The 5 Best Bird Seeds for Cardinals 2022 by BirdFeederist

Are you trying to attract the Cardinals to your garden? Trust me, It’s easy if you know what food to use. We’ll tell you about the best bird seeds to attract cardinals. The most important step in attracting any bird to the garden is to provide them with their favorite food. When we talk about the Cardinals, they have a strong thick beak, which is perfect for safflower seeds, black oil sunflower seeds, and white milo.

In addition, they also enjoy the large seeds, including crushed peanuts, cracked corn, and berries. Even the small chunks of suet are another great choice to attract the cardinals, especially in the winter. You have to regularly check your feeders and ensure that they are filled during the early morning and late evening. Cardinals love to visit the feeders in the morning and evening. According to us, all the listed seeds are best for cardinals but at the top of the list, we choose “Meadow Ridge bird seeds” to be the best among all.

Quick Pick

Once cardinals realize that you are offering them a year-round, reliable food source, they will permanently visit your backyard. They are non-migratory birds and can stay in your yard year-round. But as mentioned earlier, the important thing is their best food choice. We have made it easier for you by listing the best bird seeds for cardinals. All the below seeds are listed after proper research and reading the buyer reviews. Let’s get started with the best bird seeds for cardinals.

List of Best Bird Seeds for Cardinals 2022

1. Meadow Ridge Black Oil Sunflower Bird Seed 

Meadow Ridge black oil sunflower is one of the best bird seed blends to attract the cardinals. These freshest and locally blended seeds can attract a variety of birds, including the house sparrows, black-capped chickadees, house finches, purple finches, dark-eyed junco, northern cardinals, blue jay, white-breasted nuthatch, common redpoll, rose-breasted grosbeak, pine grosbeak, evening grosbeak, mourning dove, downy woodpecker, and white-crowned sparrow. You can use these seeds for all breed sizes.

100% black oil sunflower 

It’s a 100% black oil sunflower pack, ideal for attracting the cardinals. They love to eat the sunflower seeds with their strong and thick beak. These are all unshelled sunflower seeds without any trash, and the cardinals love to open them.

Age range 

You don’t need to worry about the cardinal’s health after providing these black sunflower seeds, as they are good for all of their life stages.

Weight 

It’s a 10 pounds bag. You can also purchase the 20 pounds or 40 pounds bag.

                                  Here are some Pros & Cons of this Product

2. Wagner’s 62006 Midwest Regional Blend for Cardinals

This is another good blend to attract the beautiful perching and ground-feeding Midwestern birds. It contains the seeds of sunflower and safflower to fulfill the desires of Midwest songbirds. You can feed this blend in tube, hopper, or platform feeders. All the highest quality grains are used in the blend to make it perfect for the birds. You will be surprised to see the different wild birds on your feeder by using this perfect blend, including the cardinals, chickadees, finches, and blue jays. The blend contains 25% sunflower plus safflowers along with some other grains. Ensure to store it in a cool and dry place to prevent any damage.

Age range

You can use it for all ages without worrying about the bird’s health. You can also use them with different seeds to attract a variety of birds.

Ingredients 

The main ingredients are sunflower and safflower seeds. The other grains include white millet, cracked corn, milo, black oil sunflower seeds, and striped safflower seeds.

Weight

It’s a 20 pounds bag.

                                  Here are some Pros & Cons of this Product

3. Pennington Pride Red Bird Blend For Cardinals

Pennington Pride bird’s seed blend is ideal for attracting red birds, especially cardinals. It can also attract other songbirds such as juncos, grosbeaks, and nuthatches. It contains a special blend of black oil sunflower and safflower seeds, which is a cardinal’s favorite food. You can offer this blend in the hopper, gazebo, and tube-style bird feeders. It’s a perfect advanced nutritious formula for birds’ health. It is enriched with vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, making it a perfect diet for bird health. You can use this blend year-round to attract colorful songbirds.

Breed type 

It’s recommended for small breed types, but you can also use it to attract medium-sized breeds.

Added vitamins and minerals 

Added vitamins and minerals make it the perfect blend to fulfill the bird’s dietary needs. The blend is rich in minerals, vitamins, and nutrients.

Weight 

It is a 10 pounds bag.

                                    Here are some Pros & Cons of this Product

4. Kaytee Wild Bird Food Nut & Fruit Blend for Cardinals      

Kaytee wild bird food is a high-energy food for year-round feedings such as cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, and other colorful songbirds. It contains nut and fruit pieces along with seeds and grains to meet the high-energy demands of the birds. This mix is specially blended for woodpeckers, cardinals, nuthatches, grosbeaks, and juncos. Make sure to store it in a cool and dry place, especially in a sealed container.

