Attracting the Songbirds of Spring and Summer
In April I usually start changing the mix of bird foods that I offer in my back garden feeders. There are a few reasons for this. First off, I want to get ready for the neotropical migrants – orioles, grosbeaks, indigo buntings, etc. – that usually arrive in Chicago right around May 1. If you can snag these birds when they first arrive, they are likely to stick around for a while at least.
Also, spring tends to bring large numbers of grackles and starlings to the backyard feeders. I have nothing against these birds individually, but in groups they become Hordes of Giant Black Locusts that devour everything in their path. These birds love peanuts above everything else, and so in spring I stop offering peanuts (a good food for winter), both shelled and in the shell.
Here’s what I do offer:
Nutrasaff Safflower Seed. Safflower is popular as a substitute for sunflower because grackles and other bully birds don’t like it. However, safflower hulls can accumulate into a big mess just like sunflower, though safflower is not toxic to plants the way sunflower hulls are. Hulled sunflowers avoid the mess on the ground, but they’re expensive and will be scarfed up with alarming speed by the bully birds.
Nutrasaff is a new hybrid safflower with an extremely thin hull that makes a minimal mess. It also has a higher fat and protein content than regular safflower. I’ve found it to be a good value because, though it is expensive, it lasts longer. While the bully birds give it a peck now and then, they just won’t scarf it down. At the same time, cardinals, goldfinches, house finches, and chickadees seem to like it just as much as sunflower or safflower.
In terms of migrants, safflower will attract rose breasted grosbeaks. It’s important to offer the seed on a platform feeder of some kind, because grosbeaks eat on the ground and are less likely to perch on tube feeders. The same is true of cardinals, as both are large finches. Grosbeaks seem to hang around for a month or so before moving on to wherever grosbeaks go.
Grape Jelly. This is what draws the Baltimore orioles. Orioles are more common in the Chicago area than most people realize, but they tend to stay in the tree tops. They will come down to earth, however, for grape jelly. There are oriole feeders you can buy or just put some in a little bowl. Oranges will also attract Baltimore orioles. Once the orioles arrive, we’ve found that they tend to keep visiting the feeders until September.
Nyjer Seed. For the goldfinches.
Rendered Suet. You can buy cakes of this stuff, which will attract nuthatches and all kinds of woodpeckers. I use the plain suet rather than the kind that is mixed with ground peanuts and other ingredients, which is done to prevent melting. In my shady back garden melting has never been a problem even on hot summer days. Moreover, the peanuts in the suet attract the bully birds and house sparrows, which will eat far more than the woodpeckers.
White Millet. I spread this on the ground in late April and early May to attract indigo buntings. I’ve had limited success, though, as we’ve had only a couple of sightings.
Do you feed the birds in spring and summer?
gardeninacity 
Let’s say I try to feed the birds, but I fear that the chipmunks eat most of the food. Thanks for all your food tips. Maybe I’ll find something the furry critters don’t like.
Using poles and baffles i’ve managed to keep the furry ones at bay. Here it’s the squirrels you really have to worry about.
I don’t usually feed the birds in summer, at least not from feeders, as the backyard offers up a variety of foodstuff, but maybe I will put out some grape jelly and safflower and see what comes to visit. Your posts are always so informative, Jason!
I like to keep the birds coming through the summer, though water is probably more important at that time of year.
Great information. I need to look more closely at my bird seed mix.
I like to try out different combinations.
Great tips and beautiful photographs!
Thanks.
We feed year round, almost exclusively suet and black-oil sunflower seeds, and we get many of the same birds that you do. I love the unusual ones that show up around this time of year – the occassional scarlet tanager, indigo bunting, and Oriole really get me fired up and paying attention to the feeder. The flickers and rose-breasted grosbeaks are still cool, but usually arrive in such abundance that they’re no longer the novelty they were the first few years I lived here in North Dakota.
Happy bird watching during the Spring migration!!
