23 Ultimate Tips to Attract Northern Cardinals: Secrets from Experience

With their intense red color and loud, continuous song, Northern Cardinals have become a favorite bird among many in the US.

If this bird has really started to catch your attention, and you’ve been wondering how to bring them to attract norther cardinals to your backyard, we have an amazing list for you based on our experience, research and known methods to attract cardinals.

It is easy to attract northern cardinals to your yard when you provide water, the right feeder, and right seed, like black oil sunflower. In addition, managing predators, making a habitat and understanding cardinal behavior will help you enjoy cardinals in your yard year-round.

When it comes to attracting cardinals, we wanted to put together a well-rounded guide to not only help bring them to your yard, but to also help make you a great host to cardinals – one that helps protect and conserve them and other native songbirds.

1. Northern Cardinal Range

Are they even in your area?

Different species of songbirds reside in different geographical areas. Altitude, temperature and biome type impact where different birds live.

Mountains are a particularly big barrier for birds that will isolate one species from another, and this is especially true when it comes to northern cardinals and the Rockies.

Northern cardinals reside in North America, east of the Rocky Mountains and in north eastern Canada. They are also found in small areas of Arizona, New Mexico and California.

A range map is one of the best tools to use to figure out whether a certain bird is in your area or not.

One of the great things about northern cardinals is that they are year-round residents within their range, meaning the populations you have in your area (if you live in range), will stay all year.

2. City vs. Suburbs vs. Country vs. Forest Impact Attraction

If you live within the northern cardinal range, the next important thing to consider if you want to attract northern cardinals is if you live in an area that would actually attract them.

Fortunately, northern cardinals can be found in dense cities like Brooklyn. BUT, there is a caveat to this. If you live in a high-rise with no balcony and no way to hang a feeder, you’re really not going to have much success attracting a cardinal.

On the bright side, city parks and gardens are a great way to really observe northern cardinals if you do live in an area where there are barriers to attracting them.

Living in the suburbs, country and forested areas where you have a bit of a yard, or a lot of a yard means that with the following tools, you’ll have success attracting resident cardinals to your area.

In fact, they’re probably already there. You just have to listen out for them because you’re likely to hear them before you see them – and that brings us to tip #3…

3. Know What a Cardinal Sounds Like to Know When They’re Around

When it come to attracting cardinals, it’s important to know their different sounds. This is going to tell you if they’re even in your area or near your area.

NOTE: Cardinals sing mostly in the spring. While you’ll sometimes hear their song in January, cardinals really ramp up in April and May. And mornings and evenings are some of their most active times to sing.

Cardinals, have a different vocalizations. Some are songs, some are calls, and each have different meanings.

These are three of their most famous vocalizations:

Of course, seeing it written is not going to do you any real service when familiarizing yourself with a cardinal’s sound. For that, All About Birds has a great resource with different recordings you can listen to. And don’t underestimate your memory. Learning a call and associating it with a bird is very similar to hearing the first few seconds of a song and knowing exactly what song is playing.

Don’t confuse cardinal sounds with Carolina Wren sounds… As you familiarize yourself with the sound of a cardinal, one thing you’ll notice is this rapid fire patterned call. Again, it’s very difficult to describe on text. But if you’ve been listening to their song, you’ll know what we mean.

However, a Carolina wren has a very similar song, which is also rapid, and the notes are numerous. In the beginning, it’s very easy to confuse the Carolina wren’s song with a cardinal.

Here is a resource for the Carolina wren song. But a quick way to differentiate is that a Carolina wren’s song usually has more syllables and the frequency does not increase in speed. A cardinal, on the other hand will repeat the notes, usually getting faster and faster.

4. Understanding Seasonal Territoriality in Cardinals

If you already have a northern cardinal frequenting your yard, and you’re reading this to learn how to attract MORE – you’re going to run into some difficulties, especially in the spring.

Cardinals, like many other birds, are territorial. Cardinal territoriality increases in the spring when they are defending nesting areas for food resources and coverage, and ensuring mate fidelity.

During the fall and winter, you may have more luck trying to attract more cardinals to your yard.

So while this tip isn’t very deep, it will help you understand why you might have struggled to get loads and loads of cardinals in your yard.

