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Find out about types of feeders and types of foods, and where to place your feeder
Feeding Birds FAQs
Explore the winter distribution, food, and feeder preferences of common feeder birds.
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Unusual Birds Gallery
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Sick Birds Gallery
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Learn about house finch eye disease
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Cornell Lab of Ornithology feeders
Ontario (winter only)
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Graphs of regional population trends and distributions
Explore papers that have used FeederWatch data
Lab scientists analyze the data submitted by FeederWatch participants.
See birds well outside their winter range submitted to Project FeederWatch.
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Peggy Mabb
Webster, NY, United States
Bluebirds are relatively rare in our backyard…too many trees and house sparrows I think. But on this very cold day, I saw this beautiful guy sitting on feeder pole. He moved around from pole, to nearby trees and back to pole for around 1/2 hour. I wished I had some mealworms to put out but I didn’t! A lot of other birds were flurrying around the feeder where I have suet, seed cake, black oil sunflower seed and peanuts, so I think he was looking to see what all the other birds were eating and if there was anything for him! I thought he might go to the suet but he didn’t. I crumbled some up and put on a tray on the deck, but he didn’t go for that either. I took the photo from over 30 feet away, though back window, so not as sharp a photo as it would if I had been outside.
Blackbirds & Thrushes
Bluebird checking out my backyard on cold day!
Before I began to provide specifically for them, my wintering-over Bluebirds would go to the suet cakes. Now, besides mealworms, they will go for the shelled sunflower hearts, and to tell the truth, when the weather is bad and they need nutrition, I think they’ll eat anything that is easily available. Keep you eyes peeled, and you might find that your feeders will get more visits by the Bluebirds.
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