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 to offer in a hanging feeder is black oil sunflower seed, either in the shell or out. Sunflower appeals to virtually all the seed-eating birds in our area. Whole sunflower seeds are cheaper, and the shell protects the seed from the weather, but you need to clean up the shells under your feeder to prevent them from accumulating and molding.

Sunflower out of the shell (sunflower chips) is the birds’ favorite, even attracting a few species that won’t eat the whole seeds. The processing required to remove the shell makes sunflower chips more expensive, but you are not paying for the weight of the shells (Shells make up about one third of the weight of a bag of whole sunflower seeds.) and you will have much less mess to clean up.

We also offer a number of seed blends tuned to the birds in 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. Mixes are best offered in an open tray feeder, where birds can pick out their favorite seeds without spilling all the others on the ground.