Rhode Island's Suet-loving Birds

This small gray bird has large black eyes and a pointed crest. When it finds a large seed, it will carry it away to a more secluded perch and crack it open with its small, round bill. Titmice hoard food in the fall and winter, like many others listed here. Bird feeder's are a great source for fueling this behavior.

The active and agile nature of these birds do not take away from their crisp, distinct black, gray and white markings. They get their name from their eating habit - stuffing seeds and nuts into tree bark and stabbing it with their sharp bill to "hatch" the seed out of it's casing. White-breasted Nuthatches will rarely be spotted at an exposed feeder if there aren't other species present.

This is probably the most common visitor to backyard feeders. You may also observe them acrobatically feeding on insects they forage from tree bark. Males and females divide where they look for food - males, who sport a red patch on the back of their head, search in small branches and weeds while females look in larger branches and trunks. Like most woodpeckers, a Downy Woodpecker observed drumming on wood is probably communicating with others rather than searching for food (which they do quietly).

When not at a suet feeder, Hairy Woodpeckers may be following Pileated Woodpeckers or sapsuckers, investigating the feeding sites left behind by these two types of birds and feeding on any remaining insects or sugary sap. This bird is often mistaken for the previously mentioned Downy Woodpecker. Two great ways to tell these birds apart is the size of the bird itself and their bill- Hairy Woodpeckers are slightly larger and have a much longer bill. If you have a classic suet feeder, a Downy Woodpecker will be slightly shorter than the feeder while a Hairy Woodpecker will be longer.

Keep your yard and gardens messy for these birds - they love exploring dense vegetation, leaf litter, tangled vines and woodpiles. Carolina Wrens will cock their tale up while foraging and hold it down while singing. As a ground forager and relatively weak flyer, you may spot these birds on the ground below your feeder, gathering seeds that others have dropped.

This curious bird with its oversized, black-capped head is one of the first birds that people learn and quickly assign the descriptor "cute" to. Chickadee calls are very complex, yet there are a number of species that flock with them that can recognize a chickadee alarm call. Because of this, chickadees often take the role as leader of these mixed species flocks. Migrating songbirds who are unfamiliar with the areas which they pass through, oftentimes recognize this role and will associate with the local chickadees.

A large, distinctively marked bird sporting a long, slightly curved bill. You'll see a flash of color on the underside of a Northern Flicker's wings when it flies - yellow if in the east and red if in the west. To spot this bird off the suet feeder, you may want to look on the ground where it feeds on ants and beetles. Their long, barbed tongues can dart out two inches beyond the end of their bill to capture prey! Unlike other woodpeckers, Northern Flickers like to rest on horizontal branches when in trees, rather than vertically with their tails on the trunk.

Red-bellied Woodpecker's striking barred back and bright red caps are a welcomed sight at backyard feeders. Just like Northern Flickers, they eat using a long, barbed tongue. Males have longer, wider-tipped tongues than females, possibly allowing a breeding pair to forage in different spots around their environment.