The 5 BEST Bluebird Feeders To Try (Perfect for Mealworms)
What are the BEST bird feeders for bluebirds?
Unfortunately, getting bluebirds to come to your bird feeders can be challenging. The problem is that bluebirds rarely eat birdseed!
Instead, bluebirds LOVE eating mealworms!
Mealworms are the larvae of the darkling beetle (So technically they are not worms at all). They are easy to raise and commercially available as bird food, pet food, and fish bait.
The key to a successful bluebird feeder is providing a constant source of mealworms as food. You might as well call your bluebird feeder a mealworm feeder.
- RELATED:Â 6 Proven Ways to Attract BLUEBIRDS!
Below are 5 of the BEST bluebird feeders that are perfect for feeding mealworms!
- Make sure to scroll to the end to learn 5 tips for using mealworms in your feeder. Or click HERE to go straight there. 🙂
- IMPORTANT NOTE: Please realize that the below bluebird feeders are NOT only for bluebirds! By selecting a different type of food to place in the feeder (peanuts, corn, other various types of seed, etc.), they work equally well to attract other species.
#1. Droll Yankee’s Dome Bluebird Feeder
Positives:
- The dome over the saucer/dish helps to keep the mealworms dry from the rain.
- The feeding tray has small holes that provide good drainage when rain does hit the mealworms or seeds. A little rain should not ruin the food as long as it can dry out fairly quickly.
- If you prefer using live mealworms, they can’t escape! They won’t be able to climb up the smooth plastic sides of the bottom dish.
- Since everything is clear, it should be easy for the bluebirds to find the mealworms.
- The dome can be adjusted to go lower, which helps keep larger birds (such as pigeons) out!
- This bluebird feeder is made of durable polycarbonate, which means that it is very tough and resistant to cracking or breaking. No worries if this accidentally falls to the ground!
- Take a look at the picture. It’s a very SIMPLE design. I like simple. It’s easy to take apart to clean and dirt easily washes off from the smooth plastic.
#2. Stokes Snack ‘N’ Treats Bluebird Feeder
Positives:
- This feeder has a simple design. It’s a small dish (10 oz) that easily snaps in and out of place to clean and refill.
- Think of this bluebird feeder as a place to put small amounts of treats for various bird species. Obviously, mealworms work great for bluebirds, but you could also try jelly (for Orioles), suet nuggets, or other types of speciality seed.
- Live mealworms won’t be able to climb up the smooth polycarbonate walls.
- It has small slits in the sides which allow for proper draining. You should never have any standing water in this feeder.
- Extremely durable! It’s made out of hard plastic.
Negatives:
- This bluebird feeder is small. It’s perfect to put out mealworms as treats every day, but the food won’t last long. Don’t expect this feeder to feed many birds; it’s not designed for that.
- Because of the small dimensions, it does not allow many birds to perch at one time.
#3. Cedar Hanging Bluebird Feeder
Positives:
- This feeder is designed with bluebirds in mind! The only way to enter is through the two holes on the ends. Bluebirds can fit, but bigger birds that also enjoy mealworms, like starlings, can’t!
- Each sidewall is made of transparent and durable Plexiglass. This allows the bluebirds to find the mealworms AND lets us observe them while inside the feeder.
- The feeder is very well made. The cedar provides solid construction and uses stainless steel screws.
- The roof is attached via a hinge and can easily be lifted up to access the inside.
Negatives:
- Live mealworms will try to climb the wooden sides to escape. If this becomes a problem, just buy a small glass dish to place inside the feeder.
- Some bluebirds seem to have trouble finding their way OUT of the feeder.
- You may need to train your bluebirds to use this feeder. It’s recommended to start by removing one of the plexiglass sides to provide easier access and then replace the side once they have found the food and are using the feeder.
#4. Platform/Tray Bluebird Feeder
Currently, I am using my tray feeder on the ground underneath my bird feeding station to attract ground-feeding birds, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, and opossums. To attract bluebirds, you would want to hang the platform from a tree or pole mount.