We’d also like to add that if you’re hosting cardinals, and know you have a pair nesting in your hard, it’s important to try to help them thrive by not encouraging trespassing cardinals. If you’ve found a nest near your feeders – move your feeders away from the nest.

We actually have lots of information about nesting cardinals in this article, so stay tuned, or scroll to that section if you’d like.

5. Attract Northern Cardinals with the Right Feeders

There are a lot of different types of birdfeeders out there, and it’s not just for aesthetics. There are different purposes behind different types of feeders.

Tube feeders, cage and clinging feeders, and suet cages are not very suitable for cardinals.

Feeders with perches that point out rather than having a horizontal bar, or have too short of a perch for them to maneuver are also not easy for cardinals to use.

Covered mealworm feeders are also less likely to encourage cardinals because they are not cavity birds and are not likely to fly through the entrance hole of a covered mealworm feeder.

Interestingly, we did observe a female cardinal figure out a Gilbertson mealworm feeder when one of the slats was removed. She went for live mealworms multiple times.

But if you’re really wanting to attract northern cardinals, find bird feeders with horizontal perching bars, or platform feeders.

These types of feeders are easier for cardinals to maneuver, cling to and sit while they crack seed open.

Placing your feeders near coverage, trees or bushes will also provide more security for cardinals, allowing them to access seed, but to also fly to refuge if they perceive a threat.

Below is a table of different feeder varieties, a description and whether they’re suitable for cardinals.

6. Attracting Northern Cardinals with the Right Birdseed

Having the right seed will also help attract cardinals. And really, they aren’t terribly picky. However, seed selection can influence whether you get seed-hogging birds that might crowd out cardinals, or if you get more passive birds that allow cardinals a chance to eat.

When looking at birdseed from the store, never just assume packaging that says “attracts all songbirds” will actually attract all songbirds.

What you want to look for is seed blends rich in black-oil sunflower seed and safflower seed. Some packages are labeled “cardinal blend,” and are usually truthful in that claim. And usually, the bags have pictures of the seed or are see-through so you can get a sense of what’s inside.

Cardinals will also eat mealworms if you have them in the right type of feeder. Live mealworms are preferred, but they will also eat dried mealworms.

Live mealworms vs. dried mealworms – find out which is better, and when.

You can also make your own seed blend by buying bags of specific seed and nut types, then blending together. And this could include mealworms.

7. Positioning Feeders to Offer Better Coverage to protect Cardinals

Most songbirds are really on guard, looking out for predators and threats. When considering where to put your feeders, rather than putting them in the most open areas, consider putting them somewhat near trees, hedges or bushes. This will make it seem safer to linger at feeders because they can quickly hide when they need to.

You don’t need to butt your feeders right up to a bush, but having one somewhat nearby is a great idea.

8. Understanding Cardinal Nesting Habits

Having a better understanding of cardinal nesting habits will not only help you attract them, but help you know where and when to look out for them.

Like most songbirds, cardinals nest in the spring and summer months, and have 1-2 rounds of babies, or broods, each year.

They are open nesters, which means they do not use birdhouses, nest boxes or tree holes to nest, but instead form an open cup in a tree, bush or sometimes on a platform.

So often cardinals are depicted in paintings near or on birdhouses. As charming as this is, it spreads a lot of misinformation. If you put up a birdhouse hoping to attract a cardinal, this isn’t going to work.

Instead, nests will be found in the trees or bushes around your yard.

9. Making Your Yard Cardinal Nest Friendly to attract cardinals

Knowing that cardinals nest in trees and bushes rather than birdhouses means you can start to make your yard cardinal nest friendly.

Field studies looked at tree preference, and found that northern cardinals don’t really have a tree or bush preference. And, in fact, the height at which they nest can be as low as 1 foot off the ground or as high as 15 feet off the ground.

What this means when it comes to setting up your yard to encourage cardinal nesting is that variety is really important.

Plant native bushes that are dense but shorter – 2-4 feet in height. In addition, plant trees that will grow to several feet.

Doing this will give your cardinals different places to nest.

A key thing is to make sure there is plenty of options and coverage in your yard to protect them from predators.

10. Hosting and Attracting Northern Cardinals with Native Trees, Bushes & Shrubs

One really good way to attract cardinals and other native birds to your yard is to encourage native wildlife in general, and that starts with plants.

