Feeder Bird Finder
Pick a food, a feeder type or a region and see which birds you can realistically expect. Every result links to the full profile.
Every bird on this site, filtered by what it eats, where it feeds and roughly where it lives. Use it in either direction: pick a bird you want and find out what to put out, or pick the seed already in your shed and see who it should be bringing in.
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How to read the results#
Each card gives the food that reliably works, the feeder design the bird prefers, and when it turns up. "Eats" is the shortlist that actually brings the bird in, not everything it will touch. Follow the link for the full profile: identification, the species it gets confused with, behavior, nesting and the specific setup that works.
If the tool does not load, every profile is listed on the bird profiles hub and in the complete topic index.
Work backwards from the bird
If there is one species you want, filter to it, note its food and feeder, then read its dedicated attraction guide. Those pages go further than a card can: cover requirements, timing, and the reasons a bird that lives nearby still ignores your yard.
The five foods that cover almost everything#
You do not need ten kinds of seed. Between these five, you have most North American feeder birds covered:
| Food | Brings in | Feeder |
|---|---|---|
| Black oil sunflower | Cardinals, chickadees, finches, titmice, nuthatches, jays, grosbeaks | Tube or hopper |
| Suet | Woodpeckers, nuthatches, wrens, chickadees | Suet cage |
| White proso millet | Juncos, doves, native sparrows, towhees, buntings | Ground or platform |
| Nyjer | Goldfinches, siskins, redpolls | Nyjer feeder |
| Nectar | Hummingbirds, and orioles will take it too | Hummingbird feeder |
A sixth, safflower, is worth adding if squirrels or grackles are ruining a feeder, because cardinals eat it and those two usually will not.
What a feeder cannot do#
No food will produce a bird that does not occur in your area, or that is a thousand miles away for the season. Painted buntings will not appear in Ohio, and ruby-throated hummingbirds are not in Montana in January. Check your regional guide before you conclude that something is wrong with your setup, and read why are no birds coming to my feeder if the yard is quiet.
Water changes that calculus more than any seed does. A shallow bird bath brings in warblers, thrushes and vireos that will never touch a feeder in their lives, and the full setup guide puts it all in order.
Frequently asked questions#
What is the one food that attracts the most bird species?
Black oil sunflower seed. It appeals to more North American feeder species than anything else, because the shell is thin enough for small birds to crack and the kernel is high in fat. If you only ever buy one bag, buy that.
Why can I not find a bird I have seen in my yard?
This tool only covers the species profiled on this site, which is the set of birds that commonly visit feeders in North America. Many yard birds, including warblers, vireos and most thrushes, never use a seed feeder at all. Water and native plants bring those in instead.
Does one feeder type attract everything?
No, and that is the single most useful thing to understand. Tube feeders suit small clinging birds, platform feeders suit heavy-bodied and ground-feeding birds, and suet feeders suit woodpeckers and nuthatches. Two feeder types will roughly double your species list.
How do I know which birds live in my area?
Filter by East or West here for a rough split, then read the regional guide for your area. For a precise answer, eBird's range maps are the best free resource available and are compiled from millions of real observations.