Attracting Birds
How to Attract Juncos
Juncos are the one common feeder bird you attract mainly by getting the calendar and the height right. Put white millet on the ground in October and they generally do the rest.
The short answer
- Juncos feed on the ground. A hanging feeder can be full for weeks while juncos work the spilled seed underneath it.
- White proso millet is the cheapest and most effective junco food, ahead of cracked corn and sunflower chips.
- They are seasonal in most of the country: October to April in the middle latitudes, with almost none present in summer.
- A brush pile or dense shrub within about 15 feet (4.5 m) of the feeding area does more than any change in seed.
- Scatter only what is eaten in a day. Standing ground seed brings rodents and goes moldy after rain.
Juncos are attracted by timing and height rather than by anything clever. They arrive on a predictable schedule in fall, they feed on the ground, and they eat small seeds. Scatter white millet under your feeder in mid October and the Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) usually finds it within days.
The mistake that keeps juncos out of a yard is nearly always vertical. People hang a tube feeder, fill it with sunflower, and wonder why the gray birds hopping around the neighbor's lawn never come over. Juncos want a surface at or near ground level, cover close by, and a seed small enough to swallow whole.
This page gives the arrival calendar by region, ranks the seeds, covers the cover, and deals with the real downsides of ground feeding: rodents, wet seed and cats.
The arrival calendar#
Junco season is the single most useful thing to know about them. Putting seed out in August and concluding that juncos ignore your yard is a scheduling error, not a feeding one.
| Region | Typical first arrivals | Peak numbers | Last birds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern New England, Upper Midwest | Late September to mid October | November to February | Mid to late April |
| Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley, central Plains | Mid to late October | December to February | Early to mid April |
| Southeast and Gulf states | Early to late November | December to February | Mid March |
| Southwest lowlands | November | December to February | March |
| Mountain West | Downslope movement in October | November to March | April, back upslope |
| Pacific Northwest and California | Resident birds all year, numbers swell in October | November to March | Residents stay |
| Southern Canada | Breeding birds present in summer | Passage flocks in October | Most move south |
Numbers also swing with weather inside the season. A hard cold snap or a snow cover event typically doubles the flock at a feeding area within a day, because snow buries the wild seed they would otherwise be working. That is the pattern behind most of what people notice about winter bird feeding.
Ground level is not negotiable#
Watch a junco forage and the design brief becomes obvious. It hops, then does a quick double-scratch with both feet to flick leaf litter backward, then picks up what it uncovered. None of that translates to a perch.
Three presentations work, in this order:
- Bare ground or a patch of short grass, seed scattered thinly. Cheapest, and the one juncos take fastest.
- A low ground feeder or catch tray raised an inch or two, which keeps seed off wet soil and lets you tip out debris.
- A platform feeder on a short pole, 1 to 3 feet (30 to 90 cm) up. Juncos use these readily and it keeps the seed drier still.
A hanging tube is a distant fourth. If a tube is all you own, hang it low and let the spill feed the juncos, which is what happens in most yards anyway.
The seed, ranked#
| Seed | Junco response | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| White proso millet | Excellent | The default. Small, round, swallowed whole |
| Cracked corn | Very good | Cheap bulk filler; also brings doves and starlings |
| Sunflower hearts | Very good | No hull for a small bill to crack |
| Black oil sunflower | Good | Taken, but they often just eat the spill |
| Nyjer | Fair | Eaten from the ground under finch feeders |
| Milo, wheat, oats | Poor | Left to rot, the bulk of cheap mixes |
| Whole peanuts, striped sunflower | No | Too large to handle |
The practical recommendation is a bag of straight white millet rather than a mix. Millet is inexpensive, and buying it separately means you are not paying for filler the juncos will leave behind. If you must use a mix, read the label rather than the picture on the front, as covered in bird seed mixes.
One change, most of the effect
If you do exactly one thing for juncos, scatter a couple of handfuls of white millet on the ground under your existing feeder every morning through the winter. That single habit brings more juncos than any feeder purchase.
Cover, and the edge habit#
Juncos feed at edges. They work the strip between open ground and a shrub line, and they almost never venture far into the middle of a wide lawn. A flock flushes to cover at the first alarm, waits, then filters back out.
Put the feeding area within about 15 feet (4.5 m) of a hedge, evergreen or brush pile. A brush pile made from Christmas tree prunings and storm-fallen branches is close to ideal, and it doubles as roosting shelter in hard weather.