When considering what native plants to include in your yard, anything that supports pollinators is a good start. But something else you’ll want is evergreen type trees and bushes, and plants with dense foliage.

Evergreens give year-round coverage for birds. They’re roosting shelter and a good hiding spot from predators. The winter is especially hard with everything being so bare.

Eastern red cedar is native in many areas of North America – it can get a little invasive outside of its native zones. But the upside to this plant is that it’s not only an evergreen, but it berries late in the fall, and feeds a wide range of birds.

Planting native plants requires a bit of research. Just because a plant is native in North America doesn’t mean it’s native to your state.

And if you’re wondering why native is so important, it’s because native plants are often host plants for certain insects. This means it’s a plant that a specific insect may depend on exclusively for its entire lifecycle or a portion of it.

Milkweed is a pretty famous example. It’s a host plant for monarch butterflies. they lay their eggs on the milkweed, and the caterpillars eat their leaves.

Another reason native plants are important is because they’re generally safe for birds whereas some exotic plants may be harmful to birds at certain levels of ingestion.

11. Providing Fresh Water – Bird Baths

If you’ve been struggling to attract cardinals, but already have the proper feeders and seed, water might be the next thing to try. And, to be clear, fresh water is not just safer, but more desirable.

When considering a bird bath, avoid any with slick surfaces or deep trays. Baths that have grips and a gradient depth is ideal. This allows cardinals and other birds to enter the bird bath at the depth most comfortable to them and also grip it securely.

In our experience, when using glass or plastic bird baths with no texture or grip material, we’ve not had much luck attracting birds. But when we used baths with griping paint and different depths, we would have birds frequent the bath daily at all hours.

We’ve even had a fox come and drink from our ground bath.

12. Providing High Unobstructed Perching Points to Attract Cardinals

Cardinals are territorial. And males love to find high spots to sing and make their territory known.

Your roof already will serve as a nice high spot for a cardinal to sing his heart out and protect his resources, but we always recommend planting tall trees they can perch on – they might not be immediately tall, but down the road they will.

Yes, it’s more of a long-term plan but there are several benefits overall, like becoming a habitat for beneficial insects, providing oxygen, providing nest sites for other birds, and just beautifying your yard.

And while it takes forever to grow, your house’s roof will still work as a wonderful singing spot.

Also, don’t underestimate a young tree. Even small 3-year old trees can sometimes attract a singing cardinal.

13. Proper Winter Care to Attract Northern Cardinals

| This male northern cardinal is in a pine tree that is covered in droplets of ice.

Winter is especially hard for birds. The ground freezes making it hard to find bugs. And with the exception of a few plants that fruit late, no much really grows, making it hard to find wild seed or berries.

So how you care for birds during the winter can really help attract cardinals. Some steps to take:

1. get a bird bath heater so that there is always fresh, liquid water available for cardinals and other birds.
2. Regularly clean and refresh your bird bath
3. Keep your feeders fresh. Dump old rotten seed and refresh with sunflower, safflower and other nutty mixes.
4. Consider hanging suit cages on tree branches over another branch. This will allow your cardinals to perch and feed from the suet cage since they are not typically clinging birds.
5. Place seed feeders near trees or other spots that may serve as a wind break from the cold.

These few steps can make such a big difference when trying to attract cardinals during the winter and convince them to be more regular residents in your yard.

14. Managing & Reducing Predation Threats

Predation is a part of the food web, and it’s actually important in balancing the ecosystem. But human interference can sometimes disrupt the balance.

For instance, regular bird feeding that begins to attract dozens of birds at a time can start to raise the interest of owls and hawks that will see your bird feeding station as a BIRD FEEDING STATION.

Another problem is predation occurring from nonnative animals – the biggest example is outdoor cats and even our dogs can sometimes snatch a bird or fledged bird that wasn’t a strong flyer.

Over-predation or nonnative predation is something that we as backyard bird hosts really need to consider. As stewards of the wildlife in our backyard, we have a duty to maintain a balance and keep the backyard ecosystem safe and natural.

