply a feeder that is hard to see from cover.

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 bird bath →Attract birds without a feeder →Bird calls to attract birds →Attract birds to your hand →Attract birds in winter →Balcony birding →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

How long does it take birds to find a new feeder?

There is no fixed time; days to a few weeks is typical. Fresh black-oil sunflower near cover shortens the wait ¹.

What seed attracts the most birds to a new feeder?

Black-oil sunflower — FeederWatch calls it the preferred food for a wide variety of birds ¹.