What’s the Best Seed to Put in My New Bird Feeder?

I just bought a bird feeder and want to start feeding the birds. What seed is the best choice?

The “best” seed is black oil sunflower seed.  It is eagerly accepted by small songbirds, and with its shell intact, is unappealing to starlings.  At Backyard Bird Shop you can purchase simply black oil sunflower seed, either in the shell or out of the shells, and that’s a great seed to start with since it appeals to over 90% of the seed-eating birds in the Portland/Vancouver area.  We also offer a number of seed blends tuned to the birds in our area, if you’d like to increase the likely birds at your feeder to 100% of the seed-eating birds of our area.  Be careful with seed blends, though, because if you use one that is not formulated for our area, you may have waste and weeds underneath your feeder.