Backyard Birding Forum

We tried a couple different "seed mixes" before, but never had much luck.  Seems, at least for the birds we have around here, that they are mostly filled with "junk seeds".  The birds just pick past most of the stuff, tossing it on the ground.

Sunflower seeds seem to be the prefered seeds for many of the birds in my area.  Niger (thistle) seed in a tube feeder seems to draw in some birds, too.

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This space for rent.

i think i'm going to dedicate feeders to a certain type of feed.  maybe replace my current "house-type" one with just sunflower seed, and see if i can dig up my old one that looks like a jazebo and fill that with cracked corn or something.

keep the thistle seed feeder, and maybe put out an apple or something.

I only have 2 black oil sunflower feeders, a thistle feeder and a hummingbird feeder.  I find it less complicated, but I'd imagine I am probably not getting the birds to feeders that I could if I did mixes, or had a feeder dedicated to that.    I have the benefit of having quite a bit of natural food on my property, so the other birds that might otherwise come to feeders are eating that instead. 

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:Steve

We have no luck with the seed mixes.  I think they fill mixes full of Millet seed because it's a cheap seed, but the birds around here don't eat it.  So we do dedicated feeders to black oil sunflower seeds, then thistle (niger seed) for the gold finches. Suet wil come down soon but we do leave hanging seed cakes up all summer with peanuts and other seeds to attract woodpeckers and nuthatches. We stopped the hummng bird feeder last summer but they still come around to the red flowers in the yard anyhow.