The Northern Cardinal is one of America’s treasures. Backyard birders admire its bright red feathers so much that it is the state bird of seven states. If you’ve been wondering how to attract cardinals to your yard, you’re in luck!
The Northern Cardinal is one of the easiest birds to spot in your backyard.
With these simple tips, you’ll have a beautiful red cardinal outside your window in no time. But before we jump into how to attract cardinals, let’s make sure they’re in your area and review how to identify them.
Identifying Northern Cardinals
Along with being one of the easiest birds to attract to your backyard, they are also one of the easiest birds to identify. The male is bright red with a prominent crest and black around its beak.
The female lacks the bright red of the male but is still beautiful in her own right. She has a yellow-tan breast, a grey back and crest, and a distinct orange bill.
Northern Cardinals are common backyard birds across the Central and Eastern United States. Their range extends to the plains but doesn’t reach the Rocky Mountains. While they aren’t found in most of the West, they are locally abundant in parts of the Southwest, including southern Arizona and New Mexico.
How to Attract Cardinals to Your Yard
1. Provide Bird Feed
How to attract cardinals is fairly simple; all you really need to do is set out a well-stocked bird feeder. The following steps aren’t as critical, but they help create an environment in your backyard that encourages Northern Cardinals to stick around and maybe even start a nest!
Technically, a bird feeder isn’t required to attract Northern Cardinals, as they prefer to eat scattered ground feed. However, if you want to attract more than just Northern Cardinals, a bird feeder is the way to go.
If you do set out a bird feeder, Northern Cardinals favor ones that have a platform they can comfortably perch on, such as a platform, hopper, or large tube feeder. They aren’t the type to swoop in, grab a seed, and leave quickly. No – they like to sit and munch for a while right on the feeder, much to the annoyance of other hungry birds.
You’ll want to place your feeder within 5–10 feet of a tree or shrub. This will provide cover and protection from predators. Plus, it will allow them to scope out the feeder from a close distance, which helps them know it’s safe to approach.
2. Provide their Preferred Feed
To ensure that Northern Cardinals will come to your feeder, you’ll want to set out their preferred feed. Their favorites are: black-oil sunflower seeds, hulled sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, cracked corn, millet, milo, and peanuts.
Most pet and wild bird stores will have bird feed that combines these seeds, making it easy to provide their preferred food. Along with seeds, Northern Cardinals will eat fresh or dried fruit and berries. This includes dried cranberries and blueberries or fresh orange slices.
3. Set out a Bird Bath to Attract Cardinals
The next tip on how to attract cardinals to your yard is to ensure they have a place to drink and bathe. Whether it’s in the cold winter or hot summer, a fresh water source is a great way to care for your local birds.
If you live in a climate that freezes during the winter, you can purchase a water heater for your bird bath so that it doesn’t freeze. During the summer, you’ll want to dump out old water and provide clean, fresh water daily.
4. Plant Dense Shrubs and Evergreens
How to attract cardinals requires the basics for survival: food, water, and shelter. You now have the food and water covered, but if you wish to turn your backyard into a cardinal oasis, you’ll need to plant dense shrubs and evergreens.
Northern Cardinals use low, dense shrubs and evergreens for nesting, roosting, and protection from predators. In their natural environment, you’ll tend to find them in dense thickets and shrubby areas. Creating that environment in your yard is the key to them nesting and hanging out year-round.
The best way to go about this is to research native, low-growing shrubs and dense evergreens. These will likely also provide a natural food source, which leads us into our next tip.
5. Provide Natural Food Sources
Another way to encourage Northern Cardinals to nest in your yard is to plant berry-producing plants. Cardinals choose their nest site based on protection from predators and the abundance of natural food sources.
Consider planting berry-producing plants native to your region, such as:
- Wild grape (Vitis spp.)
- Raspberry (Rubus spp.)
- Mulberry (Morus spp.)
- Viburnums
- Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum trilobum)
- Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.)
- Chokeberry (Aronia spp.)
Cardinals eat a variety of weed seeds, so you can provide natural food sources for them by also leaving wild spaces in your yard.
6. Leave Wild Spaces
Along with berry-producing plants, Northern Cardinals forage for insects and larvae, especially during the breeding season. How to attract cardinals to your yard is to leave wild, undisturbed areas in your yard.
Let the weeds grow wild, leave leaf litter on the ground, and even arrange a brush pile for the birds to seek protection in. Weedy areas attract a wide variety of insects and larvae. By leaving a wild patch in your yard, you’re creating a more abundant ecosystem for your local birds and insects.
7. Avoid Harsh Chemicals
For your yard to be bird-friendly, you also need it to be insect- and pollinator-friendly. This means avoiding harsh chemicals, whether they’re chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. A weed-free, pristine lawn may look great, but it isn’t a natural ecosystem, nor does it support wildlife.
8. Be Patient to Attract Cardinals
The last tip for how to attract cardinals to your yard is to simply be patient. If you’ve done every step listed above – or even just set out a stocked bird feeder – the only thing you can do next is watch and wait.
You may not attract cardinals right away. Instead, you may see chickadees, titmice, or sparrows first. That’s a great sign, because once word gets out in the bird community, you’ll likely see a pair of Northern Cardinals soon.