Check out the LIVE stream below to see my tray feeder!
Woodlink 3 in 1 Platform Feeder View Today's Price
Positives:
- This is an excellent, multi-purpose platform feeder. To attract bluebirds, just spread some mealworms on top. You can use different types of foods to attract other species.
- It’s solid and well constructed – made from cedar and screwed together well.
- The metal screen bottom provides excellent drainage. Your mealworms and food will never be sitting in standing water.
- The metal screen bottom is removable and slides right out, which makes it very easy to clean!
- The bluebird feeder is big and can hold lots of birds at one time. (16.4 x 13.2 x 2.4 inches)
Negatives:
- You won’t be able to use live mealworms in this feeder. They would crawl right out! You could place them in a dish inside the feeder, but only if this was sitting solidly on the ground or pole mounted.
#5: Window Bluebird Feeder
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Positives:
- This bluebird feeder attaches directly to your window and gives a close-up view of your bluebirds! See every detail from the comfort of your living room couch. This is fun for ALL ages and a great way to get kids interested in birds.
- Window bird feeders are notoriously hard to keep attached, but I have had no problems with this one. It has three suction cups to help do the job. (Make sure to clean your window thoroughly without soap before securing)
- Live mealworms won’t be able to climb out of the smooth plastic walls.
- There is a divider in the middle. This is nice because you can put mealworms on one side and seeds on the other to attract different birds to your window.
- The trays are removable. This makes it very simple to clean! No need to take the whole feeder inside to wash.
- It has 60 small drain holes in the bottom. Water flows right through helping to keep the mealworms dry.
Negatives:
- In full disclosure, I have yet to get an Eastern Bluebird to come to this window feeder. I have had luck with many other birds, but the darn bluebirds just won’t come close enough! Don’t worry; I will keep trying!
5 Tips When Feeding Mealworms to Bluebirds:
We have established that mealworms are the BEST food to attract bluebirds to your backyard bird feeders. I wanted to provide a few extra tips and insights that may be helpful when it comes to feeding mealworms to bluebirds.
Tip #1. Live mealworms will outperform dried mealworms.
This is an unfortunate fact because dried mealworms are much easier to buy and store. Keeping live mealworms is a bit more work since you must provide care to them. Some people also don’t like handling them and get a bit squeamish.
But you may have to use live mealworms in your feeders to initially get bluebirds to your yard. Bluebirds prefer living, juicy mealworms to their dried counterparts.
Pro Tip: To initially attract bluebirds to your backyard feeders, you may need to use a mix of live AND dried mealworms. Eating a live mealworm is much more natural for a bluebird, and they might have to be trained to eat the dried ones. By mixing them, they will accidentally eat the dried ones and realize they are also edible. From there they can be slowly transitioned to dried mealworms.
Tip #2. Only use mealworms to SUPPLEMENT a bluebird’s diet.
Once bluebirds start coming to your feeders, they can become incredibly addicting. As soon as they eat all the mealworms, you will want to run back out to refill to watch them again and again.
Please resist this temptation.
Mealworms don’t offer complete nutrition for a bluebird and can cause problems if this is the only food that they are eating. Specifically, mealworms don’t provide the needed calcium and can cause bone issues in young bluebirds.
Tip #3. Bluebirds may accept a few other foods other than mealworms.
This article has focused mainly on using mealworms at your bluebird feeders, but there are a few other foods they may accept and eat. You will have more luck with these foods during environmentally hard times for bluebirds, such as a harsh winter when there is nothing else to eat!
- Suet
- Softened raisins
- Sunflower hearts
Tip #4. Train your bluebirds!
Yes, it is possible!
Just be consistent. Feed them at the same time and place every day. Soon they will be eagerly waiting for your arrival.
Tip #5. Lots of other birds enjoy mealworms too.
You have been warned.
