The outdoor areas in your neighbourhood don’t need to look empty in the winter. You can help fill them with animal life by setting up a winter bird feeder! Although many birds migrate south in the fall, several species live in Canada year-round, toughing it out all winter long. You can help these birds out by accepting the For the Birds Mission and building your own bird feeder!
To find out what birds you might see at your winter feeder check out this list of the top ten bird species that stick around for the winter. Since some species tend to be picky eaters, we have listed them based on their favourite types of seeds and nuts.
Black oil sunflower seeds
10. Black-capped chickadees
9. White-breasted nuthatches
8. Finches (house, purple)
7. Northern cardinals
6. Blue jays (also really like cracked corn)
Nyjer seeds
5. American goldfinches
4. Common redpolls (if you have birch trees nearby common redpolls will eat birch seeds too)
Suet
3. White-breasted nuthatches
2. Brown creepers
Cedar berries
1. Cedar waxwings
*Bird Feeder Tip! Try to avoid using seed mixes that contain millet because some birds won’t eat millet, which means the seeds will geminate as weeds on the ground the next spring. Black oil sunflower seeds (not striped sunflower seeds) and suet will usually attract the largest diversity of birds to your winter feeder.
Have you spotted any birds in your neighbourhood? Comment below to share your bird sightings!
Look for For the Birds in the Mission section in the Earth Rangers App!
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I’ve seen Black-capped Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, Finches, Blue Jays, American Goldfinches, and Common Redpolls at our feeder :). I trained Chickadees to eat Sunflower seeds out of my hand! They are all pretty birds 🙂
I love birds, they are my favorite animals 🙂
I am so going try this!
There are a lot of chickadees in my area!
nice
Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!:):)
I have seen many winter birds at my feeders so far. Most of them are cardinals, blue jays, black capped chickadees, mourning doves, sparrows, american goldfinches and house finches. I had some that were not so common though such as white breasted nuthatches, red breasted nuthatches, purple fiches, downy woodpeckers and white crowned sparrows. It is a wonderful experience seeing all these birds at their favorite food. Happy winter feeding the birds! 😉
Cedar Waxwings are beautiful!
We’ve never seen a Northern Cardinal here before but Blue Jays come here every day! They go crazy for food 😉
cool
My favorite is the Cardinal it is so beautiful.