# Bird seed



## Leopard

What kind of seed mix attracts the most birds?
Leopard


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## TAWhatley

Depends on what kind of bird you want to attract .. Different species of wild birds prefer different types of seeds.

Terry


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## MaryOfExeter

That's true. A mix with the most variety will probably attract the most different types of birds in your area. Finches love thistle seed, but that should be supplied in a different type of feeder, by itself. But other ingredients found in mixes...jays especially love peanuts, lots of tiny birds will like the millet and milo, black oil sunflower will really attract the cardinals and other grosbeaks, doves and pigeons love safflower (and everything else, haha), countless other birds enjoy dehydrated cherries and other berries, and nuts of other kinds. Whole corn is good too, but watch out, cause squirrels REALLY like to steal the corn.


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## Leopard

Should I get a small bag of each mix them up in a garbage can and then put it in the feederw (We have 5 bird feeders).
Leopard


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## John_D

Could be good to put different things in the feeders .. maybe a peanut feeder, seed mix feeder, berries in another, etc. That way you may get an idea what is most popular and possibly which groups of birds you get visiting most.

John


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## Leopard

Thanks. I have never found any peanuts in the bird food stores?
Leopard


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## Gnuretiree

I think hanging a thistle feeder and a Black Oil sunflower feeder will attract the nicest variety of birds. What the finches and wood peckers spill from them will get a nice gathering of ground birds picking up the droppings.


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## Leopard

I love wood peckers. We have a huge pilated woodpecker in our back yard!
Leopard


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## MaryOfExeter

Lucky! I love Pileateds!


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## Guest

black oil sunflower seeds will bring in just about anything to your feeders but variety is the spice of life


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## Jay3

Leopard said:


> I love wood peckers. We have a huge pilated woodpecker in our back yard!
> Leopard


Woodpeckers love nuts. I use mostly black oil, and throw in some chopped nuts, which you can buy in most places that sell seed, mix in some safflower, and most of the nice songbirds love this mix. I have thistle in separate feeders, and suet feeders. I have even raised mealworms for the birds. By the way, woodpeckers love them too. You'd be surprised what will come for the peanuts. Chicadees, woodpeckers, Carolina wrens, house wrens, cardinals, tufted titmouse, Jays, and more. Mealworms will attract a ton of birds. Squirrels will go after the black oil and nuts. And most chipmonks love safflower. When you start to mix in a lot of the millet and smaller seeds, the house sparrows and starlings which can be a pain at feeders will come. I just set up a feeding section further away for those birds and use the seed they like in them. That way everybody's happy.


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## Leopard

I just found out blue jays loveeeeeeeeeeeee mealworms. I set a dish out of mealworms ( I feed them to my leopard gecko) on our feed tree and the blue jays picked them right of.
Leopard


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## Jay3

I used to breed them for my little carolina wrens that always nested in our yard. The male would land right in my hand to eat them. He's gone now, but the babies and grand kids still come and nest here. I just love interacting with them. It's a lot of fun. I never noticed the blue jays eating them here though. The only problem with that is that they will clean you out. I bred them, so always had so many to spare.


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## Leopard

The nuthatches love the mealworms.
Leopard


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## Jay3

Leopard said:


> The nuthatches love the mealworms.
> Leopard


I know. They also love peanuts. I chop mine small. Chicadees love the mealworms too, and the catbirds, and wrens. I have seen a carolina wren defending a mealworm feeder from a house wren who was just as determined.


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## altgirl35

just about everybody loves mealworms!! i have converted a small wooden bird feeder so just the wrens can get in it to eat them (i just released 3 house wrens). i breed mealworms also so i have much to spare also.
suet for the woodpeckes and many other birds, they love it, audubon has a great suet feeder for pileated woodpeckers, it has a large fin on the bottom so they can have support for thier tail.
u can also put out chopped berries, and nail a few oranges to a tree and put out a dish of grape jelly for orioles .
don't forget the hummingbird feeders, if you have any with yellow on it, take a little acrylic paint and paint those parts red, red attracts the hummers, yellow attracts the yellow jackets and the venom from a yellow jacket can kill a hummer.
no need to buy any pre mixed nector for them, just melt 1 part sugar to 4 parts water, no food coloring unless you just want to color it red until they find the feeder, and disinfect and change the sugar water about once a week, it's okay if ants and other insects go in and drown it actually adds protien they need to the mixture.
oh and then i have the feeder for the sparrows, they tend to prefer the cheapest bird seed from the grocery store and they will leave the more expensive seed alone most of the time


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## Jay3

altgirl35 said:


