A field guide for your own backyard
Know the birds at your window
Friendly, plain-English guides to attracting, feeding, and identifying the birds in your backyard — starting with the Northeast United States.
Download the Free Guide
Start here
Four guides that answer the questions almost everyone starts with.
Northeast Backyard Birds
Meet the 15 birds you're most likely to see at a Northeast feeder — how to tell them apart and what each one likes to eat.
Read the regional guide →Best Bird Food
Sunflower, safflower, nyjer, suet — which food brings in which birds? One simple chart instead of a store aisle full of guesses.
See the food chart →How to Attract Cardinals
The red bird everyone wants at the window. What cardinals eat, the feeders they'll actually land on, and the cover they need.
Bring in the cardinals →Squirrel-Proof Feeding
Squirrels are clever, but you can outsmart them. Baffles, feeder placement, and the one seed they genuinely dislike.
Outsmart the squirrels →Birding, without the hiking boots
The birds come to you
You don't need a trail, a spotting scope, or a 5 a.m. alarm. With the right food in the right feeder, the show comes to your kitchen window.
Every season, someone new
Juncos ride in with the first cold snap; hummingbirds are back by early May. The cast changes all year — your window seat stays the same.
Easier than you think
One feeder and one kind of seed — black-oil sunflower — will bring in most of the birds in our guides. Start small; the birds don't mind.
Get the free guide: Backyard Birds of the Northeast
A printable PDF with the 15 most common backyard birds of the region: photos for easy identification, the food each bird prefers, and a month-by-month feeder calendar.
Download the Free GuideAbout this site
My Window Birds is a small editorial project for people who love watching birds from home. We read the field guides and the research, compare notes across trusted sources, and lay out what works in plain English — all in one place, so you don't have to dig for it.