This chart provides the general food preferences for the most common feeder birds of North America. Although there are no guaranteed methods for attracting certain birds to your feeders, the presence of water, adaquate habitat or cover, and the birds' preferred foods will enhance the attractiveness of your yard. Foods are listed in approximate order of preference.
| Quail, pheasants | Cracked corn, millet, wheat, milo |
| Pigeons, doves | Millet, cracked corn, wheat, milo, niger, buckwheat, sunflower, baked goods |
| Roadrunner | Meat scraps, hamburger, suet |
| Hummingbirds | Plant nectar, small insects, sugar solution |
| Woodpeckers | Suet, meat scraps, sunflower hearts/seed, cracked corn, peanuts, fruits, sugar solution |
| Jays | Peanuts, sunflower, suet, meat scraps, cracked corn, baked goods |
| Crows, magpies, and nutcracker | Meat scraps, suet, cracked corn, peanuts, baked goods, leftovers, dog food |
| Titmice, chickadees | Peanut kernels, sunflower, suet, peanut butter |
| Nuthatches | Suet, suet mixes, sunflower hearts and seed, peanut kernels, peanut butter |
| Wrens, creepers | Suet, suet mixes, peanut butter, peanut kernels, bread, fruit, millet (wrens) |
| Mockingbirds, thrashers, catbirds | Halved apple, chopped fruits, baked goods, suet, nutmeats, millet (thrashers), soaked raisins, currants, sunflower hearts |
| Robins, bluebirds, other thrushes | Suet, suet mixes, mealworms, berries, baked goods, chopped fruits, soaked raisins, currants, nutmeats, sunflower hearts |
| Kinglets | Suet, suet mixes, baked goods |
| Waxwings | Berries, chopped fruits, canned peas, currants, raisins |
| Warblers | Suet, suet mixes, fruit, baked goods, sugar solution, chopped nutmeats |
| Tanagers | Suet, fruits, sugar solution, mealworms, baked goods |
| Cardinals, grosbeaks, pyrrhuloxias (a type of cardinal) | Sunflower, safflower, cracked corn, millet, fruit |
| Towhees, juncos | Millet, sunflower, cracked corn, peanuts, baked goods, nutmeats |
| Sparrows, buntings | Millet, sunflower hearts, black-oil sunflower, cracked corn, baked goods |
| Blackbirds, starlings | Cracked corn, milo, wheat, table scraps, baked goods, suet |
| Orioles | Halved oranges, apples, berries, sugar solution, grape jelly, suet, suet mixes, soaked raisins, and currants |
| Finches, siskins | Thistle (niger), sunflower hearts, black-oil sunflower seed, millet, canary seed, fruits, peanut kernels, suet mixes |
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