Seasonal
Feeding During Nesting Season
From late spring through midsummer the birds at your feeder are carrying food away, not eating it. That changes what belongs in the feeder and what should come out of it.
The short answer
- Offer small, soft, high-protein food while birds are raising young: live or dried mealworms first, then sunflower hearts, chopped peanuts and no-melt suet.
- Whole peanuts and large hard chunks are a genuine choking risk for nestlings. Switch to chopped or shelled pieces from roughly April through August.
- Crushed, baked eggshell supplies calcium that laying females need and that is often scarce in yards with acidic soil.
- Do not put out bread, crackers or bulk filler seed during nesting season. Adults feed it straight to chicks that need protein and fat.
- Almost all nestlings are fed insects, not seed. A yard with native plants and no pesticides feeds more nestlings than any feeder does.
During nesting season the birds at your feeder are mostly not feeding themselves. They are running a delivery service, and a chickadee pair may make several hundred trips a day to a nest full of chicks. What you put out gets carried straight into that nest.
So the menu changes. Small, soft, protein-rich items are what help: mealworms first, then sunflower hearts, chopped peanuts and a no-melt suet. Whole peanuts, large hard chunks, bread and bulk filler seed all come off the list until the last brood has fledged.
This page covers what nestlings actually eat, the choking risk that makes whole nuts a bad idea in June, how to supply calcium, and the hygiene rules that matter far more at 85°F (29°C) than they do in January.
What nestlings actually eat#
Almost all backyard songbirds raise their chicks on invertebrates. Caterpillars, spiders, beetle larvae and soft-bodied insects supply the protein and moisture a growing bird needs. Adults that live on seed for nine months of the year switch to hunting bugs the moment they have a nest.
The main exception is the finches. American goldfinches and house finches feed their young regurgitated seed pulp, which is one reason goldfinches nest so late, waiting for thistle and other seed to ripen.
The practical consequence is that your feeder is a convenience for the parents, not the chicks' main food source. The single biggest thing you can do for nesting success is grow native plants that host caterpillars and stop spraying, because lawn and garden pesticides remove exactly the insects that nestlings depend on.
The whole peanut problem#
A whole peanut kernel is roughly the size of a nestling's head. Parent birds are not selective about what they carry back, and a chick that is fed a piece too large to swallow can choke. Large, hard, dry fragments carry the same risk.
From about April through August, offer peanuts only as chopped pieces, or in a mesh peanut feeder with openings small enough that birds have to break off fragments rather than lift out a whole kernel. Save whole nuts in the shell for fall and winter, when jays and woodpeckers can cache them without any chick at the other end of the trip.
Size the food to a nestling, not to an adult
Anything a parent can pick up in one piece can end up in a chick's throat. During nesting season, keep individual items under roughly 1/4 inch (6 mm): chopped nuts, sunflower hearts, small suet crumbs, mealworms. Whole peanuts, large dried fruit chunks and hard bread are the three things most often implicated.
Mealworms: the highest-value thing you can offer#
Nothing else in a feeder comes as close to natural nestling food. Mealworms are soft, high in protein and fat, and taken by species that otherwise ignore feeders entirely: bluebirds, wrens, robins, chickadees and titmice.
Live mealworms are the most readily accepted. Dried ones work if you soak them in warm water for 15 to 20 minutes first, which restores moisture that chicks need and makes them easier to swallow. A shallow dish with slick sides, or a purpose-made mealworm feeder, stops them crawling away.
Ration them. A common approach is a measured portion, around 10 to 15 worms per bird per day for a pair with a nest, offered at dawn and again in late afternoon rather than left out constantly. Unlimited mealworms are expensive and can crowd out other foraging.
Calcium: eggshell, and why it runs short#
A female forming eggs needs far more calcium than her normal diet supplies, and in regions with acidic soils or few snail shells it can be genuinely hard to find. Growing nestlings need it for bone development.
Baked, crushed eggshell is the simple answer. Rinse the shells, bake at about 250°F (120°C) for 20 minutes, crush to fragments smaller than a grain of rice and offer them in a shallow dish or scattered on a platform feeder. Crushed oyster shell sold for poultry works too. The full method, including why you should never offer raw shell, is in grit, calcium and eggshells.
