Attracting Nuthatches to your Backyard

Nuthatches are one of my favorite backyard birds. So small and yet fiesty, I enjoy seeing these colourful Red Breasted Nuthatches coming to and from my feeders. It is easy to see which seeds they enjoy the most based on the feeders that they frequent.

In my backyard, the nut feeder is a favorite for the nuthatches. They enjoy the tree nuts (a mix of cashew, hazelnut, almonds and other nuts) and are often seen at that feeder.

Secondly, they really enjoy the finch feeder with the fine sunflower chips (sunflower seeds with the shell removed - chopped finely into little pieces).

They also seem to enjoy eating insects from an old decrepit tree trunk in my backyard and will visit my suet feeders. I will also see them taking black oil sunflower (shell on) or a peanut from another mix in my hopper feeder.

Nuthatches are busy birds and are not likely to stay long at the feeder. They zoom in, grab a seed and zoom out, off to wherever they are headed.

If you are having trouble attracting nuthatches, try to offer some of the bird foods I mentioned above. Note though that you will have a greater chance of attracting them if you have some coniferous trees around your yard. Red Breasted Nuthatches are considered a short distance migrant and may not migrate at all if you are in the southern part of the Canadian provinces. So keep those feeders full because once you attract these cute little guys, you could have them there to stay.