Birds that normally enjoy peanuts will likely accept walnuts when presented whole and crushed up in a dish, tray, or open platform feeder. Just ensure the nuts do not contain salt as this could prove poisonous to wild birds.
Your backyard guests should only receive raw, unsalted nuts.
Contents
Easy to Chew
Walnuts are soft nuts that birds find easy to chew, making them great for feeding sessions with long and thin beaks. But too many walnuts could present a choking risk – so it is wise to offer only a handful per feeding session.
As part of their diet, wild birds should only receive unsalted walnuts that have never been roasted. Nut packages from stores could contain excessive salt content that poses potential health hazards for wildlife.
Walnuts placed on an open platform bird feeder can attract Chickadees and Blue Jays, among other nut-eating birds, who enjoy munching them down before they go bad. But, for an optimal experience, combine walnuts with peanuts or other soft, easier-to-crack open nuts such as black oil sunflower seeds to ensure all are consumed before becoming waste. Position them along a feeder railing, tray, or platform dish alongside other tasty nuts and seeds so none go wasted.
Rich in Nutrients
Nuts provide birds with essential proteins, fats and other essential nutrients necessary for good beak health. When offered as snacks in moderation they make a nutritious choice that may even promote beak health.
Fill your backyard feeder with unsalted walnuts to attract finches, siskins, goldfinches, tits, sparrows, woodpeckers and nuthatches – they also attract ground feeding species like quail, doves and towhees!
Peanuts, almonds and other nuts make excellent feeder options in your backyard feeders. Just make sure the peanuts you purchase are free from aflatoxin, which can be toxic for wild birds. One easy way to do so is purchasing raw unsalted nuts from a bird store that offers only raw unsalted nuts – these will contain less salt or additives which may harm birds than any others available on store shelves; cooked peanuts or salted walnuts should never be included!
Safe to Feed
Few bird species can crack open a hard walnut shell, so it is wise to provide whole or crushed-up walnut pieces outside the feeder for birds to store and cach when food supplies become scarcer. Furthermore, these nuts also germinate into new trees or bushes which provide food sources to future generations of wild birds.
Walnuts are an ideal softer nut for bird feeders. Just be sure to offer only unsalted and raw walnuts as any salt-containing products could potentially poison wild birds.
Prioritize placing walnuts on a railing, tray or open platform bird feeder so they won’t get overlooked by ground feeding Blue Jays and Steller’s Jays; this will give more nimble backyard bird species like Chickadees, Titmouses and Wrens the opportunity to partake of this tasty treat!
Attractive to Birds
Numerous species of birds enjoy eating nuts. Depending on where you live, chickadees, finches, sparrows, woodpeckers or robins might enjoy munching away at some delicious nuts – from chickadees and nuthatches with their blueish crests and loud calls to popular nuthatches (known for their blueish crests and loud calls). A study to determine which kind of nuts birds prefer at feeders revealed walnuts were the preferred variety with pecans following closely behind.
Be mindful that wild birds cannot consume salted or roasted nuts as the salt can be harmful. Therefore, it’s wise to provide unsalted walnuts which have been deshelled as these are more suitable treats.
Walnuts can be fed alone or mixed in with other nuts such as peanuts, seeds and suet. A mixture of nuts will provide your birds with all the essential vitamins and nutrients they require to thrive while also helping prevent boredom with one source of nutrition.