Backyard Birds of Missouri: What Is Actually at Your Feeder

Missouri adopted the Eastern Bluebird in 1927, which makes it one of the earlier states to pick a bird — and one whose choice a feeder count will never do justice to.

Bluebirds do not eat seed. They take insects through the warm months and berries through the cold ones, and they nest in cavities and boxes rather than working a feeder. So they sit outside a list built from what lands on feeders, while being genuinely common along Missouri fence lines and field edges. If you want them, the answer is a nest box facing open grass and a dish of mealworms, not a tube of sunflower.

Here is what the sunflower brings.

The twelve birds Missouri 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 248 participants in Missouri. The percentage is the share of Missouri feeder sites that reported the bird at least once.

Four things in that list worth knowing

Missouri sits on the chickadee line, and it shows in the data

You will notice no chickadee in the top twelve, which surprises everyone. The reason is bookkeeping, not absence: Missouri runs across the seam where the Carolina Chickadee meets the Black-capped, and FeederWatch keeps three separate rows — Carolina, Black-capped, and one for birds the observer could not tell apart. The chickadees are there; the count is split three ways, so each row lands low.

In practice, the bird at a Missouri feeder is usually a Carolina Chickadee in the south of the state and a Black-capped in the far north, and almost nobody can separate them by eye.

The cardinal is at 96% of feeders — first by a street

Cardinals do not migrate and they hold the same territory year after year, so the pair in your yard in July is the pair in your yard in January. They are also the last bird at the feeder every evening, well after the light has gone.

The Carolina Wren is here, and its numbers swing

At 70% it sits just outside the twelve. Carolina Wrens do not migrate and they do not store fat well, so a hard Missouri winter knocks the population back and a run of mild ones builds it up again. If you had a pair last year and none this year, that is usually why.

Two woodpeckers in the top eight

Downy (#3) and Red-bellied (#8). The Downy is sparrow-sized with a stubby bill; the Red-bellied is much larger, barred black-and-white across the back, with a red cap running down the nape. Suet keeps both through the cold.

What is on our Missouri mug, and where each bird actually ranks

The Backyard Birds of Missouri mug is drawn with the Eastern Bluebird, the Blue Jay (#6, 88%), the Carolina Wren (70%) and the Northern Cardinal (#1, 96%).

The bluebird is Missouri's state bird and it is on the mug for that reason — common in the state, but a nest-box bird rather than a feeder bird, for the reason at the top of this page.

The one we would add next is the Dark-eyed Junco at #2. It is on the list of illustrations we still owe this state.

If you want more of them

Black-oil sunflower seed suits the cardinal, House Finch, titmouse, chickadee and nuthatch at once. Safflower is worth knowing about here: cardinals take it readily and House Sparrows mostly do not, which is one way to get the feeder back. Suet for the woodpeckers and the Carolina Wren. A low tray or bare ground for the juncos.

Where these numbers come from: Project FeederWatch, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Top 25 Feeder Birds for Missouri, 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 a nest-box bird like the bluebird sits outside the list. Percentages are the share of participating sites that reported the species. Missouri state bird designation: 1927.

See the mugs for the other states → · Identify a bird in three questions →