Who is eating what

I did a little experiment to see what birds preferred which food.
1 quartered apples, peanut butter, whole Peanuts, whole Corn, cracked Corn, wheat/red milo, safflower, white millet, Nyjer/thistle, black-oil Sunflower seed, (& water)
2 The birds I want to attract preferred Black Sunflower seeds, Safflower as a second choice, and Nyjer as a distant 3rd (maybe because it was on a table instead of in a tube feeder?)
3 Doves (which are a nuisance here) preferred cracked corn, along with Red-winged blackbirds
4 Squirrels and Jays preferred whole peanuts. Squirrels 2nd was apple slices, 3rd whole corn. Jays second choice was Black Sunflower seeds.
All basically ignored Peanut butter, Wheat, Milo, Millet, & nearly ignored Nyjer

Cool experiment. Figures that the 'good' birds want the higher price stuff, doesn't it.

I will save some money. I can go to the feed store instead of the pet store or box store. I can buy cracked corn bulk, and move the doves away from the smaller birds. I can buy the black sunflower seeds bulk, too. Once I use up the seed mixes I have got, I won't bother to replace them. I think I will dump out the small seed mix in the tube feeder now, and refill it with fresh Nyger only, and only half full. I will buy nyjer in small bags & peanuts in medium bags. I guess nyjer and peanuts go stale faster than the others.

That is interesting seeing how this worked. I've never tried testing like that.

Everything ignores the cracked corn here except when all else is gone, but for a couple of faithful Red-wingeds.

We need to pick up millet when we go to the bird feed store tomorrow. We have native sparrows that prefer the millet over the black oil seeds. We try to avoid milo, but when I send someone to the store when we are low on seed, they usually pick up the cheapest.

We store extra Nyjer and peanuts in the freezer. If the larger bags are cheaper overall, maybe you can do this if you have room??

Surprised the nyjer was so unpopular, that's reckoned to be one of the best choices over here.

Resin

That's where I go ... to the feed store. I do find better prices there and can buy in bulk. Cracked corn and black oil sunflower are the two things I keep on hand. Most birds seem to like one or both of those. Not to mention the squirrels. :-/

Disclaimer: There were some problems with my methodology. I was having some relatively dry mild weather here. Birds are a little different during colder &/or wetter weather, maybe their preferences would be different, too. Also, I was doing this on a table top. I think maybe some of the birds prefer the tube feeder to Nyjer on the table. An example of a bird preferring a feeder to the table top was Blue Jays. I put peanuts in a hopper for the Squirrels and peanuts on the table for my bird test. The Blue Jays preferred peanuts out of the Squirrel hopper, the Squirrels came to the table for the peanuts, even though they have to cross the "dog zone" that the birds can fly over.

Maybe the time of year made a difference also. The only time I feed thistle is when the goldfinch come south. The goldfinch will also eat millet and BOSS. Nothing eats milo. I feed sunflower hearts for the titmouse, chicadees and nuthatch in the nesting season because I am afraid the young may have trouble with hulls or larger seeds. The occasional bunting seems to like millet. My squirrels like almost everything else prefer the BOSS. I feed mealworms for the birds that do not like seed. I have tried jelly, peanut butter and fruits but nothing in my yard cares for that. It just stays there and rots. I have oak trees so the blue jays eat acorns and never come to the feeders. I always leave a streak of leaves for the towhees and thrashers to search through. The mocking birds and robins will gather mealworms when they are feeding their young. Which really gets the bluebirds upset. I have fed corn but the squirrels only eat the germ and leave the rest. What a mess!

The Goldfinches do seem to be the ones that like the Nyjer & the tube feeder. They are common this time of year, I rarely see them when they are gold-colored. They usually flock with the Pine Siskins, but I haven't seen any Pine Siskins lately. I'm glad you mentioned the Squirrels only like the corn germ. I saw them packing kernels into their cheek pockets, but I didn't actually see them EAT any.

How do you feed the meal worms? I have seen them fresh and dried, but wasn't sure what to do with them if I bought them.

I was cleaning up my experiment and took the stuff off the table and put it on the ground. Then I stopped to do something else. When I got back, something had got into the peanut butter. It had been ignored when it was sitting up on the table. I don't know what it was, but best guess (from the marks in the peanut butter) would be a Curve-bill Thrasher.

Since corn gluten and sunflower hulls both have pre-emergent herbicide properties, I am going to site the feeders more carefully - right now some of the waste gets into the veggie garden.

Meal worms are unable to climb a 90 degree side. So any dish with straight up sides.

