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Cardinals

The Northern Cardinal is one of the most spectacularly beautiful birds to see at a feeder. Their bright red plumage, especially when in contrast to white winter snow, is a sight to behold. The Cardinal is a shy bird, often appearing at feeders at dusk and dawn. They are frequently seen beneath feeders, eating spilled seeds, as they are naturally a ground-feeding bird. Most of the time, one area will only have one nesting pair, as the males are very territorial against other male cardinals. To attract the Northern Cardinal: The cardinal will be drawn to yards with spruce trees in them, as this is their favorite type of tree to nest in. Keep your feeders within 10-12 ft of cover, (again, ideally a spruce tree) and make sure you are feeding a sunflower-based mix. Avoid feeding things like milo, millet, and grains, as these can draw in birds like English House sparrows that will scare away cardinals. Woodpeckers are very aggressive, and will sometimes scare cardinals away. For this reason, it is a good idea to keep your suet feeders away from your hopper or platform feeder. The cardinal's favorite foods are the striped sunflower seed (a larger and meatier seed than black oil), peanut kernels, and occasionally safflower seed. Plain black oil sunflower usually works very well, but their favorite mix is our Hopper mix, which is a blend of all their preferred seeds. The perfect setup for a cardinal is a low-lying platform feeder, as this is closest to how they feed in nature. Add a roof, and you have a fly through feeder in which they are protected from attack by birds of prey. If you prefer a feeder that stays filled for a longer period of time, a hopper feeder works nearly as well.