Birds possess between 8,000-9,000 taste buds, yet don’t produce the capsaicin that makes spicy foods hot for us humans. Because of this, we suggest providing your feeders with basic seed mixes without pepper or chili powder for best results.
Black Oil Sunflower seeds and striped sunflower seeds have high fat contents, making them excellent winter feeders. Furthermore, their reduced debris output makes maintaining your feeder easier.
Contents
Sunflower Seeds
Black-oil sunflower seeds are one of the best ways to attract a wide range of birds at your feeders, from cardinals and woodpeckers to chickadees, nuthatches and goldfinches. Furthermore, these nutritious seeds offer ample protein, fiber and essential healthy monounsaturated fats essential for cardiovascular wellness.
Sunflower seeds are an abundant source of essential vitamins and minerals, including Vitamin E, Zinc and Selenium – essential components that support immune function, cell signaling pathways and more.
Hulled sunflower seeds are a popular choice when feeding birds due to the minimal waste they create (shells). They’re the same seeds sold in black-oil format; only that they’ve had their shells removed. Although more expensive, you will save both money and time cleaning your feeder after refilling, while using hulled seeds may help stop squirrels from taking away whole seeds but leaving shells behind!
Nyjer Seeds
Nyjer (also called thistle seed) is an ideal food choice for finches and other small, active birds, providing essential energy sources as well as essential proteins and other nutrients vital to wild bird health.
Wild Bird Feeding Institute changed this seed’s name from Niger seeds (pronounced like Nigeria) to Nyjer to avoid mispronunciations and association with thistles in North America, where Nyjer comes from an African daisy plant called Guizotia abyssinica.
Nyjer seed, grown primarily in India and Ethiopia but produced also in the US, can quickly become stale when left exposed to air for too long. To maximize enjoyment and ensure optimal results, look for bags featuring Stay Fresh technology or blended products containing it; to get maximum enjoyment. This seed requires its own dedicated thistle seed feeder and replacement should occur regularly to maintain freshness.
Suet Cakes
Suet cakes are an effective way to attract a wide range of wild birds while simultaneously minimising mess, squirrel, and rodent issues that come with traditional suet feeders. Suet cakes combine rendered beef suet with corn, millet, oil sunflower seeds and processed grain by-products for easy squirrel proofing and to provide energy sources for woodpeckers, winter warblers, nuthatches, kinglets, among many other species.
When selecting a suet cake, ensure it contains real animal fat rather than bacon grease or other forms of oil such as cooking drippings. Also look for products with high melting points (like peanut butter) to avoid potential aflatoxins that may be present in other forms of oils.
If you’re looking for an easy way to create your own suet cake, check out this recipe:
Corn
Corn is often fed alone or combined as food for ground-feeding birds such as doves, sparrows and northern bobwhites, making it an easy source of sustenance in backyard gardens. Cracked corn is by far the most commonly seen bird feed and should be available everywhere.
Corn is not recommended due to its rapid spoilage rate and should be stored separately from other feed. Corn also attracts many insects such as weeds, bugs, and rodents which could introduce germs into your feeders and lead to mold growth.
Are you tired of dealing with moldy feeders or spoiling seeds? For an economical and hassle-free option, our Classic Recipe corn-free mix may be ideal! Packed full of premium black oil sunflower seed and other ingredients designed to attract cardinals, chickadees, woodpeckers, blue jays, grosbeaks, nuthatches titmice towhees goldfinches it makes an excellent way to attract them all – and one of our most economical offerings on our website!
