Chickadee feeders

What they eat at a feeder

At feeders, chickadees take mostly sunflower seeds, peanuts, suet, peanut butter and mealworms, and white-breasted nuthatches the same; tufted titmice prefer sunflower but eat suet and peanuts too, Cornell’s All About Birds notes. From spring to fall all three live mostly on insects and spiders, so feeders matter most to them in winter, when titmice in particular become regulars.

One seed at a time

Each bird takes a single seed and flies off with it. A chickadee pecks a hole in the shell and chips the seed out bit by bit; a titmouse holds it with its feet, hammers it open, and in fall and winter hides shelled seeds in bark crevices for later. So a feeder they find can empty faster than the number of birds suggests.

They cling as well as they perch: nuthatches feed head-down, and all three use mesh feeders and suet cages that feed only from below. Short perches and small hoppers suit them and keep grackles and jays from taking over, Project FeederWatch notes.

Black-capped or Carolina?

The black-capped chickadee lives across the northern half of the country and the Carolina chickadee across the Southeast; where their ranges meet they are hard to tell apart. Both come for the same foods and use the same feeders, so either way the advice here holds.

Where to hang it

Hang the feeder near trees or shrubs, so they can dart to cover between seeds; chickadees do not mind a small feeder that swings in the wind, and they readily visit window feeders. Mount a window feeder on the glass or within 3 ft of it, where a bird leaving it cannot build up speed into the window. For nesting later, Cornell suggests planting willow, alder or birch.