BIRDFOOD ?

Would love to hear what everyone feeds their birds.

Anything special to attract different types of birds?

Is it worth purchasing the more expensive types of seed that have less fillers?

Where do you purchase?

Is that enough questions......LOL ?

thanks
taxicat

Hi taxicat, I think we all buy from different places, Some from Feed stores, some from Wild Bird Stores and others from large discount stores.

The most important thing is that the seed is as fresh as possible. After 6 months most seed will go stale and will get moths and other things inside it. You want to get your seed from a place that does a good turnover of bird supplies.

As for myself I do not like to buy mixes. I usually go with Sunflower chips or Black Oil Sunflower seed.

The other constant food I have here is Suet for the woodpeckers, nuthatch and others.

I also occasionally buy unsalted peanuts to put in a silo or unsalted peanuts in the shell to put in a platform feeder.

Hope this helps. :-)

Pelletory,

Thanks for sharing Pelletory.

We have a company here in the Atlanta area that will deliver your seed to you at no charge. Minimum $50 order. I believe their seed is very fresh, it has an expiration date on it. It's a bit more to put out at one time but I find it works for me.

Because I am only in my 2nd yr of feeding my guys, I am still experimenting.

Suet.....definately! I enjoy making my own.

A premium mix has worked well for me. Both types of sunflower seeds, nuts, rasins. safflower, pumpkin seeds and millet. I am attracting a large variety with this one.

The other is a no shell patio mix with SF chips, millet and chopped nuts. This mix is in a domed feeder that can be adjusted to keep the big guys out.

taxicat

BOSS, Safflower and suet are year round foods here. In the winter I put out peanuts and buy nut mixes occasionally for an extra treat.

Safflower, Black Oil Sunflower, regular ole Wild Bird seed and various suets. Now and then whole peanuts.

Hack

I wish I had better luck with Safflower but in the 3 times I tried it the birds rarely eat that much of it.

I do a mixture of largely black oil sunflower, with a healthy helping of peanuts, safflower, cracked corn, and chopped raisins (chopped by myself). Safflower is reported to be a Cardinal food preference. I have LOTS of cardinals. Right now I have store bought suet, but homemade suet is far better. I used a recipee from the Cialis website which rocked the bird world here.

I've had the same luck with safflower, pelle. Tried it a few years ago when a neighbor told me squirrels wouldn't eat it. He was right, but neither would the birds. They just went to the neighbors who served better meals.

You can serve a mixed blend and attract a variety of birds, but sometimes you have to get specific for specific birds. If I want Painted and Indigo Buntings in the spring, I need white millet. Unfortunately sparrows love it as well. The sparrows don't like black sunflower seeds, but finches do so I feed a lot of sunflower. The titmice and chickadees like it, too.

I currently throw out a mix every day on the vacant lot next door. Every morning and evening it has numerous doves. They eat mainly the milo. I normally have a lot of migrant sparrows and juncos eating the milo, but not so many this winter. A few local crows show up mid-morning and pick out the corn and peanuts. Goldfinches take care of the sunflower. So the mix works pretty well.

I keep a couple of feeders with black sunflower for the finches, a feeder with a mix, one with a mix of white millet and niger and a couple of suet cakes. One a berry blend and one peanut for the woodpeckers. And of course, the bluebirds get mealworms every morning. I try to keep a little something out for everyone.

I use Black Oil sunflower seeds for most birds, nyger for finches, peanuts, homemade suet with the seed mix with nuts. I will sometime add dog food on the platform feeders for the Jays. I have a fruits platform out to attract the Bohemian Waxwings. (grapes, raisin Mountain Ash berries, apples)

I use small black oil sunflower seed with oats and milo, various kinds of suet and whatever fruit I feel like sparing. I go to the local Feed and Seed. I store it in used pool chemical buckets that friends give me. So far the squirrels haven't gotten through them. I also have a large drop cage over the ground feeder that has stopped the squirrels and the neighbor's cat, ugly but very functional.

Cracked corn, Sunflower hearts, Niger seed, suet and peanuts...

I purchase all in our local wildbird habitat store...never in places like hardware stores, Walmart or places like a Home Depot. Some stuff has been sitting on the shelves for years. I remember picking up a suet cake at Walmart for cheap and it was a rock! It only cost about $1 at the time, but it was old, very old. I pay about $3 for excellent ones in our wildbird habitat store. you can also make your own suet if you want...many recipes online...

I also won't use millet or Safflower. The 1st year we fed birds, the millet brought flocks of HOSP by the hundreds and the Safflower was a waste...they would pic around it or if a feeder was exclusively Safflower, no bird would use the feeder!





This message was edited Feb 11, 2011 12:34 PM

It is funny how birds in different places will eat differently. Even the Gold Finch eat safflower here! If the Blue Jays are hungry enough they will eat it too!