I wish the grosbeaks and flickers were so common here that you saw them all the time.
I love all these suggestions. I don’t usually see any of them around here (except the flicker), but I know they at around. Maybe I can entice them here as well. I gave up on summer feeding a long time ago because of large flocks of grackles and starlings. Perfect visual reference to their behavior.
Skip the peanuts, sunflower, and safflower and you shouldn’t get too many of the bully birds. Suet, nyjer, and grape jelly will get you an interesting selection.
Thanks, I’m anxious to see what I get to come and visit. Will be putting a hummingbird feeder out as well. They occasionally come to visit. Trying to get better flowers for them too, so my yard could be more more attractive.
Good options for hummingbirds are trumpet honeysuckle, plus the annuals pentas, cuphea, and salvias like ‘Black and Blue’.
I love all your birds, they look so unusual and exotic to me. I have never even heard of most of them.
We have some birds you’d be familiar with, like starlings and house sparrows. I just don’t post their pictures very often.
Gosh, your birds are very well looked after by you. We remove any suet feed and whole peanuts and just a mix of pinhead oatmeal, sunflower seeds and maize. Apples, pears and a separate niger seed feeder too, but only the goldfinches are interested in niger seed. You have more species visit you than we do, but I think I would visit your garden if I were a bird too! What is grape jelly?
Well, I really started to get more involved in bird feeding after both kids left for college. There may be a connection there. You really don’t have grape jelly in the UK? Jelly is an inexpensive preserve made only from the sweet juice of the fruit, so there is no skin or pulp, grape is the most common kind.
I see, its not common but its for humans to put on toast! Your birds really are well fed!
We can’t feed the birds here because of the black bears. They love birdseed and nothing will stand in their way when they’re hungry, so it’s best not to tempt them.
When I was growing up we used to have Baltimore orioles nesting in the elm trees that lined the street. Then Dutch elm disease came along and I don’t see many orioles now.
Ah, well there are no bears here. I have enough trouble dealing with the squirrels and skunks.
Gosh…I know where to go if I have questions on bird feedings! The birds that come and visit your garden are beautiful Jason! Wishing you a wonderful weekend! Nicole
Thanks, Nicole! Hope you and your family had a great Easter.
I am envious of some of the birds that visit you, they really are stunning, I especially like the Baltimore Oriole….wow!
They are very lucky to have you, I’m not at all surprised you get such variety given how well you look after them all.xxx
I keep telling them that, and yet they continue to ignore me when I ask them not to poop in the bird bath.
What beautiful birds you attract to your garden ! here in the uk we tend to feed the same throughout the year, but you have made me think about that …
Do you get migrants from the south in the UK? If so there might be something special worth putting out when they arrive.
No I provide native seeds and berries and water and nesting spots so i get some birds…oh I do have hummer feeders up now and suet.
When do the hummingbirds arrive in your area?
So informative. And how nice of you to take so much time and care with your bird feeding. Back when I fed the birds (before the squirrel invasion put a stop to it) I just put out sunflower seeds and called it a day. Do you have problems with invading squirrels?
The squirrels are pretty much thwarted by squirrel baffles and careful placement.
You’re putting out a wonderful spread. I feed birds all year because you never know who will follow the “regulars” into the yard. Plus in the summer it helps the parents with the stress of feeding young.
My reasoning exactly.
Some great ideas! We tend to use the same mixes year-round–mostly Sunflower seed and Thistle. We use a squirrel baffle, too, which works well. The only time I cut back on feeding the birds is when there’s a Cooper’s Hawk hanging around. Then, I pull the feeders down temporarily, because it’s like advertising a songbird smorgasbord to the birds of prey. I never thought about it until someone mentioned it in the master naturalist class. I’ve also noticed that the birds seem to like the perennial seedheads as much as the seed in the feeders. But when that source is sparse, it’s nice to give them extra food. I love the shot of the oriole!