What to offer, and what to pull#
| Food | Nesting season | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mealworms, live or soaked | Best choice | Closest thing to natural nestling food |
| Sunflower hearts | Yes | No shell, small pieces, high fat |
| Chopped peanuts | Yes | Never whole kernels while chicks are in nests |
| No-melt suet dough | Yes | Standard raw suet goes rancid above about 80°F (27°C) |
| Black oil sunflower | Yes | Fine; adults crack it themselves |
| Nyjer | Yes | Feeds late-nesting goldfinches |
| Whole peanuts, shelled or in shell | Hold until fall | Choking risk to nestlings |
| Bread, crackers, baked goods | Never | Fills a chick with nothing it needs |
| Cheap mixes heavy in milo and wheat | No | Raked onto the ground, rots fast in heat |
The bread rule deserves emphasis. An adult bird that eats a scrap of bread has wasted a meal. A chick fed bread through a critical growth week can suffer real developmental harm. The wider list is in what not to feed birds.
Suet in warm weather#
Raw suet and cheap fat cakes soften above roughly 80°F (27°C), go rancid, and can smear onto the face and breast feathers of a bird that is then carrying that mess back to a nest. Switch to a no-melt suet dough rated for summer, or move the suet feeder into full shade and put out smaller amounts. Details are in the suet guide.
Timing across the country#
Nesting is driven by day length and food supply, so the window shifts north with spring. These are rough regional windows for the main nesting push, not hard dates.
| Region | Main nesting window | Switch the menu by |
|---|---|---|
| Gulf Coast, Florida, south Texas | March to July | Early March |
| Southeast, southern Plains | Late March to July | Mid-March |
| Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Southwest | April to July | Late March |
| Northeast, Upper Midwest, Mountain West | Late April to early August | Mid-April |
| Pacific Northwest | April to July | Early April |
| Southern Canada | May to early August | Late April |
Second and third broods stretch the season. Cardinals, bluebirds and robins routinely raise more than one brood, so keep the nesting-season menu going into August rather than switching back the moment you see the first fledglings.
Fledglings are not abandoned
In June and July you will see scruffy, short-tailed birds sitting on the ground looking helpless. Most are fledglings whose parents are nearby and still feeding them. Leave them alone, keep cats indoors, and note that a brush pile gives them somewhere safe to wait it out.
Hygiene in warm weather#
Every cleaning interval shortens in summer heat. Damp seed molds in days, nectar ferments overnight, and mealworm dishes go sour fast. Aphids, bacteria and wet hulls all multiply faster at 85°F (29°C).
Wash feeders weekly through nesting season, empty and dry them completely rather than topping up, and rake the hulls under the feeder so nothing sits and rots there. The intervals are set out in how often to clean bird feeders.
The nest box is the other half of the job
Feeding helps at the margins. A correctly sized, correctly sited box helps directly. Hole diameter, mounting height and predator guards all matter, and are covered in nest boxes: sizing and siting. If you also want to offer nesting material, read offering nesting material safely first, because dryer lint, yarn and hair cause real injuries.
A nesting-season checklist#
- Chop or exclude whole peanuts from April through August.
- Put out mealworms at dawn and late afternoon, rationed rather than unlimited.
- Offer baked crushed eggshell in a shallow dish from the start of egg laying.
- Switch raw suet to no-melt dough, or move it into shade.
- Stop any bread, crackers or bulk filler mix entirely.
- Wash feeders weekly and dry them fully before refilling.
- Keep cats indoors and leave apparently stranded fledglings where they are.
- Do not spray the lawn or shrubs; caterpillars are the food supply.
Frequently asked questions#
Should I stop feeding birds during nesting season?
No. Feeders help adults save foraging time when they are making dozens of trips a day to a nest. What you should do is change the menu: smaller pieces, more protein, no whole peanuts, no bread and no cheap filler seed. Keep everything scrupulously clean, because warm weather turns damp seed and old suet bad within days.
Are whole peanuts dangerous for baby birds?
Yes, they can be. A parent bird will carry a whole peanut kernel back to the nest and a nestling can choke on it, and large dry pieces can also lodge in the throat. Offer peanuts chopped or in a mesh feeder that forces birds to take small fragments, and save whole nuts in the shell for fall and winter.
When should I put out mealworms for nesting birds?
Start about two weeks before your local birds begin building, which in most of the US means late March to mid-April, and continue through the last brood in July or August. Offer them in the early morning and again in late afternoon, when parents are working hardest.
How do I give birds calcium?
Rinse eggshells, bake them at around 250°F (120°C) for 20 minutes to kill any bacteria, crush them to pieces smaller than a grain of rice, and put them in a shallow dish or mix them into a platform feeder. Laying females and growing chicks both need the calcium, and crushed shell also serves as grit.
Do birds feed seed to their babies?
Very few do. Most backyard songbirds raise their young almost entirely on insects, caterpillars and spiders, even species that eat seed as adults. Finches are the notable exception and do feed regurgitated seed. That is why insect-friendly planting matters more to nesting success than the contents of your feeder.