Georgia adopted the Brown Thrasher in 1928, and it is a good bird badly served by a feeder count.
Thrashers do not perch on a tube feeder and crack sunflower. They work the leaf litter under a hedge, throwing leaves sideways with the bill — which is where the name comes from — hunting insects. Rich rufous above, heavily streaked below, a long tail and a startling yellow eye. If you have dense shrubs and you look down rather than up, you have one.
Here is what is up at the feeder.
The twelve birds Georgia feeders report most
From Project FeederWatch, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's winter count, in which volunteers record what turns up at their own feeders. The 2023–24 season had 252 participants in Georgia. The percentage is the share of Georgia feeder sites that reported the bird at least once.
| # | Bird | Share of GA feeders |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northern Cardinal | 94.2% |
| 2 | Carolina Chickadee | 90.7% |
| 3 | Tufted Titmouse | 90.4% |
| 4 | House Finch | 88.8% |
| 5 | Carolina Wren | 87.3% |
| 6 | Eastern Bluebird | 80.3% |
| 7 | Mourning Dove | 79.5% |
| 8 | Red-bellied Woodpecker | 78.4% |
| 9 | Downy Woodpecker | 77.2% |
| 10 | American Goldfinch | 75.7% |
| 11 | Chipping Sparrow | 74.5% |
| 12 | White-breasted Nuthatch | 70.3% |
Four things in that list worth knowing
The bluebird is sixth here, which is unusually high
Across the country the Eastern Bluebird rarely makes a top-ten feeder list, because it does not eat seed. In Georgia it reaches 80% — and the reason is that Georgia has the open, mown, scattered-tree country bluebirds want, in quantity, right up against people's houses. If you put a box on a post facing open grass and keep mealworms out, you will get them.
Your chickadee is a Carolina, and it is not the one in the northern books
Second at 91%. Carolina and Black-capped Chickadees are close to identical to look at, and Georgia is comfortably inside Carolina range — the Black-capped essentially does not occur here. The Carolina is slightly smaller, with a faster, higher-pitched version of the same chick-a-dee call.
The titmouse is third and hardly anyone uses its name
Tufted Titmouse, 90% of Georgia feeders — grey, crested, black-eyed, and louder than a bird that size has any right to be. It takes one sunflower seed, carries it to a branch, holds it under both feet and hammers it open, then comes straight back for the next.
The Chipping Sparrow is at three feeders in four, and gets written off
Eleventh, at 74.5%. In summer it is crisp — bright rufous cap, clean grey breast, black line through the eye. In winter that cap fades to streaky brown and it turns into the small nondescript sparrow feeding on the ground that most people never bother to name.
What is on our Georgia mug, and where each bird actually ranks
The Backyard Birds of Georgia mug is drawn with the Carolina Wren (#5, 87%), the Eastern Bluebird (#6, 80%), the Mourning Dove (#7, 80%) and the Northern Cardinal (#1, 94%). All four are in the Georgia top seven — the tightest fit of any state mug we make.
The one we would add next is the Tufted Titmouse at #3. It is on the list of illustrations we still owe this state.
If you want more of them
Black-oil sunflower covers the cardinal, chickadee, titmouse, House Finch and nuthatch at once. Suet holds both woodpeckers and the Carolina Wren. Nyjer in a mesh sock for the goldfinches. Millet scattered low for the doves and Chipping Sparrows, which feed on the ground and will not use a hanging feeder.
For the bluebirds, none of the above: a nest box facing open mown grass, and mealworms.
Where these numbers come from: Project FeederWatch, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Top 25 Feeder Birds for Georgia, 2023–24 season. These are volunteer reports from their own feeders, not a formal survey, and they describe the winter feeding season rather than the whole year. Percentages are the share of participating sites that reported the species. Georgia state bird designation: 1928.
See the mugs for the other states → · Identify a bird in three questions →