> just about everybody loves mealworms!! i have converted a small wooden bird feeder so just the wrens can get in it to eat them (i just released 3 house wrens). i breed mealworms also so i have much to spare also.
> suet for the woodpeckes and many other birds, they love it, audubon has a great suet feeder for pileated woodpeckers, it has a large fin on the bottom so they can have support for thier tail.
> u can also put out chopped berries, and nail a few oranges to a tree and put out a dish of grape jelly for orioles .
> don't forget the hummingbird feeders, if you have any with yellow on it, take a little acrylic paint and paint those parts red, red attracts the hummers, yellow attracts the yellow jackets and the venom from a yellow jacket can kill a hummer.
> no need to buy any pre mixed nector for them, just melt 1 part sugar to 4 parts water, no food coloring unless you just want to color it red until they find the feeder, and disinfect and change the sugar water about once a week, it's okay if ants and other insects go in and drown it actually adds protien they need to the mixture.
> oh and then i have the feeder for the sparrows, they tend to prefer the cheapest bird seed from the grocery store and they will leave the more expensive seed alone most of the time


Yes. We have a blueberry patch and rspberry patch that they go after. When the berries are not on the bushes, I have put them out. Along with a dish of chopped suet. Makes it easier for the parents to grab pieces to feed to their young. I like the catbirds, and they come to,a tray that I set up with the diferent fruit and chopped suet.Chicadees and titmice and many others like it too. The humming bird sugar water that you mentioned, I boil for 2 minutes. Helps to remove the chlorine, and make it more of a nectar. Just 2 minutes though. If you boil any longer than that, it will become a syrup. Too concentrated for them. Not good for them. I could never figure out why they make so many of the hummer feeders with yellow flowers, as I know that it attracts yellow jackets. You'd think they would know that? We also put up the grape jelly, and apple halves, and orange slices in the trees. I just cut back thin branches to a length of about 2 or 3 inches, and slip the fruit right over them. The squirrels like all these things too, so sometimes steal it.
In springtime, if we're getting a lot of rain, not many bugs out for the birds to feed their babies, I even put out soaked dog kibble, mixed with scrambled eggs for the starlings. You should see them grabbing hunks of the stuff and carrying it away in their beaks to feed their young.


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## Leopard

Those ideas are really cool lol.
Leopard


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## Leopard

How do I get rid of the house sparrows? They are eating all my seed and will not let other birds eat.
Leopard


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## Jay3

Leopard said:


> How do I get rid of the house sparrows? They are eating all my seed and will not let other birds eat.
> Leopard


House sparrows love mixed seed. If you use it, you will get them. Once they are there, LOL LOL LOL, GOOD LUCK! Most of the birds that you want to attract like the black oil sunflower seed. Unfortunately, house sparrows will eat it also. But you attract many more with the mixed seed. Most house sparrows do not like safflower seed. Unfortunately, this seed is rather expensive. What I do, is buy a lot of seed. I put the mixed seed that the sparrows like, way up in the back of the yard, somewhat away from the other feeders. That does work fairly well in keeping them back there.............................................until, that is, they have finished the mixed seed. Then they will all venture down to the other feeders. Good luck! LOL. One year I had such an explosion in house sparrows that it looked like a mini airport in my backyard. On the upside.................that year I noticed that I had quite a reduction in aphids, and other garden chomping pests. They do eat a lot of bugs, and did a great job of keeping them away. Every cloud has a silver lining, but you may have to spring for the more expensive seed, or buy more of what they like, and give them their own feeding station to keep them busy. 


P.S. You could always send them over to Charis' house, as she finds them enchanting. If you want to pm me, I can give you her address. Just post it up by your feeders. The ones that can read can go to her house.


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## Leopard

Thanks for the advise Jay3. We set up a bird house (we wanted blue birds) but all we have in our birdhouse is wrenssssssssss (that includes baby wrens).
Leopard


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## Jay3

Leopard said:


> Thanks for the advise Jay3. We set up a bird house (we wanted blue birds) but all we have in our birdhouse is wrenssssssssss (that includes baby wrens).
> Leopard


I love wrens. Especially the carolina wrens. I used to have one that would come to my hand for the mealworms that I bred for them. And peanuts. They love peanuts.


