Wisconsin adopted the American Robin in 1949, and the robin is genuinely everywhere in Wisconsin — on lawns, in hedges, on the roof gutter. It is just not on the feeder.
Robins eat worms, insects and fruit. A tube of sunflower seed is of no interest to them, which is why a count of feeder visits puts the state bird at thirteenth while it is probably in more Wisconsin yards than half the birds above it. Worth keeping in mind before you conclude the list below is wrong.
The twelve birds Wisconsin 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 440 participants in Wisconsin. The percentage is the share of Wisconsin feeder sites that reported the bird at least once.
| # | Bird | Share of WI feeders |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black-capped Chickadee | 93.7% |
| 2 | Dark-eyed Junco | 91.7% |
| 3 | Downy Woodpecker | 91.3% |
| 4 | American Goldfinch | 86.3% |
| 4 | Northern Cardinal | 86.3% |
| 6 | White-breasted Nuthatch | 83.0% |
| 7 | Mourning Dove | 82.8% |
| 8 | Blue Jay | 80.2% |
| 9 | House Finch | 79.8% |
| 10 | Red-bellied Woodpecker | 76.5% |
| 11 | Hairy Woodpecker | 72.0% |
| 12 | House Sparrow | 68.9% |
Four things in that list worth knowing
Fourth place is a dead tie
American Goldfinch and Northern Cardinal both land on 86.30% of Wisconsin feeders — the same figure to two decimal places. Two birds that could not look less alike in July, sharing a feeder in equal measure all winter.
The goldfinch nests later than almost any bird in North America
It waits for thistle and milkweed down in high summer to line the nest, which is why Wisconsin gets goldfinch fledglings in August when everything else has long finished. It is also why the bird you see in January looks wrong: by November the lemon-yellow male has moulted into dull olive-buff and lost the black cap entirely. Same bird, same feeder, and every winter somebody decides the goldfinches went south.
The junco is second, and it is only visiting
Slate-grey above, white belly, pale pink bill, feeding on the ground beneath the feeder rather than on it. Juncos arrive in Wisconsin in autumn from the boreal forest and are gone again by spring — which is the whole reason for the old name snowbird.
Three woodpeckers, and two of them are the same puzzle
Downy (#3), Red-bellied (#10) and Hairy (#11). Downy and Hairy are the classic confusion: nearly identical plumage, different size. The trick is the bill. The Downy's is short and stubby, about a third the length of its head; the Hairy's is nearly as long as its head. Once you have seen them on the same suet block, it stops being a puzzle.
What is on our Wisconsin mug, and where each bird actually ranks
The Backyard Birds of Wisconsin mug is drawn with the American Robin (#13, 62%), the Northern Cardinal (=#4, 86%), the Chickadee (#1, 94%) and the American Goldfinch (=#4, 86%).
The robin is Wisconsin's state bird and it is on the mug for that reason. It is in most Wisconsin yards; it is just on the lawn rather than the feeder, for the reason at the top of this page.
The one we would add next is the Downy Woodpecker at #3. It is on the list of illustrations we still owe this state.
If you want more of them
Black-oil sunflower is the workhorse — chickadee, cardinal, nuthatch, House Finch and jay all take it. Suet through a Wisconsin January is what keeps the three woodpeckers coming. Nyjer in a mesh sock holds the goldfinches. A low tray or bare ground for the juncos and doves.
If you want the robins, skip the feeder entirely and plant something that holds fruit into winter — crabapple, winterberry, sumac. That is what they are after.
Where these numbers come from: Project FeederWatch, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Top 25 Feeder Birds for Wisconsin, 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 lawn-and-fruit bird like the robin sits low. Percentages are the share of participating sites that reported the species. Wisconsin state bird designation: 1949.
See the mugs for the other states → · Identify a bird in three questions →