Regional Guide
Feeding Birds in the Pacific Northwest
West of the Cascades, feeding birds is a running battle with water. Seed clumps, suet grows mold, and the hummingbird feeder has to stay up through winter.
The short answer
- Moisture, not cold, is the Pacific Northwest problem. Covered feeders, small fills and frequent cleaning matter more here than anywhere except the humid Southeast.
- Anna's hummingbirds now winter throughout the lowlands, so nectar feeders stay up all year and need a plan for freezing nights.
- The conifer bird list is distinctive: Steller's jays, chestnut-backed chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, varied thrushes and pine siskins.
- East of the Cascade crest the climate flips to dry and cold, and the bird list changes with it.
- Sunflower hearts and no-mess blends reduce the soggy hull layer that turns into mold and rat habitat under a wet feeder.
West of the Cascades, the enemy is water. Not the cold, which is mild by national standards, but eight months of drizzle that soaks seed, grows mold in the base of a tube feeder and turns the hull layer under a feeder into a wet mat. Almost every regional adjustment here comes back to keeping food dry and turning it over fast.
The compensation is a genuinely distinctive bird list and the country's most convenient winter hummingbird. Anna's hummingbirds now hold territory through Northwest winters, which means the nectar feeder never really comes down.
This guide covers the wet-weather setup, the conifer species you get here and almost nowhere else, how to keep a hummingbird feeder running through a hard freeze, and the sharp split between the wet west side and the dry east side.
Which areas this guide covers#
Western Washington and western Oregon, from the Cascade crest to the coast, including the Puget Sound lowlands, the Willamette Valley and the outer coast.
The edges:
- North, southwestern British Columbia shares almost everything with Puget Sound. The southern Canada guide covers the colder interior.
- South, the northern California coast is similar; the redwood coast and inland valleys are in the California guide.
- East of the Cascade crest, in central and eastern Washington and Oregon and the Idaho panhandle, the climate flips to dry summers and cold winters. The Mountain West guide fits that country better than this page does.
The Cascade crest is one of the sharpest regional boundaries in North America. If you are in Yakima or Bend, you are not really in the region this page describes.
Rain is the design constraint#
Three rules cover most of it.
Buy roofs. A wide overhanging roof or a separate weather dome above a tube feeder is worth more here than any other feature. Wind-driven rain still gets in the ports, so drainage holes in the base are not optional.
Fill small. Half a feeder, refilled twice as often, means seed sits for days instead of weeks. A feeder that empties in three or four days almost never molds.
Empty and dry, do not top up. The bottom inch of an old tube holds damp seed that contaminates everything poured on top. Dump it, wipe it, dry it, refill. The full case is in moldy, clumped or wet seed.
Mold under the feeder as well as in it
The soggy mat of hulls below a Northwest feeder grows mold and attracts rats. Rake it out monthly, move the feeder occasionally, or switch to no-mess and hull-free blends so nothing accumulates.
Cleaning frequency should be higher here than the national default. Every two weeks is a minimum in the wet season, and weekly is better if you have a busy feeder. The reasoning is in how often to clean bird feeders.
Birds you will realistically see at a Northwest feeder#
| Bird | Best food | When |
|---|---|---|
| Steller's jay | Peanuts in shell, sunflower, suet | Year-round |
| Chestnut-backed chickadee | Sunflower hearts, suet | Year-round, conifer neighborhoods |
| Black-capped chickadee | Sunflower, suet | Year-round in mixed woods and towns |
| Red-breasted nuthatch | Suet, sunflower hearts, peanuts | Year-round |
| Bushtit | Suet, sunflower hearts | Year-round, arrives as a flock |
| Dark-eyed junco | White millet, ground or low tray | Year-round, Oregon form |
| Spotted towhee | Ground seed near dense cover | Year-round |
| Song sparrow | Millet near cover | Year-round |
| Golden-crowned sparrow | Millet on the ground | October to April |
| House finch | Sunflower hearts, nyjer | Year-round |
| American goldfinch | Nyjer, sunflower hearts | Year-round |
| Lesser goldfinch | Nyjer, sunflower hearts | Oregon and spreading north |
| Pine siskin | Nyjer, sunflower hearts | Common, in flocks, irruptive |
| Downy woodpecker | Suet, sunflower hearts | Year-round |
| Northern flicker | Suet, ground seed | Year-round, red-shafted form |
| Pileated woodpecker | Large suet log | Occasional, near mature forest |
| Anna's hummingbird | Nectar, 1 part sugar to 4 water | Year-round |
| Rufous hummingbird | Nectar | Roughly March to August |
| American robin | Fruit, mealworms | Year-round, flocks in winter |
| California scrub-jay | Peanuts, sunflower | Spreading north through the valleys |
| European starling | Suet, anything | Year-round, in numbers |
Two more birds are worth naming even though they have no profile here yet. Varied thrush is an orange-and-slate forest bird that drops into lowland yards in cold or snowy spells and feeds on the ground under cover. Band-tailed pigeon is a large native pigeon that arrives at platform feeders in flocks and can empty one in a morning.
Anna's hummingbirds through winter#
Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) expanded north over the past several decades and now winters throughout the Northwest lowlands. Birds hold territories through December and January and often start nesting remarkably early in the year.
