What do Cardinals eat at feeders

Cardinals primarily feed on seed mixes, insects, berries or nuts in nature, so its close to these food groups what they will eat at bird feeders.

What Cardinals eat at feeders is a mix of seeds that include nyjer, safflower or millet, with their favorite sunflower seed a must. Offer crushed up peanuts within the seed mix with dried mealworms replacing live insects. Fruits can be eaten all year but all this must be available in an open top platform bird feeder.

Its vital to remember, whilst Northern Cardinals are commonly seen at the bird feeders, most of the time they can be seen struggling to feed on these compact, hard to reach devices.

Cardinals are not made to perch on feeders commonly seen with Finches or Warblers, so instead these larger than life birds must perch on an open area, or indeed a bigger perch.

In which an open top platform on a stand would be fully compatible with a feeding Cardinals needs.

What Cardinals eat at feeders can be all kinds of seeds, nuts and dried mealworms on a platform; so would otherwise go to waste if contained within a traditional seed or peanut feeder - as all this can't be accessed by Cardinals.

To revert to a platform bird feeder, Cardinals and many other common ground feeding backyard birds are not restricted, including American Robins, Bluebirds and Blue Jays.

Bonus then as to focus on making sure Cardinals can access the food they like, won't cancel out other bird species at the bird feeder in the process.

Continue to only offer seed mixes or only sunflower seeds, peanuts or dried mealworms to birds - with all this added to suet for a much needed fatty intake.

In the process of attracting Cardinals to your yard, all this would relate to how to attract Cardinals with food - whereas nesting, a water source, landscaping and other things would be considered.

Seed mixes are Cardinals favorite

What with seeds found in the wild making up most of the Northern Cardinals diet for the whole year, seeds are what Cardinals eat at feeders.

Seed mixes that include sunflower seeds in all its form, nyjer, including safflower seeds and millet is a must.

Other than mix of seeds, Cardinals can be seen feeding on seed mix blends that include cracked corn or nut meat, with many other inferior ingredients eaten up.

Northern Cardinals don't have the dexterity to use a basic hanging seed feeder; you know the kind made in a clear plastic tube, along with twin perch next too corresponding port holes.. while these feeders are what Cardinals are far too big to use.

What with Cardinals being primarily ground feeding birds, with an occasional shifty up in trees, the seed feeder in use must be a big one.

Don't depend on the tiny perches as they are far to short to work; instead revert to a hopper, hexagon or panoramic type bird feeder with a rim that acts as a seed dish that is often wide enough for Cardinals to land on.

Rather than use incompatible bird feeder perches, Cardinals will simply perch further out on the rim of the seed tray that surrounds the base of the feeder.

Love Sunflower Seeds more

Northern Cardinals love sunflower seeds the must, so this is what they would likely to be feeding on, if made available within seeds mixes or served up on their own.

You'd see Cardinals over consuming sunflower seeds if that's all is available, but don't under estimate them as Cardinals, including many other species - really do like sunflower seeds at the bird feeder.

Cardinals make use of their strong, powerful beak, which is just what they need to chew up sunflower seeds to ingest.

How you would feed sunflower seeds to Cardinals in once again in a larger than normal seed feeder.

Better still, add sunflower seeds to the platform feeder or why not forget about using a feeder at all - whilst throwing seeds over the ground.

Don't use any sunflower specialty seed feeder if you intend on feeding larger birds such as Cardinals, as much as they want it these birds simply won't be able to access seeds in a tightly confined feeder.

Made worse if its an unstable hanging feeder, but would be far easier to use if its an open platform feeder on a stand.

Crushed up Peanuts on platform

What else you can feed Cardinals in a bird feeder of sorts, is crushed up peanuts that are liked very much by Cardinals.

How you'd go about feeding peanuts whole or crushed up nuts to Cardinals - but always out of their shell for feeding them - is never in a peanut bird feeder.

Once again you'd have to rely upon a bird feeder that is open to the elements.

This feeder would be a platform bird feeder that sits on top of a stand, mounted to a wall or better still - is a ground level platform feeder.

Choose a feeder with no roof to not risk restricting larger birds like Cardinals, but do provide natural shelter if you can in wet weather.

Crushed up peanuts are the way to go when feeding Cardinals, but they can manage to break up nuts with their tough beak if they have to.

Whilst peanuts would normally be added to a rounded, metal mesh peanut feeder, this time you'd need the open platform option.

Cardinals will take to eating only peanuts on top of the feeder, while foraging through seed mixes also to feed off any type of nut they stumble across - but most likely this would normally be peanut kernels only.

Dried Mealworms if accessible

What is also a big favorite of Cardinals is their love of dried mealworms, that is if you don't use live mealworms which are an attractive prospect to Cardinals.

