What do CARDINALS eat? (6 foods that attract Northern Cardinals)

I had a large piece of watermelon one day at my new place at the time and put under a large oak tree to see if the squirrels would eat it. A Red Cardinal saw it and hopped over eyeing it suspiciously and finally decided to taste it. The his eyes got wide and the feathers on top of his head went up and he started hopping all around and tweeting like crazy to let the others know he`d found something delicious. Within minutes there were about 8 of them lined up around it sharing the melon.

I love cardinals too.❤️❤️ Ever since my husband passed I take even more comfort in seeing them. Thank you.

Here in zone 7A, of course the black oil sunflower seeds has to rank number one for sure, But as you also pointed out they are very happy with peanuts that are halved or broken into pieces. I also serve them a mixture that includes various fruits and berries and they seem to really like anything that is soft and succulent. We are blessed to have such a variety of beautiful birds like the chickadee, tuffed titmouse, Blue Jays and other corvids, but certainly can't forget the beautiful little sparrows of different types. What a gift God gave to this planet when he gave us birds. 📖🛐

My cardinals love peanuts and safflower seeds in NY. I trained them to come to my window when I whistle. I don’t need to whistle anymore. When they see me look out the window, they are already zooming over to me to get their peanuts. They just had babies, and yesterday I saw a juvenile female in my yard near my window. I threw a few peanuts to her, and she was happy to eat them.

I had hair some triplets hatch yesterday on my front porch.. Can't wait to see them grow 🐣

Cardinals in my yard in Western Massachusetts absolutely love black oil sunflower seeds!

Very nice video! We feed the cardinals a mix of all these seeds and nuts. We used to buy ready mixes and now we make them ourselves. And we also use blocks of seed mix - birds love them very much!

I had great luck with the safflower seeds. Cardinals sure did like that.

Great list and I've had the best luck with Sunflower Kernels/Chips and Shelled Peanuts. The local Northern Cardinals in my area will chirp and make calls if I walk nearby - expecting me to give them a refill if the feeders are low or empty, haha. One of my favourite local birds to watch. Thanks for sharing.

I just put out safflower seeds for the first time last week and the cardinals seem to love it, much more so than the different sunflower seeds I have out. I also notice them going often for the cracked corn I’ll put in a tray feeder on the ground. This is in central Ohio.

The Cardinals here in Northern Massachusetts sem to prefer the black oil sunflower seeds.

Thank you for doing the video on Cardinals one of my favorite birds 🎉❤

They love Millet, too!

Here in Tampa Cardinals are attracted mostly by striped sunflower seed and I only see them before Hurricane season. I loved this informative video with the birds' characteristic sweet chirps! Thanks!

My cardinals LOVE the Concord grapes. They come when the leaves come on in the spring & cock their heads asking where are the grapes? They use the strings off the vine to build nests. They usually peel them & eat the inside. Messy but they really love them.

Thank you!! Enjoy seeing the cardinals here in the northeast. 😊

Nailed it, pretty much my same experience in Southwest Ohio.

They Are Loving that Mix❤😊

Definitely the black sunflower seeds. I put peanuts out but didn't know that I should take the nut from the shell. I will do both going forward. The Blue Jays love the peanuts in the shell. Thank you for this info!

In my neck of TX, the cardinals love the black sunflower seeds, kernels and peanut halves and pieces. Been feeding them for years but they've gone missing entirely for the past week and counting. Very weird. We've had them go offline before but not for this long nor at this time of year. We're hoping we have a new neighbor with a better buffet. Better than if a hawk has shown up anyway. Them, the blue jays and chickadees have vamoosed, but the finches are tenacious. lol We tried safflower oil seeds and cracked corn, both of which were stubbornly ignored by all comers. Love the channel. Paz.