I used to have bird feeders, but not since we have had an active population of black bears. While I like having them around, I don't want to train them to think that our house = food. Although the bears hibernate, they are awake before there are many food sources for seed eaters, and I hate to habituate the birds to my feeders and then have to remove them in early spring. I do want to put out a heated bird bath for winter, though, and may try a suet feeder since about the time I would have to bring in the feeder due to the bears waking up, there would be insects available for the suet eaters. We do have a lot of birds, but they don't spend as much time near the house as they would if we had feeders. I do plant for the birds and often have nests in shrubs near the house, seed eating birds on plants where I've let the seed heads stand, and insect eaters in the shrubbery. Purple martins eat flying bugs, so that is one of the reasons folks put up houses for them. Since you plan to put up bird houses, read up about the requirements for a house that the birds will use, the preferred size openings for different birds, and how best to site them since different types of birds look for different set-ups. Here's some general information on bird houses from the National Wildlife Federation: http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Gardening-Tips/Attracting-Nesting-Birds.aspx The link below is from Cornell University Lab of Ornithology's Project Nest Watch. If you go to the LEARN tab in the upper right part of the page, there are various articles about bird houses and landscaping for bird habitat that you may find useful. Until you have more shrubs or small trees near your feeders for landing spots, you can put a lage tree branch or old Christmas tree in a pot and fill the pot with rocks or gravel to hold it in place. Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell's Project Nest Watch

I know what a thrill it is to get a cardinal -- the farmhouse I lived in for 18 years had none when I first moved there -- I was so excited when my efforts with feeders, birdbaths, and habitat additions started paying off and the cardinals arrived! Cardinals will come to hanging feeders as long as there's an area big enough for them to land on, as indicated by pondwelr. They often can't feed from tube feeders because the perches are small for them to sit on and twist around enough to get into the ports, but if there's a tray attached to the bottom, like pondwelr has, they can sit on that and feed. Some of my tray feeders have been on posts and some have been hanging -- and sometimes I feed right on the ground or another flat surface (where I live now we have a patio surrounded by a stone wall and we put seed on the top of the stone wall). Unhulled seed is great because you don't have all the hulls all over the ground, and the birds love it (less work for them, too!). It is more expensive but that's the biggest drawback. I don't have a house sparrow or finch "problem" where I am, but in my old farmhouse I had dozens of them -- I put cracked corn and millet on the ground for them; they still ate some of the black oil but they also ate on the ground a lot and it saved me a little $. Or so I like to believe :) And the millet draws in other little sparrows that aren't as common as house sparrows, like the white-throated and white-crowned sparrows, during migration. The more activity you get, the more you'll draw in. Warning: feeding birds can be addictive! :) I'm including a link for the birding forum -- it's a great place to learn more about birds, if you're interested. Have fun! and enjoy those cardinals! Here is a link that might be useful: birding forum

whenever I hear people discussing ways to discourage the sparrow I have to ask myself why? As You can easily see from my photo's when there is an abundant supply of food the birds will all mingle well. From my observation it is only when the food is in short supply that they really begin to be territorial. The question then becomes, why is the seed in short supply? No doubt the answer here is simple economics. People don't care to spend a lot of money on expensive birdseed, only to have it consumed by the less desirable birds and they don't get to see the species they are really interested in. From my experience the solution here is to shop around for your wild bird seed. By example, we have a local store that caters specifically to feeding and attracting wild birds. They sell a general mix of wild bird seed for $15 for a 20lb bag. On the other hand, Walmart has 20lb bags of the same seed for $10, however at Walmart it is a seasonal item and by now you probably can't find it. How would you like to find a year around source that has a better selection at prices far below the average retail store prices? In almost every community there is a store that specializes in selling feed, grain and hay for horses or farm animals. When my sister goes to the feed mill to buy feed for her horses I tag along and buy 50# bags of premium wild bird seed (mixed seed & peanuts) for $12 plus I buy a 50# bag of black oilseed sunflower seed for another $13. I then mix the two together and I end up with a premium blend for an average of $.25/lb. If you cannot find a Feed & grain supply in your community check out TSC (Tractor Supply Co.) TSC is also a great place to find feeders of all types for prices far below what you find in the regular retail stores, but then feeders are so simple to build i don't see why anyone would pay the prices they ask in most stores. While we are on the subject of bird feed, you may be surprised at how much you throw away every month without realizing it. When you bake a ham or a roast trim off the excess fat and put that in your suet feeder, the birds love it. At my house we all love to eat acorn or butternut squash. When you hollow out the seeds put them out for the birds, here again, they love it. Making a salad? Save the carrot peelings of the birds and by all means, be sure to save your orange or grapefruit peelings. I have seen a Bluejay grab an entire half section grapefruit peel and fly it up into the pine tree. Stale popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, breakfast cereal and cookies all go over well with the birds and as silly as it may sound, even leftover porky beans, whole kernel corn or green beans will quickly disappear when the birds find them. As you can see, I have taken feeding the birds rather seriously however to tell the truth it is more an means to an end. Since I retired last June I have taken up nature photography as a hobby, and since it is a bit too cold to get out in the woods like i would like to do, this is a way i can bring nature to me while i comfortably sit in the house...LOL. Gein that the subject of this thread was how to attract cardinals I thought i might post a couple more Cardinal Picks, along with one of my favorite pics of a Bluejay.

thank you! I was under the impression food was scarce in the early spring. He is definitely not attacking the "bird in the window." I've seen that behavior with birds, and this is different. He perches wherever he can find a foothold and sits there cheeping and lightly pecking his beak on the glass (maybe because it's so close) until I look at him, he sees that I see him, and then he flies over to the door where he knows I come out! He also sits on the planter right outside the window and looks at me. If I don't come out within about 10 seconds, he comes back to the window to see what the holdup is about. It was hilarious for awhile, but it's actually starting to get annoying. He hangs out in any one of the nearby trees and as soon as i put the shade up or he sees activity in here, it starts up. I really thought maybe he was taking food back to a nest for some babies. When I go out with the seed, he'll buzz all around me. A few times I stood there with the food in my hand and he came close to landing, he'd buzz closer and closer, but wouldn't actually land on my hand. I'm sure if I had nothing but time to stand out there and wait, he'd eventually do it. I just think I've created a monster and he's gonna have to go browse the other neighborhood feeders or start digging up bugs, or whatever they eat.