Dried mealworms mustn't be used in any specialty feeder or hung up in a sort of bird dish tray, hung with a metal bar on a bracket or branch - as Cardinals simply can't access it.

How you'd feed Cardinals is on the ground if you can, or on a ground bird feeder to keep the dried mealworms more tidy, but in a way this bird feeding technique is sure to see more success.

Whilst few common backyard birds are seen to prioritize feeding on insects come the summer, so in the mist of the breeding season - Northern Cardinals will eat up insects in the wild all year round.

Its possible then you can feed Cardinals dried mealworms in your yard, all year round.

With impending weather predicted, continue to offer dried mealworms on an open top platform type bird feeder - while brushing off snow coverage or add more mealworms on top of snow.

If its wet, then forget about the open top feeder unless you can guarantee Cardinals will eat them on that day, as you don't want to them to rot in poor weather conditions.

Be sure Cardinals can access the dried mealworms at all times in a platform feeder only, with any food that is a real favorite of there's all year.

Fruits if made available

What else Cardinals love in the wild, so therefore what Cardinals do eat at feeders is berries, small fruits or even dried fruits if available.

Cardinals will take to eating any kind of fruits all year, but much like feeding any backyard bird on a diet of fruit options - no fruit must be used in restricting bird feeders.

What that refers to, much like feeding Cardinals seeds or nut, is fruits do not belong is a bird feeder, thus are incompatible.

Fruits in feeders won't be eaten quickly enough or at all, so would only rot in due course.

Instead, fruits of any kind must be added to the open top platform bird feeder once again.

Clean up the wooden platform while placing varied fruits that are fresh or dried, including those plucked from nature - to see how well they go down with Cardinals.

Baring in mind other fruit-eating common backyards also eat many fruits in the wild, so would be happy to eat fruit intended for Cardinals.

Protect the wooden platform feeder by preventing water or salty fruit juice running into the grain or cracks, while staining the feeder platform in the process.

Focus on adding berries to the platform feeder with grapes, strawberries, raspberries and peaches an option, including many other fruits to experiment with.

Fatty SUET in three types

Prioritize offering Northern Cardinals fatty suet in the colder months or winter to allow them to stock up on energy rich foods, in which suet can provide this.

Suet in all its form can once gain not be added to a specialty suet bird feeder, as the cage design that must hang can be a nuisance to feeding Cardinals, as they are unable to cling to it.

Continue to use a suet feeder to keep the suet block or balls contained, only you'd need to lay it on its on side on a flat surface around the yard, or indeed on a platform feeder.

Rather than allow Cardinals to struggle to feed out of a cage suet feeder then, make sure its placed on a spot on top of the platform feeder.

In which case they can be seen to poke their beaks in the cage to peck at the suet.

Remember, Cardinals prefer seeds, nuts, insects and fruits in the wild, so therefore these are the types of suet cakes or balls that should be fed to Cardinals.

Suet is a fatty concoction of dried up beef fat, grain or wheat while peanuts, seeds, fruit or dried mealworms make up the prime ingredients.

Rather than birds feeding on suet to access their favorite foods only, in the process they will consume large amounts of protein rich fat.

Cardinals can't use a suet feeder so with that in mind lay the suet in its own bird feeder on top of a platform feeder.

Final thoughts

What Cardinals eat at bird feeders is pretty much what they would normally consume in the wild, namely seed mixes, nuts, insects and berries.

What that translates to at the feeder is readily available wild bird seed mixes, including sunflower seed which is their favorite, peanut kernels - crushed or fed to them whole - with dried mealworms subsidizing insects - and a mix of fruits in place of only berries.

Northern Cardinals are quite large ground feeding birds, thus are less able to use smaller, more compact feeders that are made to be hung - so are feeders that can be restricting to use.

What Cardinals eat at the feeders would normally be all this and more that is sat out in the open, spread on top of a platform bird feeder.

Cardinals will be seen to forage through seed mixes on top of the platform, while seeking out peanut kernels or their favorite of all, sunflower seeds.

Do crush up peanuts to make life easier for them, but whole peanuts will be fine if they are out of their shells.

Dried mealworms go down well with Cardinals so expect these to be eaten up quickly.

Once again offer all this on top of an open platform feeder with live mealworms also being an option.

Fruits can be offered with interesting results, but much like dried mealworms, they can be fed to Cardinals all year.

All these food groups can be offered to Cardinals in suet form, so as their favorite food is eaten out of the suet - they will in the process feed on much needed fatty suet.

You may see Cardinals tackle your hanging bird feeder, or even happily perch - but there's nothing easier to use for them than a wide, open top platform feeder only.

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