Bluebirds are not the only bird that will be coming to your mealworm feeders! Many species enjoy this tasty treat.
So what kinds of birds eat mealworms?
It’s a long list, but it includes woodpeckers, chickadees, robins, wrens, nuthatches, tanagers, catbirds, titmice, and warblers!
Your bluebird mealworm feeders may soon become the most popular. Be prepared!
What are your favorite bluebird and mealworm feeders?
And are you using any foods other than mealworms? I have never had success with anything else!
I have success with bluebirds coming to a window feeder. I have sunflower meat in the feeder and they love it.
I have learned more in your column then any other website or books. Keep up the wonderful work.
@Jay Hicks is who I commented on, with info on Ilex (winterberry) – a sustainable solution that can be central, with hand feeding of mealworms, etc as a supplement.
This is helpful, since am also looking into which native shrubs will give best bang for buck for wildlife value.
I have a bluebird house with a slit entrance and the sparrows love it. I am forever cleaning their nests out.
I had the same problem last year! I purchased the Erva bluebird feeder ($80 on Amazon…but worth every penny) & it’s been a game changer! Robins & starlings are too large to get in the caged in design. The roof mostly keeps food dry & the cage let’s the birds enter & leave 360°. It’s also easy to fill & clean. Great investment!
YES… and the Cedar Waxwings also:)
Hello Kevin. Glad you enjoyed the video. House sparrows are notorious for raiding mealworms, and bullying other birds trying to access the worms.
They also like a lightly broken egg on an everything bagel with provolone and extra ketchup
@Ben Slover- I saw your video on youtube of your sparrow-proof mealworm feeder. It looks like it really works to keep house sparrows out of the mealworms. What is the top of the mealworm feeder made out of? It’s not shown on the video. I did enjoy seeing how frustrated that male house sparrow was on the video trying to get to the mealworms in the feeder.
Hello! I am in northern Indiana and wondered if the blue birdfeeder you purchased worked for you. I have the exact same problem… Larger bluebirds and they’re competing against starlings that usually aren’t here in the winter. Young starlings especially can easily fit through the domed feeder.
I carry hard candy in my pockets and anytime I look out the window and see a starling in my feeder I throw candy at the window to scare it. Most of the time it doesn’t bother the bluebirds! But that’s a full-time job.
Great minds think alike Julie! That’s the one I bought! I found her site and ordered it! Thank you for replying however! I appreciate it. I sure hope it works! I miss my bluebirds. The darn starlings and grackles have taken over!
I found a site called thebirdhousechick.com and she has a bluebird feeder for sale that is unlike any I’ve seen. Has a lot of good reviews. I bought one just now so I don’t know if it works as it says. But it looks interesting. Its called the Gilbertson Hanging Bluebird Feeder for mealworms. Probably can google and find it other places as well.
Hi, I live in Upstate NY and had great success using a domed feeder for my dried mealie worms to attract bluebirds…that is, until winter hit and now I’ve been invaded by starlings and grackles that swarm the feeder wiping out the worms in seconds flat. I can’t afford to keep filling it and have lost my bluebirds. None of the feeders I’ve researched sound very successful in keeping the bluebirds in and the starlings and grackles out. Our bluebirds are big, especially the males, and none of the caged feeders work and none of the glass enclosed ones with the little holes work either. They feel trapped and either can’t fit to get in or out. Can someone recommend a feeder that actually works? Thank you!
Hi Ann did you find a solution? I’m having the same problem
Are you starting to sell these yet on Etsy or eBay?
I am thrilled to say bluebirds have been pigging out at my tube feeder filled with only sunflower chips since mid-December! I have added meal worms recently. I had only observed droves of bluebirds arrive here in central South Carolina in January and February, usually on very cold days. They were ground feeders then so I found it unusual when they showed up at my backyard feeders.
