How to Attract the Northern Cardinal to Your Feeder

Attracting Northern Cardinals, affectionately referred to as Red Birds, to your feeder is easy once you begin to think like a Cardinal. Providing them with a safe and sheltered feeding station, filled with their favorite foods is sure to attract their attention.

Feeding Habits: Cardinals will eat from a platform feeder, if you provide plenty of sunflower, or safflower seeds; but they prefer to ground feed. Scattering cracked corn, white millet, peanuts, melon and squash seeds, raisins, white bread, cornbread and apples on the ground near trees or shrubs will attract the Cardinal with a variety of food to choose from.

Cardinals feed in the early morning and late evening. They may visit the feeder throughout the day, but are sure to be one of your first visitors in the morning and one of the last at night. Some Northern Cardinals become so routine in their feeding habits that you can set a clock by their return to the feeder in the evening.

Fresh Water: Providing a fresh water source increases your chances of attracting Northern Cardinals. A small water fountain located in your yard near shrubs and bushes is ideal and will prevent freezing in areas where the temperatures do not drop to extreme lows. During warmer months a good birdbath will provide fresh water for drinking and bathing.

Feeder Location: Where you locate your feeder affects how well you will attract Cardinals. Locating your feeder near shrubs and trees that provide shelter for the Cardinal is ideal. A mixture of deciduous and evergreen trees is preferred. Cardinals like to observe the feeder from a safe location away from the distractions of human interactions. Often, one of the Cardinal pair will perch in a tree while the other feeds. Trees and shrubs facing an open meadow or field will provide a nesting area for the Cardinal in the spring and assure that the pair will remain throughout the summer months.

Establishing a habitat: Once you have established an inviting habitat, and have provided a dependable food source, Cardinals will be attracted to your yard and establish it as their territory. The pair mates for life and will remain in the same area to raise their young from year to year. Cardinals do not migrate and rarely leave an established area, unless the food source is diminished or the surrounding trees and shrubs are disturbed.

With a little time and patience, you can attract a pair of Cardinals to your yard. Their striking beauty is sure to enhance you bird watching pleasure. The male retains his brilliant red plumage throughout the year and the female is a distinctive bird although somewhat subdued in color. The distinctive black eye mask and red bill make the pair a stunning addition to any bird feeder.