How To Attract Cardinals in Winter
Some Great Ways To Bring These Red Birds To Your Yard!
Due to the male’s bright red plumage, Northern Cardinals are one of the most well-recognized songbirds in North America. Cardinals are a favorite backyard bird, ranging across the central and eastern United States and even up into Canada. As these beautiful avian reptiles don’t migrate elsewhere when it gets cold, you may wonder how to attract cardinals in winter to your yard.
You can attract Cardinals in winter by keeping bright-colored feeders filled with their favorite food and providing them with heated bird baths. You can also provide these birds with shelter from predators and ensure nothing in your backyard would repel them.
This article will cover the two best ways to encourage Cardinals to visit your home during the winter months and provide you with recommendations for how to get started.
Should I Feed Cardinals in Winter?
You should feed Cardinals in winter if you want to attract them to your yard. Providing these birds with a reliable food source can help them survive the harsh cold, especially since their natural foods, such as berries, are less abundant during the winter season.
Not only do you want to ensure that food is available daily, but you’ll also need to make sure there’s plenty available at dawn and dusk when Cardinals prefer to feed.
Here are a few more things to remember when setting out food for these Cardinals:
- Use a sturdy feeder. Cardinals are not like small birds, and they need a place to perch that can hold their weight when they feed.
- Make sure the Cardinals can easily reach the food. These songbirds like to eat facing forward, so they need enough room around the feeder to do so.
- Place the feeder near a shelter. The bird’s bright colors can be an easy-to-spot signal for predators. By placing the feeder near evergreen trees and shrubs, you’re giving the birds a safe place to hide nearby.
- Set out multiple feeders. Cardinals can be territorial, though not as much during the winter. However, having multiple feeders is still a good idea to avoid overcrowding.
- Clean the feeder regularly. This helps keep the Cardinals healthy and other birds stopping by for a snack.
Once the local Cardinals learn that your yard is a safe spot with plentiful, delicious food, they will continue to return throughout the winter and the rest of the year.
Ever wonder how Cardinals survive in the winter wintertime? It can get mighty cold in some places! In this article of mine I share all of the facts on How Cardinals Survive In The Winter.
What To Feed Cardinals in Winter
You should feed Cardinals black oil sunflower seeds in winter, though these aren’t the only must-have in any Cardinal food mix. Since these avians are omnivores with large, sturdy beaks, you can give them a diet of seeds, nuts, and fruits.
When considering how to attract Cardinals in winter, you’ll want to provide the same types of food they would typically find in the wild. Safflower seeds are another excellent choice, as squirrels and many other birds aren’t particularly fond of them.
Best Food for Cardinals in Winter
Like all species that people wish to attract to their yards, you’ll find various Cardinal feeder mixes on Amazon.com. The selection can be overwhelming, so below are three great options to get you started:
This 4 lbs (64 oz) mix is designed
to provide wild birds, including Cardinals, with the nutrients and extra energy they need to get through the winter season. It contains a hearty mixture of both black oil sunflower and safflower seeds, peanuts, cranberries, sunflower hearts, and cherries.
Another 4 lbs (64 oz) option, this is a simple mix made for large feeders like the kinds Cardinals visit. With a 60-40 ratio of black oil sunflower to safflower seeds, this is a basic and cheaper option than others on the market.
At 5 lbs (80 oz), this is the seed mix to use if you want to attract a wider variety of birds along with Cardinals. Aside from the staple seeds the previous options also have, this bag contains peanut kernels, white millet, and cracked corn.
What Colors Attract Cardinals?
Bright colors attract Cardinals. If you want to lure them to your yard, red, yellow, and blue feeders will be more attractive to them, with blacks and greens as additional options.
Generally, if it's a color that berries come in, it's one the food-seeking Cardinals will likely come to check out.
Do Cardinals Like Bird Baths?
Cardinals like bird baths. In fact, aside from feeders, bird baths or other water sources can attract these birds to your yard in winter. However, ensure the water is not frozen because, while their strong beaks mean they can chip away at the ice, water they can easily drink is much more appealing.
Cardinals can handle slightly deeper water than other species due to their size, though the water should be no deeper than two or thre inches (5.1 to 7.7 cm). As with feeders, you must keep the birdbaths cleaned out, even in winter.
A heated bird bath can be a great water source for wild Cardinals when it’s cold out. Here are three highly-rated options on Amazon.com to consider for your backyard:
While this bird bath may seem like a plain option, it can be mounted to multiple surfaces or placed on the ground. The heating element is safely enclosed in the device so reptilian visitors won’t get hurt, and the thermostat technology means that the bowl will only heat up when it gets cold enough.
This large heated bath is easy to install and perfect for multiple birds. While it needs to stay on the ground, its adjustable feet give you some options on the height. This bath also has a thermostat to ensure that it only uses energy to warm the water when needed.
This is slightly different from the previous two and is something you can use if you already have a bird bath in your yard. Place the heater under the water’s surface, which will only heat up when needed to save on energy costs. This product works in a variety of birdbath types.
Read more about whether heated birdbaths are good or bad for Cardinals (or any bird) and what are their benefits in my helpful article Are Heated Birdbaths Good Or Bad For Birds?
What To Avoid When Trying To Attract Cardinals
One final thing to remember when looking into how to attract Cardinals in winter is to make sure you don’t have anything in your yard that will discourage them from visiting, such as reflective objects. Not only do birds not like their blinding glare, but Cardinals can also be territorial and may attack their reflection in windows or car mirrors.
Will Birdhouses Attract Cardinals?
During the winter, providing a nice, cozy birdhouse for Cardinals may seem like a no-brainer, but don’t waste your money. Cardinals will not use birdhouses (regardless of season) due to their dislike of enclosed spaces and the fact that they are much larger than other songbirds.
Springtime is always around the corner, so it's best to prep your yard or garden early. Here's a great article you'll like that deals with How To Attract Cardinals To Your Yard Or Garden.
How to Attract Cardinals in Winter... Conclusion
Attracting the beautiful songbirds that Cardinals are in the winter comes down to providing regular access to two things, which are food and water.
These large birds require sturdy, brightly colored feeders to eat seeds and berries while facing forward, as well as a non-frozen water source that a heated bird bath can give. As a non-migratory species, any Northern Cardigans that make their way to your home in the winter season will likely stick around for a long time.
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Richard Worden, a dedicated bird lover for over 20 years, I love to share my in-depth knowledge and passion for birds. Read more About Me and my expertise in this field.
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