Breed type

It’s recommended for small breeds, but you can also offer it to medium size breeds as they love to enjoy this blend with nuts and fruit.

Ingredients 

The blend contains oil sunflower, peanuts, hulled sunflower chips, mixed feed nuts, safflower, raisins, striped sunflower, hulled pumpkin seed, direct cherries, and artificial flavor.

Weight 

It’s 10 pounds bag. You can also purchase 5 pounds and 20 pounds packs.

                                  Here are some Pros & Cons of this Product

5. Audubon Park 13189 Cardinal Blend Seed

This is the cheapest bird blend on our list to attract cardinals. Audubon Park 13189 is a blend of white proso millet, black oil sunflower seed, safflower seed, chipped sunflower seed, and gelatin. All of these ingredients are making it cardinal’s favorite treat. You can also attract chickadees, purple finches, titmice, and grosbeaks with this blend of seeds. You can offer this blend in a large-sized hanging basket feeder for the perfect results.

Breed type

It’s recommended for large breeds, but you can also use it to attract small and medium-sized breeds.

Safflower and sunflower

The blend contains more portions of safflower and sunflower seeds, which are the two favorite seeds of the cardinals.

Weight 

It’s a 2 pounds blend. You can also buy a pack of 4 or 6.

                                  Here are some Pros & Cons of this Product

What are the Best foods for Cardinals?

It’s easy to find the favorite food for cardinals as they live in suburban areas, small towns, woodlands, swamps, or farmlands. They don’t travel far for food and usually live in an area year-round. They love to eat the fruits such as cranberries, raisins, and cherries. So, any blend containing these fruits can be perfect for the cardinals. They like to enjoy the variety of seeds and fruit pieces as they can get tired of the same food over a long time. But the seed blends that contain the seeds that are too hard to bite won’t be appreciated. The ideal red cardinal food can be a combination of black oil sunflower seed along with safflower seeds and their favorite fruit pieces.

However, they can eat squash seeds and 39 other types of weed seeds. The thin shells of the oil sunflower seeds make them easy to crack for cardinals with their beaks. You can feed the safflower seeds to cardinals as it’s safe for them. One advantage of safflower seeds is that they discourage squirrels and house sparrows. So, the cardinals have less competition for these seeds at feeders.

How to choose the best seeds for cardinals?

• It’s a good idea to choose the seeds which can attract multiple wild bird species.
• You have to make sure the ingredients that cardinals like are not overshadowed by the ingredients they don’t care about.
• The additives such as millet, milo, and cracked corn only provide the flavor, not necessarily healthy benefits.
• Spicy bird seeds can attract cardinals. Birds don’t react to spicy seeds the way mammals do so it does no harm to them.
• It’s a good thing if the blend also contains minerals and vitamins as the birds need the energy to take their flight for the day.

5 Tips for attracting Cardinals to your Backyard

After buying the right seeds for cardinals make sure you are not doing any common mistakes. Read these tips to have maximum cardinals in your garden.

1. Choose the Right Location

The best place to attract cardinals is to place your feeder in a sunny location. Cardinals like to stay warm so they will spend most of their time basking in the sun.

2. Create a Nook for Cardinals to Rest In

Cardinals need someplace to rest so create a small nook in your garden where they can curl up and relax. Cardinals also like areas with plenty of leafy vegetation so provide them with plenty of shade and brush.

3. Add Plants and Flowers to your Garden

Cardinals love flowers that are bright, colorful, and have a strong scent. Some of the best flowers for cardinals include lilies, roses, and geraniums. Cardinals are attracted to things that are new and different so add some plants and flowers to your garden that even you haven’t seen before. This will give the cardinals something to explore and hopefully make them stay around longer.

4. Regularly refill your feeders

Suppose you are a bird, would you visit any place where you find empty feeders most of the time? obviously not! So make sure to regularly check and set a pattern to keep your feeders filled with seeds.

5. Place multiple feeders in your garden

place multiple feeders because it will attract more cardinals. Birds love to stay in places where they find plenty of food. If you place one feeder in your garden and expect birds to visit you, you are daydreaming. Wake up and buy multiple feeders for your backyard.

Conclusion

Attracting cardinals is easy if you follow the right strategy of choosing the best seeds and avoiding any common feeder mistakes that people do in their gardens. Add multiple feeders and plant colorful flowers in your garden. As mentioned before all the listed seeds are best for cardinals, you can choose any but “Meadow Ridge bird seeds” is our top choice.