So with that in mind, here are a few tips to manage and reduce predation threats:

1. Pull feeders down when you have hawks frequenting your yard. As cool as it is to see them in your backyard, frequent visits are a good indication that they’re picking off your birds.
2. Only set out enough food for the day. The goal is for your feeders to be empty by nightfall. Otherwise, you’ll start to attract more raccoons and possums that will try to access your feeders.
3. Use baffles on your feeders. While cone baffles can sometimes work, stovepipe style baffles are really the best protection from climbing predators.
4. Keep cats indoor, or monitor while they’re outdoor. This is not just helpful for birds, but it can protect your cats. Hawks and owls have been known to pick off cats and small dogs.

15. Minimizing Squirrel Hogging to attract cardinals

Oh squirrels. Some love them. Some hate them. Some love/hate them. But they can hog feeders and scare off your birds.

If you’re trying to attract cardinals, squirrels hogging your feeders may encourage cardinals to visit a different yard.

But there are some simple steps you can take to prevent squirrels from hoarding your feeder:

1. Use a wide weighted-squirrel resistant feeder. The weight of the feeder closes off the feeding ports. We’ve tested these and they’re very effective. They don’t fully stop squirrels, but the do keep them from lingering too much.
2. Use a baffle on your feeder. Cone baffles work for a while, but stovepipe baffles are a better option.
3. Slinkies around feeding poles don’t work – we’ve tried it. For 2 weeks it’s effective, but after that, squirrels get smart.
4. Do not grease your feeding poles. The grease ends up on bird feathers, gumming them up and making it very very hard to find. Rehab facilities get grease birds as a result of this.
5. Buy pepper seed cakes – squirrels have the taste receptors for hot peppers while birds do not. Peppered seed cakes are generally effective except when winter gets harsh or enough rain has diluted the spice or washed it off entirely.

16. Minimizing House Sparrow & Starling Feeder Hogging

House sparrows and European starlings are non-native, invasive species in North America. They are not only a nuisance, they routinely kill birds, especially cavity-nesting birds for nesting sites.

Because of their social, colony behavior, they tend to spread more diseases to feeders and other birds.

But most people recognize them for hogging feeders and eating all the seed.

Tips to discourage house sparrows:

1. Select seed blends that do not contain millet, milo and cracked corn. Instead, find blends where seed is still in the shell. Black oil sunflower seed and safflower seed are good choices.
2. Use a Magic Halo around your feeders. The streamers may discourage house sparrows.
3. If house sparrows are coming in droves, take feeders down for a while.
4. Consider trapping house sparrows. Since they are not native, they are not federally protected. Trapping requires frequent monitoring (no trap should be unattended), proper identification and compliance with local ordinances.

Tips to discourage starlings:

1. Use upside-down suet feeders. Starlings can still figure them out, but they have a harder time.
2. Hide suet feeders in bushes where your songbirds find them but starling scouts might not.
3. Avoid suet cakes and use seed cakes instead. Starlings are especially attracted to suet, bark butter and peanut butter. While fats are important during the winter, finding a fatty protein packed seed cake may be a better alternative.
4. Scare off scout starlings. Usually before a flock of starlings come, a scout will come to the yard to see what there is to eat. If you can scare the scout off, you can usually avoid the flock.
5. Consider trapping starlings. Because starlings are not native and invasive in North America, they are not federally protected, and most states do not protect them. You will need to check your local ordinances though. Trapping also requires very frequent monitoring and proper identification.

17. Avoiding Chemicals and Pesticides

We love having lovely lawns and mosquito-free lawns. But there is a consequence to this. To many chemicals in the yard is not ideal for birds.

Because of their small size, they are more susceptible to chemicals and chemical dust.

Additionally, some pesticides are not very selective with what bugs they kill. Often, they kill a wide range of larva, not just the larva you’re intending. The problem with this is that during nesting season, larva and bugs are exactly what birds, including cardinals are eating.

In fact, larva, bugs and berries are a nestling’s only source of hydration (ever try to give a nestling water. It will throw off their biochemistry). So if pesticides kill off larva nonselectively, it starts to eliminate a cardinal’s spring and summer food source.

It’s really recommended to avoid these things. Or a compromise would be to only have your front yard treated while leaving your backyard chemical free. This is a compromise though, it’s still not really the best solution.

18. Encouraging Beneficial Insects Can Attract Northern Cardinals

Along the lines of avoiding pesticides, actively encouraging insects in your yard can really attract northern cardinals.