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## Leopard

Did a wren really fly into your hand? They are aways flying away at top speed when I get within 10 yards of them. "o" and I just filled up the bird feeders.
Leopard


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## Jay3

Leopard said:


> Did a wren really fly into your hand? They are aways flying away at top speed when I get within 10 yards of them. "o" and I just filled up the bird feeders.
> Leopard


Yes, he did. The male carolina wren. I used to put out chopped peanuts for my woodpeckers and others, and I noticed this little bird following me around whenever I did this. I looked him up in my bird book and found that he was a carolina wren, and that they love peanuts. Also that they are not particularly hardy in the New England winters, but that they are staying up here year round more and more. So I started to sprinkle some on the roof of a box feeder I had built, just a few feet from the window. He watched me do this, and I knew he could see them there, as he landed there often anyway. He would gobble them up and look for more. That was in the Autumn. During the winter, I always filled the feeders, and left chopped peanuts for my little wren. Come spring, we had long periods of cold rain, then they brought their babies to the backyard. I was afraid they would starve, as with the cold and the rain, not many bugs around, which is what they eat, and too early for the berries they eat. So I started feeding them mealworms. They loved them, and we got to watch as they fed their young. This little guy got so used to me that he would actually sit in my hand and gobble up the worms. His mate wouldn't get quite that close though. When the mealworm feeder was empty, he would come into my dining room, through the open window and hop around on the table squawking at me to let me know to fill the feeder with more worms. They came for a few years like that. I miss him, but the generations that he started still come to our garden. Birds are not that hard to get close to with patience.


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## Jay3

Here he is, my Little Wren.


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## Leopard

That is so cool. That is the same kind of wren we have. I have to put peanuts out for him.
Leopard


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## Jay3

Leopard said:


> That is so cool. That is the same kind of wren we have. I have to put peanuts out for him.
> Leopard


They love them. But I chop them up into small pieces. Try it. It may take a while for him to find them, but once he does......................


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## Leopard

We have been buying to many mealworms for my leopard gecko. First a thousand, then two hundred and fifty. As soon as a batch comes in I will put half out for the birds.
Do you own any other pets?
Leopard


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## Jay3

I used to breed them. It's fairly easy. I wouldn't put them all out at once. A jay or something could come grab them all. When I was feeding my carolina wrens, we had a house wren nesting in the backyard at the same time. They wouldn't let her near the worms. So I put up a little bird dish, like what you would put in a bird cage, and placed it near her bird house. Everyday I put mealworms in it. She would fly down to it, load up her beak with worms, and fly back to the house to feed her babies. It was nice to watch them through the summer. Just put out a small amount at a time.


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## Guest

wrens are awesome , I have them here all thru out the summer and enjoy them very much .. very hard working parents to say the least


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## Jay3

Yes, they are hard working. Hopping here and there to search out insects. And you hear them through the day, either singing their pretty song, or scolding anything that comes anywhere near their nest, or their babies. We planted a lot of ground covers, and low shrubs and vines throughout the back yard, as they prefer that, and so do the catbirds that I am fond of.


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## Leopard

When we bought are house their was not much landscaping. But, my dad used to be a garden worker for a millionair lady (now my dad is dean of saint vincent college) so we get along fine. 
Leopard


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## Leopard

Bought some sute feed. The wood peckers love it.
Leopard


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## Leopard

The huming birds have babies.
Leopard


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## Jay3

Cute, aren't they?


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## Leopard

Well are humers laid eggs late. And they still look a little ugly.
Leopard


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## roy-me-boy

Dont forget to put out fresh water also


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## Leopard

I don't we have plenty of water.


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## pattersonk2002

*wrens*



altgirl35 said:


> just about everybody loves mealworms!! i have converted a small wooden bird feeder so just the wrens can get in it to eat them (i just released 3 house wrens). i breed mealworms also so i have much to spare also.
> suet for the woodpeckes and many other birds, they love it, audubon has a great suet feeder for pileated woodpeckers, it has a large fin on the bottom so they can have support for thier tail.
> u can also put out chopped berries, and nail a few oranges to a tree and put out a dish of grape jelly for orioles .
> don't forget the hummingbird feeders, if you have any with yellow on it, take a little acrylic paint and paint those parts red, red attracts the hummers, yellow attracts the yellow jackets and the venom from a yellow jacket can kill a hummer.
> no need to buy any pre mixed nector for them, just melt 1 part sugar to 4 parts water, no food coloring unless you just want to color it red until they find the feeder, and disinfect and change the sugar water about once a week, it's okay if ants and other insects go in and drown it actually adds protien they need to the mixture.
> oh and then i have the feeder for the sparrows, they tend to prefer the cheapest bird seed from the grocery store and they will leave the more expensive seed alone most of the time


Well I have too say that there is more then one thing you mentiond here that I did not know, thanks for the info. I have six houses for the wrens and this year every one of them was occupied, I just love those little guys when they are peeking there heads out waiting for mom to feed. I am going to make a few more that will open in the front and take some pictures next year. >Kevin


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## Jay3

I wouldn't open them up with the babies. They might fall out. Just take pics of them being fed by the parent, or them peeking out.

Here's one of some house sparrows in our yard.


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## leencyfroz

Birds can be picky, and various bird seed to attract several species of birds. Understand what the different suits, and that the birds prefer which goes bird-watcher who can help create a buffet that is tailored to the preferences of their bird food


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