Michigan chose the American Robin in 1931, which is a fair choice for a lawn and a poor one for a feeder.
Robins do not eat seed. They want worms, insects and fruit, so they turn up on the grass and in the crabapple tree and almost never on the feeder itself. In the FeederWatch count the robin lands at 66% of Michigan sites — fourteenth, behind a list of birds that are genuinely at the feeder every day.
Here is that list.
The twelve birds Michigan 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 534 participants in Michigan. The percentage is the share of Michigan feeder sites that reported the bird at least once.
| # | Bird | Share of MI feeders |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black-capped Chickadee | 93.2% |
| 2 | Dark-eyed Junco | 92.7% |
| 3 | Blue Jay | 92.3% |
| 4 | Downy Woodpecker | 91.4% |
| 5 | Northern Cardinal | 87.9% |
| 6 | Mourning Dove | 86.1% |
| 7 | White-breasted Nuthatch | 84.8% |
| 8 | American Goldfinch | 84.4% |
| 9 | Red-bellied Woodpecker | 81.7% |
| 10 | House Finch | 75.8% |
| 11 | Tufted Titmouse | 74.9% |
| 12 | House Sparrow | 69.2% |
Four things in that list worth knowing
The chickadee is first, and it survives the winter by a trick
93% of Michigan feeders. Half an ounce of bird getting through nights well below freezing — it does it by lowering its own body temperature overnight to save fuel, then spending the next day caching seed in hundreds of separate hiding places it remembers for weeks.
It is also the yard's alarm system. The chick-a-dee-dee-dee call carries more dee notes the more dangerous the thing it has spotted, and every other bird in the garden listens.
The junco is second and it will not use your feeder
Slate-grey above, white belly, pale pink bill, and it feeds on the ground. If your only feeder is a hanging tube you may never get a proper look at the second most widely reported bird in the state. Scatter some seed on a low tray.
The nuthatch walks down the tree
White-breasted Nuthatch, 85% of feeders, and it is the easiest identification on this whole list — no other backyard bird comes down a trunk head-first. It is looking for insects in bark crevices from an angle the woodpeckers never see.
Your goldfinch did not leave in October
American Goldfinch is at 84% of Michigan feeders, but by November the lemon-yellow male has moulted to dull olive-buff and lost his black cap. Same bird, same feeder, and every winter somebody concludes the goldfinches have gone south.
What is on our Michigan mug, and where each bird actually ranks
The Backyard Birds of Michigan mug is drawn with the Northern Cardinal (#5, 88%), the Chickadee (#1, 93%), the American Goldfinch (#8, 84%) and the American Robin (#14, 66%).
Three of those are in Michigan's top eight. The robin is the state bird and it is on the mug for that reason — it is genuinely in two-thirds of Michigan yards, just not usually on the feeder itself.
The one we would add next is the White-breasted Nuthatch at #7. It is on the list of illustrations we still owe this state.
If you want more of them
Black-oil sunflower seed suits the chickadee, cardinal, nuthatch, titmouse and House Finch at once. Suet keeps both woodpeckers around through a Michigan January. A low tray or bare ground brings the juncos in. Nyjer in a mesh sock is what holds the goldfinches.
And if the feeder goes silent for a week in midwinter, that is usually not the cold — it is a Cooper's Hawk that has worked out where the feeder is.
Where these numbers come from: Project FeederWatch, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Top 25 Feeder Birds for Michigan, 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 — which is part of why the robin, a summer lawn bird, sits low. Percentages are the share of participating sites that reported the species. Michigan state bird designation: 1931.
See the mugs for the other states → · Identify a bird in three questions →