Best cardinal bird feeder?

Well, it depends on the species of sparrows. House Finches (females are drab brown, while males have bright red head) are native and pretty. House Sparrows are nonnative and rather mean.

As for feeder, hopper feeders or platform feeders will work best for cardinals. Try buying striped sunflower seed, as black oil sunflowers have a thinner shell that smaller, weak-billed birds can open. Striped sunflower is stronger, so only heavy-billed birds can break into it (cardinals, woodpeckers, nuthatches, even crafty blue jays).

Or, if you can, buy multiple feeders so they don't gobble up the seed so fast. I have five feeders- a tube feeder for the finches, suet feeder for the mockingbirds, woodpeckers, thrashers, and wrens, a hopper feeder for sparrows, cardinals, and finches, and a platform feeder for anybody else. Feeding in the fall is a good time because migrating birds need the fat.

Good luck!

I don't know if this will help you, but when I lived in Ohio, we had an old grape arbor w/ untended grapes. The grapes would dry on the vine. During the Winter, the cardinals were the ONLY birds to feed on the grape seeds (the grape dries to a very hard covering for the seeds). They were spectacular to see, especially in the snow. They would be in flocks.

Try using only sunflower seeds.