When I offered food in our yard, I got a variety of customers. I noticed that suet was a wonderful attraction. When I first offered suet, the expected birds showed up: White-breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee and a variety of woodpeckers. First, the Downy Woodpeckers came, then the Hairy Woodpeckers, and even a Pileated Woodpecker hung on the suet cage. One day I had a shy Red-bellied Woodpecker feeding at the suet cage. Seeing me at the window, it flew off in a panic. I never had another come to my yard. I also had a Red-headed Woodpecker appear one winter’s day. It returned hour after hour that day, and once again, I never had one of those birds return.
Red-headed Woodpecker
What was really interesting were the other birds that discovered and ate the suet. I expected the greedy House Sparrows and European Starlings to try it, but I didn’t expect to see Northern Cardinals, American Goldfinches, and House Finches sitting on the suet cage and feeding on the suet.
Northern Mockingbird
The most interesting behaviour was from the birds that are not supposed to come to feeders at all. One winter, I had a Northern Mockingbird fly onto the suet cage and start eating. It left and came back to the suet a few times. In one cold and still snowy early spring, I had American Robins on the ground under the feeder picking up bits of suet. The biggest surprise for me was seeing one of these robins fly up and land on the suet cage. It proceeded to hack off bits of suet and gobble them down. When one of the Downy Woodpeckers tried to land on the cage, the aggressive robin lunged at it. Some birds just don’t like to share! (See picture at top of article.)
Picture of American Robin vs. Downy Woodpecker standoff by Meredith Kinrys. Other photos are from Wikipedia Commons, an online source of copyright-free photos: Red-headed Woodpecker by David Menke; Northern Mockingbird by MDF.
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