Attract chickadees and tufted titmouse to your yard year-round by providing the right products including safflower and sunflower seed, nesting boxes and water.

Here, we guide you through all the right products to help set up your perfect habitat.

These little birds are one of the most cheerful, hopeful birds to watch during winter time. And you can help them thrive very easily.

Seed and Seed Blends

Chickadees and titmice are close cousins, tending to prefer the same foods. Primarily, their favorite foods will be safflower seed and sunflower seed. Depending on how picky your birds are, it’s best to experiment with both seed options to see what they prefer.

Occasionally, if you watch closely, you’ll even see a tufted titmouse grab a whole peanut in its shell and work to crack it open.

At Cavity Nesters, we only list seed that contains no filler seed such as millet and cracked corn. These filler seeds are cheap and not often preferred by the native birds you’re trying to attract such as chickadees and tufted titmice. Instead, they often attract invasive house sparrows and starlings.

Feeders Suited for Chickadees and Titmice

Chickadees and titmice will eat from a variety of feeders. We suggest hopper feeders and tube feeders first. Platform feeders can be a good option, but these finicky birds can sometimes be a little reluctant to use them.

You can also use covered mealworm feeders and put seed in there. Chickadees and titmice are cavity birds, and will therefore fly into the little entry holes to snatch a safflower seed or sunflower seed.

Watch your chickadees and titmice carefully. They’re not the type to sit at the feeder and munch like finches or cardinals. Instead, they will usually take one seed kernel at a time, grab it, and take it to a nearby bush. From there, they’ll grasp it between their feet and a branch and peck open the seed to get the meats.

Chickadee / Titmice Nest Boxes

Some retailers sell specially designated chickadee nest boxes. However, through our experience, we have found that using a bluebird designated nest box offers superior benefits:

1. Chickadees and titmice often use bluebird boxes
2. These birds only have 1 brood per season. Once they’re done, the bluebird nest box can be used for bluebirds or tree swallows.
3. There is more room in a bluebird nest box, allowing parents better access, and allowing you room to better monitor these boxes.

Bird baths, bubblers and cleaners

Providing water will not only attract chickadees and titmice, but also other songbirds. Furthermore, moving water is an even greater attractant. Browse our baths and bubblers. Come winter time, you may want to consider a bird bath heater or a heated bird bath so that you can keep water from freezing over.