Salflower seeds

I had a problems with starlings eating all of my bird seed and chasing all the small birds away. I bought salflower seeds because the starlings are not suppose to like the salflower seeds. Will they dont like the saflower seeds and neither does the other birds. I thought the sparrows like it but I have had the seeds int he bird feeders for days now and no birds at all. Any ideas on this

Sami

Hi Sami, Yes mainly Cardinals and a few others like safflower. Not exactly a popular seed. I've tried using it 2 or 3 times in my yard only to wind up having to throw it away.


I'm having a problem with Grackles, Starlings and Blue Jays. They go through so much sunflower seed and chips it just isn't worth it for me to keep buying it. As soon as my Chickadees
fledge from the nest box I'll stop putting out seed altogether. There will be plenty of natural food around for them and I'll keep suet and bird baths going.

I've had the same experience with safflower. I first bought it because a neighbor told me the squirrels wouldn't eat it. He was right, but neither would the birds. I currently have a bag of Cardinal blend that has safflower in it. I only have a pair of Cardinals that eat from the tray it's in and lots of finches and other birds. The other seeds are always picked over the Safflower.

Ok I guess I am back to square one. I think I am going to go with the wire cages and that way I want be feeding the large birds too. Thanks everyone. I am going to take care of that this friday. I have about 20 hummers out on my deck at the moment. I was just taking pictures of them. I was putting out the food for them and had them eating out of the feeders before I could get them hung.

Sami

Pic of Hummers

A caged feeder might solve your problem. The starlings can't get through the wire, but small birds can. Here is a pic of a Painted Bunting in one. Sparrows will go inside and devour the white millet, it's their favorite food. Tube feeders with the reversible ports turned where the birds have to pick the seed out help, too. Sparrows and starlings are generally too lazy to work for a few seeds.

Beautiful. I wish I could attract one of those birds. All I get is sparrows, starlings, some juncos and do have some blue birds nesting. What kind of camera did you use to take that picture. I would give my eye teeth to have a camera that took good close ups like that. Every time I try to zoom in on my hummers it is always blury.

Sami

I think you're a little out of this bird's range, but there are beautiful and interesting birds everywhere. You're fortunate to have bluebirds, lots of folks try for years and never get a pair to nest. I like the juncos, too. They are winter birds here and feed on broadcast grain. I typically have 30-40 in the mornings along with 20-30 doves. I just throw out chicken scratch because it's cheap and both birds eat it well. So do the native sparrows.

That pic was taken with a little Nikon P80, it's been updated and I think the current model is the P100. It does a fair job if the light is good.

Thanks reddirt, I tried to get some wire cubed sdtorage bins from walmart but they dont carry them in the store. I ordered them and get free shipping if they go to the store. I am going to check that Nidon out. It looks like it would be something I want to get my hands on.

Sami

I did order and received the wire storage bins from Wal Mart. They are working out just fine. The starlings have tried to get to the feeders with no luck. It took a while for the small birds to come back because of the salflower seeds. They did not want to have anything to do with them. In fact there were no birds when I had it in the feeders. I had a finch in the wire cages today and hope many more will come back. Want to thank everyone for their help

Sami

Glad that worked for you, sami. I haven't seen any of the cages like you ordered, but looks like they will work. I've currently taken mine down because I had some sparrows coming in. Since I host bluebirds, I don't won't sparrows around. Not attracting them in the first place is preferable to dealing with a bunch of them.

Hi everyone,
I have used Safflower Seed sparingly for years & it works out great for me, but I only put it in one tray-type feeder. I use the Dinner Bell from Wild Birds Unlimited, but there are others that are similar & I've used many others over the years.

This is how I've made it work:

I use Sunflower seed in most of my feeders plus Mixed seed in one. I then put Safflower Seed in the Dinner Bell. The Cardinals & Doves like it right away. The other birds take time to get used to it so by having only one feeder with Safflower allows them to go to the other feeders, but if they are bothered by the Blackbirds (ours are mostly Red-Wing Blackbirds) they keep coming back to the Safflower. By-the-way, a tray feeder contains the seed so until the birds get used to it they don't keep tossing it to the ground.

Eventually more & more of them learn that it's the one feeder that allows them to eat in peace without being bothered. Once they get used to Safflower they also realize it's a nourishing, high fat seed. They then go back & forth to all the feeders which gives them options & variety.

I only put out a little at a time rather than filling the feeder so it stays fresher. Eventually I have to add more once or twice a day.

The reason the Blackbirds don't eat Safflower is because the shell is too hard for them to crack.

Although Safflower is expensive (another reason I use it sparingly) I find it cheaper than purchasing caged feeders or separate cages.

As far as the Squirrels (we have zillions), we haven't had a problem with them getting to the feeders in years... once my husband made large cone-shaped "baffles" out of galvanized steel. I also put out a little bit of food for the squirrels to make them happy.

Hope some of you find this useful.