Photo taken by Peter Cihelka

By Carolyn Cihelka, Consumer Information Catalog editor, mother of two and avid backyard bird watcher.

I wasn’t expecting Mother’s Day guests, but when I looked out my window last Sunday morning, there they were—two beautiful blue strangers, feeding at my thistle feeder alongside the goldfinches, regulars in my backyard. I quickly found the tiny, iridescent creatures in my bird guide: Indigo Buntings, apparently migrating north for the summer.

They’re one of about 350 species making the annual journey from Central and South America to their North American nesting grounds. In addition to backyards like mine, these birds have probably stopped at a wildlife refuge along their way. In fact, many refuges are holding special events this weekend to mark International Migratory Bird Day.

Happily, some birds don’t migrate. Year-round visitors to my backyard include cardinals, goldfinches and red-bellied woodpeckers. I put out sunflower or safflower seeds for the cardinals, and suet for the woodpeckers.

You can attract many types of birds with just black oil sunflower seed in a house feeder. But, For the Birds advises to attract the greatest variety of birds while minimizing seed waste, try putting out separate feeders for each food:

• a hanging suet feeder (for woodpeckers, wrens, nuthatches, chickadees)
• a house feeder for sunflower (for goldfinches, chickadees, woodpeckers, titmice, cardinals, jays, sparrows)
• a nectar feeder for hummingbirds
• a tube feeder for thistle (for gold, purple and house finches, chickadees, dark-eyed juncos)
• a stationary or tray fruit feeder (for bluebirds, jays, orioles, cardinals, mockingbirds)
• a house or platform feeder for millet (for doves, sparrows, blackbirds)

If you’re plagued by squirrels and grackles emptying your tube feeder, try safflower seed (PDF). Those pests won’t eat it, but cardinals, chickadees, red-bellied woodpeckers, mourning doves and others will.