Provide the appropriate bird feed to attract a wide range of bird species to your feeder. Our selection features seed mixes that will draw finches, jays and cardinals alike to your feeding station.
Nyjer seeds draw goldfinches and siskins while chickadees, titmice, and woodpeckers will enjoy peanuts. We offer processed suet cakes which provide additional winter energy.
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Sunflower Seed
Sunflower seed is an excellent all-purpose option for many species of birds, available at hardware stores, bird-feeding specialty shops and pet supply outlets in bulk quantities. Furthermore, sunflower seeds are a staple component in high quality bird seed mixes – offer it in your hopper, platform or tube feeders!
Sunflower heart chips provide all the nutrition of sunflower seeds without their hard shell, perfect for small and young birds that cannot crack open larger shells with their smaller beaks. You can offer these individually or combine them with other finch food (nyjer, black thistle seeds etc) in order to attract finches, siskins, redpolls and crossbills.
Black oil sunflower seeds are packed with fat and protein, a perfect mix for birds to feast on. They’re among the most sought-after wild bird feeder seeds. Sown and offered alone in hopper or platform feeders or mixed together to form custom feed blends is easily done. Striped sunflower seeds feature thin gray shells that birds find easier to open, making these popular among jays, woodpeckers, nuthatches and cardinals.
White Proso Millet
Millet is an inexpensive seed, and an essential element in most bird feed mixes. Ground feeding birds like sparrows, juncos, towhees and mourning doves enjoy feeding on millet. Not only is it popular among these ground feeders but millet can provide essential sources of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium for your birds! If you have the green thumb to grow it yourself in warm temperatures – cover it with netting until harvest time!
White proso millet is the preferred food of sparrows, juncos and towhees but can attract other ground-feeding birds as well. When selecting bird feed mixtures that include this seed source for maximum effectiveness, red proso (sometimes known as milo or grain sorghum) should be left out as house sparrows and brown-headed cowbirds prefer red varieties over it – however red proso millet may end up as waste in tube feeders due to most birds that use them not touching it at all!
Niger Seed
Niger seed (also known as thistle or nyjer) is a favorite among finches, particularly goldfinches. To create a more balanced diet for them, it can be combined with other seeds in feeders designed specifically for this use – one with an attached tray should work best to catch any potential waste product.
This seed, originally from Africa, is heat treated on import to prevent its germination and provides protein, vitamin C, riboflavin and an abundance of oils that are helpful in treating skin ailments.
Due to the high oil content, smaller birds such as goldfinches can often perform some impressive acrobatics when eating their seed – often feeding upside down! This training will aid them when feeding themselves in nature where this method may become essential.
Peanuts
Birds tend to love eating peanuts, but only in moderation. Peanuts contain high amounts of fat which may contribute to weight gain in birds. Furthermore, peanuts contain large quantities of a natural toxin called aflatoxin which may make birds sick or even kill them.
Peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) are legumes that add nitrogen to the soil, typically grown as an annual in warmer climates. Once flowers appear on these annuals they form a peg that grows into the ground until eventually expanding into a pod containing their seeds.
Whole peanuts in their shell and peanut hearts (the small chips left when peanut halves have been broken apart) are enjoyed by numerous birds including black-capped chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, northern cardinals, Carolina wrens as well as brown thrashers, sparrows, and crows.