We don’t often see cardinals eating bugs, but they do, and insects are especially important for their nestlings.

The easiest way to attract beneficial insects is to have a garden. Whether a flower or vegetable garden, either will begin to encourage pollinators, and other bugs to your yard.

You may not be particularly fond of this idea at first, especially when it comes to stinging bugs. But your birds will thank you. And as you start to really observe your backyard birds, watching them collect a variety, you’ll start to be a little more openminded.

Aside from a garden, you can plant native plants, and seeding plants that both bugs and birds will love.

19. Properly Managing Bird Sickness – Feeder Hygiene

Because feeders are used by so many different birds and can be a somewhat social place, they are also incubators for viruses, bacteria and mites.

If there is an infected bird in your area, your feeders will quickly become a transmission hub.

Therefore, it is really important to regularly clean your feeders, especially in the summer when things get hotter.

Also, it’s important to monitor the birds at your feeder – at least a daily observation. If you find one that looks sick, or looks odd, take all of your feeders down. Leave them down for at least 7-10 days. Then clean them thoroughly and refill with fresh food.

If after resetting your feeder you still observe the sick bird, take the feeders back down again.

The goal is to wait until the infection has run out of the population before resetting your feeders.

Another important thing to consider is talking with your neighbors about the situation and encourage them to do the same thing.

This video talks all about house finch conjunctivitis, which is a common occurrence. And though we don’t see symptoms in cardinals, they still get sick but the illness is expressed differently.

20. Planting a Cardinal Garden

We’ve covered a lot of information about planting plants and encouraging insects. If you’ve started thinking about planting more plants or starting a garden, consider a cardinal garden – or really, a bird garden.

A bird or cardinal garden would include plants that provide coverage, allow them to perch, provide seed they’ll eat and encourage insects.

Some plants to consider are:

• Sunflower
• Black-eyed Susan
• Coneflower
• Joe Pye weed
• Wild Bergamot

Not only will these plants provide food for cardinals, finches and other birds, some are host plants for native insects.

21. Avoid Dead Heading too soon

When you start planting native plants that are a bird food source, one of the amazing things you’ll discover is how even in late fall, birds are still clinging to a plant and picking out seed.

This is just one reason why it’s a good idea to wait to dead head your plants. If you’re not familiar with dead-heading, the idea is to clip the floral head off the plants. This can be done for landscaping and beauty purposes.

But many gardeners dead head before the flower has a mature seed. This diverts energy from seed production and back to flower production.

When you have native plants like black-eyed Susan, golden rod or cutleaf coneflower, you’re less likely out deadhead, and more likely to cut the old, dried out plants down entirely.

We recommend waiting to do any kind of trimming until new growth starts and the ground has thawed.

Holding off ensures any remnant seed is still available for your birds. But there is another important reason to wait, and that’s because certain insects lay their eggs in the stems of dried out plants, and that resource is very important.

22. Don’t Try a Scent to Attract Northern Cardinals

Songbirds really lack a sense of smell. That’s not to say they can’t smell, but it’s just not that strong of a scent. Instead, they rely on their keen eyesight and hearing.

What this means for you is that if you were wondering if there was a certain smell you could use to help attract a northern cardinal to your yard – there isn’t.

23. Maybe You Are Attracting Cardinals, but Just Aren’t Seeing Them

You’ve tried everything to attract a cardinal, and still, you’re not having any luck. It’s very possible that you actually are having luck, you just don’t know when to look.

Cardinals are really active in the mornings and evenings. And you’ll start to hear the male sing his songs as early in the year as late January. He’ll start to ramp up in March, but by July, his song starts to die down a little more. You’ll still hear it, but not at the same frequency as you did in early spring.

If you’re lucky, you might even see a female cardinal duetting with her mate. The best time to listen out is early in the morning, just before sunrise or just after, and late in the evening as the sun is setting.

In the end, it could just be a matter of timing. Pay close attention in the morning and evening. Know what his call sounds like, and try to follow it with your ears and eyes.

Make sure to scan higher areas when he’s singing. That’s usually his preference, though he could, of course, be in a lower branch.

In the end, attracting northern cardinals really comes down to turning your yard into a haven and being a good wildlife manager. Native plants, insects, managing predators, keeping seed and water fresh and providing the right equipment will give you a great deal of success.