4 Foods to Attract Nuthatches to Your Yard
Updated: Sep. 24, 2020Attract acrobatic nuthatches to your bird feeders by offering a buffet of their favorite foods.
Suet
Whether you make your own or buy it, a suet block in a cage-like feeder is sure to attract nuthatches. In the winter months, when conifer seeds are sometimes scarce, red-breasted nuthatches will travel in search of food and will likely stop at feeders for a suet snack. Add peanut butter to your DIY suet mixture and white-breasted nuthatches will love it even more! Learn how to make suet for birds.
Sunflower Seeds
Any form of sunflower seed will attract desirable birds, but when it comes to attracting nuthatches, serving up black oil sunflower seeds is a slam dunk. Because bully birds also seek out black oil sunflower seeds, a tube feeder with small perches is best. Check out the types of bird feeders you need in your backyard.
Peanuts
If you don’t have a peanut feeder yet, get your hands on one for this upcoming cold season. Red and white-breasted nuthatches will entertain you for hours scurrying up, down and around a peanut feeder. Their favorite? Out of the shell, unsalted peanuts. Here’s how to attract more birds by feeding peanuts.
Live Mealworms
More species than just bluebirds enjoy a mealworm snack. A large portion of the nuthatch diet is insects, so putting out mealworms for them is definitely worth a shot. They don’t require anything fancy; just toss some mealworms in a shallow tray or platform feeder and cross your fingers. Check out our guide to feeding mealworms to birds.
4 Species of Nuthatches to Know
The most common backyard nuthatches are white-breasted nuthatches and red-breasted nuthatches. Other North American nuthatches can be found in specialized habitats—brown-headed nuthatches live in the Deep South and pygmy nuthatches in western forests.
Next, check out 15 common backyard birds you should know.
