Backyard Birding Forum

Just have to say, black oil sunflower seeds are pretty much the only thing birds around here will eat.  The only thing that eats the millet out of mixes are the house finches (they hog the feeder) and doves (not particularly interesting).  Sunflower will bring in any of the woodpeckers, titmice, chickadees, gold finches, nuthatches, creepers, and cardinals.

Sunflower>*

Yeah, sunflower really is a great general purpose seed.  It has always been the most popular in my feeders over the years.  Thistle (niger) is another good, popular seed.  When we've had each out, it was popular, but didn't go as quickly as the sunflower.

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Yes - black oil is great for getting the birds in. The mixes just make a mess when the birds kick it out to dig for the sunflowers. I stopped buying mixes long ago.
Biggest problem with black oil sunflower seed is the squirrels devour it.

Also I use blocks of suet to get in some of the rarer birds. Not many touch it but the ones that do are usually pretty fun to watch.

I am still looking for a way to get the bluebirds in without putting out meat or anything that will turn nasty. We have alot of them around here but they won't eat anything except bugs.

maybe one of those bricks with bugs and mealworms might be a good alternative.

see my post here.  http://backyardbirdingforum.com/forums/thread/179.aspx

i now have a lot of sunflower seeds on the ground under the feeder, and most of them aren't broken.  looks like the silly birds are going for the millet hardcore, and ignoring the sunflower seeds.

Thistle seeds tend to be consumed by goldfinches, and not by other song birds. So that could be the reason why they normally don't disappear as quickly as the others.

I might be wrong, but I am pretty sure they (goldfinches) tend to favour only thistle, and avoid all varieties of sunflower seeds.

goldfinches devour my black oil sunflower seed. I have no thistle out and I have a ton of goldfinches.

Well don't we learn something new everyday.

Thistle is the preferred food for goldfinches, but apparently they do feed on blackoil sunflower seeds.

http://www.birdsforever.com/goldfnch.html