Where there is no cover at all, juncos will still visit, but in smaller numbers and for shorter periods, and they will abandon the spot entirely once a hawk starts hunting it.
What changes when it snows#
Snow is when a ground-feeding station earns its keep, and it also creates the one real maintenance job.
- Clear a patch. Shovel or sweep a bare area of 3 by 3 feet (1 by 1 m) before scattering seed, otherwise the seed sinks and disappears.
- Feed under something. Seed under a dense conifer, a deck, or a picnic table stays accessible through snowfall.
- Feed more often, in smaller amounts. Two small scatterings beat one large one, because the seed does not sit long enough to get buried or wet.
- Add water. Open water in freezing weather draws juncos as strongly as seed does. See winter water and heated bird baths.
The problems ground feeding causes#
Being honest about this matters, because the advice to scatter seed on the ground is also advice that can go badly wrong.
Rodents. Seed left overnight feeds mice and rats. Scatter only a day's worth, feed in the morning so it is gone by dusk, and read rodents under bird feeders if you see runs or droppings.
Wet and moldy seed. Millet on wet ground molds quickly, and moldy seed is a genuine health risk to birds. Move the feeding patch every week or two so nothing accumulates, and never top up on a soggy pile. The warning signs are in moldy, clumped seed.
Cats. A flock feeding at ground level next to a shrub is the most vulnerable arrangement in backyard bird feeding. If cats hunt your yard, either fix that or do not feed on the ground; the options are in cats and bird feeders.
Move the feeding patch
A ground feeding spot used all winter builds up hulls, droppings and damp. That is how salmonella outbreaks start in flocking birds. Shift the patch a few yards every week or two and rake the old one clean.
Which junco you are looking at#
All of the common forms belong to one species, and the differences are worth knowing because field guides split them into groups.
- Slate-colored. Uniform dark gray hood and back, white belly. The eastern and boreal bird, and the one most winter feeders see.
- Oregon. Black or dark hood contrasting with a brown back and buffy flanks. The common western form.
- Pink-sided. Pale gray hood, broad pinkish flanks. Northern Rockies.
- Gray-headed and red-backed. Gray birds with a rusty back patch. Southern Rockies and the Southwest.
- White-winged. Pale, with white wingbars. Black Hills region.
All of them flash white outer tail feathers in flight, which is the field mark you will actually use. Flocks often include White-throated Sparrows and other ground feeders working the same seed.
Your first week of junco feeding#
- Pick the date. Start scattering seed roughly two weeks before the arrival window for your region in the table above. Birds that find food on arrival stay.
- Pick the spot. Bare ground or a low tray, 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 m) from a shrub or brush pile, visible from a window you use.
- Scatter a handful or two of white millet each morning, no more than will be gone by dusk.
- Watch for three days. The first juncos usually arrive with a small mixed flock rather than alone.
- Adjust once. If nothing has come in ten days, move the seed closer to cover before you change the seed. Distance from cover is the more common fault.
Frequently asked questions#
What is the best seed for juncos?
White proso millet. Juncos are small-billed ground foragers and millet suits them better than sunflower does. Cracked corn and sunflower chips are good secondary options. Skip mixes heavy in milo, wheat and oats, which juncos leave behind to rot.
When do juncos arrive at feeders?
In most of the northern and middle United States they appear between late September and mid November and leave between mid March and late April. Arrival is later the farther south you are. In the mountain West and parts of the Pacific coast, juncos are present year-round but shift downslope in winter.
Do juncos use hanging feeders?
Sometimes, but reluctantly. A junco will perch on a wide platform or a tray attached to a hopper, and occasionally on a tube perch, but its normal foraging mode is hopping and scratching on the ground. Feeding them at ground level or on a low tray will always get more birds.
Why are juncos called snowbirds?
Because in most of the settled United States they show up with the first hard weather and leave in spring, so their arrival became a folk sign of winter. They are not driven by snow itself; they are migrating from breeding grounds in the boreal forest and the mountains to lower, milder wintering areas.
Where do juncos go in summer?
North and uphill. Most juncos that winter in the lower 48 breed in Canada, Alaska, the northern forests and the western mountains. If you see juncos in July, you are either in that breeding range, at high elevation, or looking at one of the resident western populations.
Is it safe to feed birds on the ground?
It is, if you keep the area clean and dry. Put out only what will be eaten in a day, move the feeding spot every couple of weeks so droppings and hulls do not build up, rake up debris, and stop ground feeding entirely if you see sick birds or signs of rats.