One of the best ways to attract bluebirds to your garden is to plant winterberry (Ilex verticillata.) The female plants bear fruit, but you need a male pollinator. Since I had limited space, I got one small female plant, and one small male plant, and planted them together in the same hole next to my deck. They have grown up together to form what appears to be a single clump.
This winter—three years after planting—We have a bumper crop of berries and bluebirds hanging out on our deck railing.
I encountered this same problem to the extent that territorial birds would claim my feeding zone and chase other birds away. I had to remove ALL bird feeders for at least three months inorder to regain territory for the less aggressive birds. Mealworms are what attracted the larger, territorial type birds. So regretful that i cannot put mealworms out for my bluebirds I am hoping that the bird box with two very small holes on either end may provide a solution.
anne
I also like Aspect Vista Dome Feeders, It has a design similar to Woodlink.
I think Woodlink NABBFDR is a good feeder. The modern transparent dome is big enough to cover the small round mealworm bowl when it rains. The design is elegant and easy to clean.
I suggest trying a Gilbertson mealworm feeder that has 1-1/4″ openings which exclude larger birds such as robins. Plans are available or you can buy at https://michiganbluebirds.org/mbs-store
I have a bunch of bluebirds year-round in VA. So fun to watch the babies getting fed by the parents. My problem is aggressive robins – of all things! This year the robins have been guarding the bluebird feeder and chasing all birds away and I don’t like that! They won’t share! So I’m looking for a way to feed the bluebirds in a smaller feeder so the robins and starlings can’t be hogs.
I found out that squirrels love mealworms so I took down my dome feeder. Was happy to see feeder #3. Hopefully will solve my problem.
In a very cold, deep snowy storm, I put out leftover turkey dressing made with cornbread. The bluebirds were all over it! Since the deep snow was there for days I kept it out along with some dried mealworms and they cleaned it all up.
Thank you for all your info! I’m on your site a lot as I’m learning to feed all the birds in my backyard 😊
Lol Ruth you just killed the tread with cannibalism 😂🦇
I am lucky to have a large number of bluebirds visit my backyard every day. They do eat seeds. I know because they frequent the hopper feeder several times a day and I use a no mess blend of sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, peanuts, etc. in that feeder with no worms. They do love the freeze-dried meal worms but those I put in a fly-through feeder. They often visit the hanging platform feeder, too, where I also do not put worms. I have two houses and am seeing a lot of interest in one of them. Why they ignore the other one I haven’t a clue but I am going to replace it with one with a slit entrance instead of the round hole – hopefully keeping sparrows (and woodpeckers!) out. I didn’t think woodpeckers cared for birdhouses but I have a hairy woodpecker who keeps checking out the house the bluebirds are looking to rent.
I have about 8 bluebirds that stay pretty much year round and will come within a few feet of us sitting on the deck. They LOVE the blue meal worm tray type feeder and guard it when meal worms are in it. They also seem to enjoy a bite of chopped up raw fruit once in a while. Beautiful birds. Plus they eat mosquitoes. YAY!
I have been feeding a few peanuts daily early morning to two Blue Birds who come every day. They love them but I am wondering if it is healthy for them?
Yep, peanuts are healthy. Lots of protein and fats.
My bluebirds will ONLY eat from the seed feeder – they completely ignore the live meal worms in the feeder hanging beside the seed feeder. The worms die & dry out because none of the birds will take them. Can’t figure out why, but it’s a waste of $ for me.
I have been fortunate to have bluebirds all year round. The come to my feeders, which include a mix of hearts (sunflower/safflower), dried fruits and some mealworms. Each spring, they nest in our boxes, and currently we have four babies just born. Have 3 boxes, but it is interesting that there is one they will never use (can’t figure out why), but sometimes set up “decoy” (I assume) there. Any suggestions on getting them to use the enclosed feeder? Want to try again this season.
They also like scrambled egg no salt or pepper and cut it up fine, I also give them finely chopped apple. They will only eat scrambled egg in the winter or cold spring not in the summer.