Cardinals are loyal visitors once they find a reliable food source, and the right offerings can turn occasional stops into daily routines. These brilliant red birds have strong preferences when it comes to feeding, and understanding what they love most makes all the difference in transforming your backyard into cardinal headquarters.
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Check PriceCardinals Eat Black Oil Sunflower Seeds at Tray Feeders
First, you should consider what type of food you’re offering. Cardinals are known to adore black oil sunflower seeds.
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They also love safflower seeds, peanuts, and suet cakes. You should select feeders that allow you to serve these foods.
Cardinals also need a feeder that will hold their favorite foods. A cardinal’s beak is shaped for cracking larger seeds, so these are the best foods to offer them.
They enjoy black oil sunflower and safflower seeds, corn, and peanuts. Cardinals also like mealworms and suet.
The best type of bird feeder for cardinals is a standard platform or tray feeder that they can perch on while they crack open sunflower and safflower seeds.
Cardinals Prefer Safflower Seeds and a Facing Perch
Another popular seed in cardinal mixes is safflower seeds. These white seeds are similar to sunflower seeds, and you’ll find that the birds in your backyard, cardinals included, will also come to enjoy safflower seeds.
Cardinals prefer sunflower and safflower seeds, so use those to fill your bird feeders. If you want a genuinely hospitable garden for cardinals, get a feeder with a cardinal ring around the food access area.
Cardinals prefer to face their food, and the ring will allow them to perch and eat comfortably. The cardinal feeds on seeds as well as other foods.
They prefer black sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, white millet, saffron, and black oil sunflower seeds. As far as birds go, they have expensive taste!
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However, they are also known to enjoy crushed peanuts crushed, berries, or corn.
Cardinals Eat Unsalted Peanuts From Cage Feeders
Like many birds, cardinals love peanuts, a high-calorie, high-protein treat. You can enjoy watching them pull the peanuts from this covered cage feeder and break them out of the shells to eat.
Sturdy perches on each side provide for the cardinals’ comfort. This is a hanging-style feeder.
Like sunflower seeds, peanuts packaged for humans are often far too salty for birds. You can buy bird-specific peanuts that will be much healthier for cardinals and the rest of your backyard wildlife.
One note on peanuts: make sure to buy roasted peanuts intended for birds, as raw peanuts can be toxic when contaminated with a chemical called aflatoxin. To be on the safe side, stick to roasted peanuts.
Cardinals Eat White Proso Millet
As well, cardinals tend to eat up white proso millet. If you have larger ground birds like quails or pheasants on your property, they will also be interested in this seed.
Finches like thistle, while sparrows, doves, and cardinals are fans of millet. If you don’t mind seed on the ground, the Cornell Lab recommends spreading some millet under your feeders if you have birds like quails in your area.
Millet is a type of birdseed that resembles miniature kernels of popcorn! There are three types of millet used in bird seed: white proso millet, golden millet, and red millet.
White proso and red millet are the most common, so let’s discuss them in further detail.
Cardinals Eat Live or Dried Mealworms
Mealworms are perhaps best known for attracting bluebirds, but cardinals are among the other birds that eat mealworms. You can buy live mealworms, but dried mealworms are readily available and relatively inexpensive.
You can put mealworms in a separate bird feeding station or mix them with your usual birdseed mix. Mealworms are the larvae of darkling beetles.
Though live food is certainly more appealing to most birds than dried food, many people opt for dried mealworms, which are considered more pleasant to humans since you don’t have to deal with live crawlers.
Cardinals Eat Dogwood Berries and Wild Fruit
Carotenoids in native fruit like raspberries, wild grapes, or Dogwood berries are responsible for the red hues in cardinal feathers. Cardinals love these fruits, although they mostly eat them for their seeds.
Wild berries are often a cardinal favorite, so planting wild berry bushes in your backyard is one way to please cardinals, although you may have to wait a couple of years to see results as the plants grow. Cardinals have also been known to eat fruits like cherries, grapes, and apples.
Some cardinal bird seed mixes will also include raisins. But even though dogwood berries are red, the plants that produce them are not.
Dogwoods, the favorite plant of cardinals, have white flowers. So it seems unlikely that red is the predominant color attracting the cardinals.
What cardinals want at the feeder
| Spec | What our writers say |
|---|---|
| Favorite foods | They adore black oil sunflower seeds and also love safflower seeds, peanuts, suet cakes, corn, and mealworms |
| Beak and seed size | A cardinal’s beak is shaped for cracking larger seeds, so sunflower, safflower, corn, and peanuts are the best foods to offer |
| Feeder type | A standard platform or tray feeder they can perch on while they crack open sunflower and safflower seeds |
| Facing perch | A cardinal ring around the food access area lets them face their food and perch comfortably |
| Seed mix they prefer | Black sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, white millet, saffron, and black oil sunflower seeds, plus crushed peanuts, berries, or corn |
| Peanuts | High-calorie, high-protein; they pull them from a hanging covered cage feeder with sturdy perches and break them out of the shells |
| Which peanuts | Use roasted peanuts intended for birds; human peanuts are often too salty, and raw peanuts can be toxic when contaminated with aflatoxin |
| White proso millet | Cardinals eat white proso millet; sparrows and doves do too, and the Cornell Lab recommends spreading millet under feeders if you have quails |
| Millet types | Millet resembles miniature popcorn kernels; white proso, golden, and red millet are used in bird seed, with white proso and red the most common |
| Mealworms | Live or dried darkling-beetle larvae; put them in a separate station or mix them with birdseed. Live food appeals more to birds; dried is cheaper and easier for people |
| Fruit and red feathers | Carotenoids in raspberries, wild grapes, or dogwood berries give cardinal feathers their red hues; they mostly eat those fruits for the seeds |
| More fruit | They also eat cherries, grapes, and apples; some seed mixes include raisins. Dogwoods, their favorite plant, have white flowers |