That creates one job most of the country never has to think about: keeping nectar liquid on a freezing night.
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Overnight low near 32°F (0°C) | Nothing needed; the mix stays liquid |
| Low in the 20s°F (about -4°C) | Bring the feeder in at dusk, rehang at first light |
| Extended freeze | Run two feeders and swap them morning and afternoon |
| Feeder under an eave | Slightly slower to freeze, but not a substitute for rotating |
Dawn is the critical moment, because a hummingbird comes off a cold night with almost nothing in reserve. If you can only manage one thing, have an unfrozen feeder hanging before sunrise.
Do not change the recipe for winter
Keep the standard one part white sugar to four parts water. Adding more sugar, or anything else, to stop it freezing is not safe for the birds. Rotating feeders is the answer. The mix is covered in the hummingbird nectar recipe.
The Northwest calendar#
| Period | What is happening | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Jan to Feb | Anna's on territory and nesting early, wet and gray | Nectar rotation on freezing nights, suet in cover |
| March | Rufous hummingbirds arrive, first singing | Add a second nectar feeder, expect territorial fights |
| April to May | Breeding season, feeder traffic drops | Half fills, more cleaning, offer water |
| June to Aug | Dry summer, natural food abundant | Quietest months; keep nectar fresh, change every 3 days |
| September | Rufous gone, siskin flocks build | Refill seed feeders, watch for finch numbers |
| Oct to Dec | Rain returns, juncos and golden-crowns settle in | Weather domes on, ground feeding under cover, clean often |
Those windows move a week or two with the year. Rufous hummingbird arrival in particular runs earlier on the coast than inland, and earlier in Oregon than in northern Washington.
Siskins, and the disease risk that comes with them#
Pine siskins are more consistently present in the Northwest than in most regions, and in irruption years they arrive in flocks of dozens. They crowd onto nyjer and sunflower feeders in tight groups, and that combination of crowding and damp is the classic setting for salmonella outbreaks.
If you have a large siskin flock, clean feeders weekly, spread the birds across several feeders rather than one, and take everything down for a week or two if you find sick or dead birds. Signs to look for are in there is a sick bird at my feeder.
Suet is easy here, if you keep it small
Cool damp weather means suet lasts all winter without melting, and Northwest woodpeckers, chickadees and bushtits use it heavily. Use small cakes that get eaten within a week, hang them where rain does not sit on them, and scrub the cage regularly.
Rats, slugs and the wet ground#
Persistent damp and mild winters make the ground under a Northwest feeder a problem in its own right. Rats work spilled seed at night in city and suburban yards, and slugs colonize anything left in a tray.
The fixes are ordinary but need doing consistently: a catch tray under hanging feeders, hull-free seed so there is nothing left to accumulate, no seed left on the ground overnight, and a feeder sited on hard surface or gravel rather than in shrubbery where spillage vanishes from view. Details are in rodents under bird feeders.
A Northwest setup that works#
- A roofed sunflower or hull-free tube on a baffled pole, filled half full and emptied at every refill.
- A suet feeder under cover, with small cakes, for chickadees, nuthatches, bushtits and flickers.
- Two nectar feeders in rotation, up all year, so Anna's hummingbirds always have something unfrozen at dawn.
- A low covered tray or a sheltered ground patch with white millet for juncos, towhees, song sparrows and golden-crowned sparrows.
- A catch tray and a monthly rake-out to keep the ground under the feeder from becoming a mold and rodent problem.
- A cleaning schedule of every one to two weeks, tightened whenever siskin flocks are around.
If you are east of the crest, most of this page does not apply to your climate, and the Mountain West guide is the better starting point.
Frequently asked questions#
How do I keep bird seed dry in the Pacific Northwest?
Use feeders with a wide roof or a separate weather dome, fill them no more than half full so the seed turns over in a few days, and empty and dry the feeder completely at each refill rather than topping it up. Sunflower hearts and no-mess blends leave no wet hull layer under the feeder, which removes the worst of the mold problem.
Should I keep my hummingbird feeder up all winter in Seattle or Portland?
Yes. Anna's hummingbirds are now year-round residents throughout the lowlands and they use feeders heavily in winter. Take the feeder in overnight during a freeze and put it back at first light, or run two feeders and rotate them, so the birds always have unfrozen nectar at dawn.
How do I stop hummingbird nectar from freezing?
Rotate two feeders, keeping one indoors while the other hangs, and swap them at dawn and in the afternoon. Hanging the feeder under an eave or close to a wall helps a little. Do not add anything to the sugar water to lower its freezing point, since the standard one to four mix is what the birds need.
What birds come to feeders in Washington and Oregon?
West of the Cascades, expect Steller's jays, chestnut-backed and black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, dark-eyed juncos of the Oregon form, house finches, American and lesser goldfinches, pine siskins, spotted towhees, bushtits, northern flickers, downy woodpeckers and Anna's hummingbirds year-round.
Why is my suet growing mold?
Constant damp and mild temperatures are ideal for mold. Use smaller cakes so they are eaten within a week, hang them under cover or in a feeder with a roof, and scrub the cage in hot soapy water every couple of weeks. Discard any cake that has visible fuzz or smells sour rather than letting birds finish it.