RE: Curved-bill Thrasher. I have a pair that lives here - They nest in my neighbors Cholla cactus, and spend time in our brush/trash piles, too. They have a lot of the same behaviors as a Flicker, spending time on the ground sorting through leaves, mulch, duff. They occasionally come to the feeder, but I don't think they are eating the birdseed, I think they are just sorting through it? They will peck at the suet sometimes. The meal-worms would be for them. I like them except when my fruit trees are ripening, then I call them Curve-bill slashers, because of the slices through my plums. The marks in the peanut butter were similar, but I guess any bird could have drug its bill through it. The Thrashers will come right up to the house because of the water.
1 Cholla, Cylindropuntia imbricata, 3-4 ft exposed prairie, but 5-6 ft (up to 8!) in sheltered yards
2 Thrasher checking but not eating at feeder
3 Thrasher at suet on a cold day
4 Thrasher ignoring seed experiment, checking out water, next to back door.

Nice thrashers! Lucky you ;-)

Resin

I feed the Niger in socks and there is a lot of black on the ground. DO they shell them out or is this a lot of wasted seed?? Black sunflower is the favorite here. Have doves that go for the wheat and cracked corn. I feed a lot of birds and with this cold weather they really eat me out of house and home. Have downy woodpeckers that like the suet. I put small grains on the ground and have a lot of the snow birds. Others are Titmouse, chickadees,nuthashers, different sparrows., cardinals and the pesky bluejays.Have fed birds since the 70's..Really enjoy it.

bluepoppy,

It is probably a combination of both, waste and shells. With us, our newer sock feeder has larger holes. I've been tempted to try sunflower seed in them. The brand of feeder is Pennington, if I remember. We see more seed fall when we have more birds. Last winter, we had so many Redpolls eating from the feeder, knocking Nyjer out, BUT the fallen seed was eaten by more Redpolls.

This year we have no Redpolls, but the seed still falls out, just not as much. And you know who's eating it? Juncos and AmericanTree Sparrows. Never seen that before. And more recently, one of my Tree Sparrows has actually figured out how to cling to a sock.

Eating out of house and home is right! We had to make our second trip to the bird store already this winter. And then they only had 20 pounds of nuts, so we'll be back again soon. :)

I'm not doing the nuts. Squirrels here eat my sunflower that fall on the ground plus a wire feeder they get some out of. I can't keep up buying the sun flower and the small seed mix..Have probaby gone through several hundred lb of sunflower already. and it is not cheep to buy.I do enjoy feedin them though

Here the Juncos prefer to eat on the ground. This year I have them eating Sunflower seed out of a feeder on a picnic table, and some spill under the table. Previous years they ate the Nyjer & small seed mix that the Goldfinches spilled under the tube feeder.

Tube feeder has been ignored lately. I am not sure if it warmer weather, the BOSS in the feeder on the table, or if the Nyjer has gone stale. I haven't dumped it out and refilled with fresh like said I would in a post above - I still need to try that. I haven't seen as many Goldfinches or Pine Siskins this winter - they are the ones that prefer the tube feeder.

Last photo of food test - the nicer the weather, the fewer birds showed up to eat. On calm days over 60 degrees Fahrenheit, I got Honey BEES eating? the cracked corn. I put out some sugar syrup and blooming houseplants - they weren't interested. Weird

That is creepy, considering the weirdness of farming today. My husband had a brief stint as a contractor at a big seed company and learned enough that he said he's almost afraid to eat.

I don't worry about GMOs for myself - and hadn't worried about them for the birds either. But now that you mention it, maybe I better not let the bees pig out on corn.
I was on three different contradicting diets from three different Doctors for a while. So tell your spouse I have tried the "afraid to eat anything" diet - I really don't recommend it.

Great little experiment.
I only feed black oil sunflower seed and my own suet mix (1cup crunch Peanut Butter, 2 cups vegetable shortening, 71/2 cups PLAIN cornmeal) - I have tons of birds. The trick is to keep the squirrels off everything and to keep the mockingbird from running every body else off.
I love feeding and watching the birds around my feeder. Its been a lifelong hobby/interest.

Black Oil Sunflower Seed was the overall favorite here, too. I buy cracked corn because the "nuisance" birds like it and it is an inexpensive way to keep them out of the B.O.S.S. I bought peanuts for squirrels, but the blue jays usually get to them first! The Thrashers and woodpeckers like the suet. I also tried dried meal worms, but they haven't attracted anything new or interesting yet - I still have hopes.

Black oil sunflower, cracked corn and some suet here. And some Nijer for the goldfinches.