buying wild bird seed, what seeds are good

artieanna

What seed should a good wild bird mix contain?

What seed should be avoided?

Please post images of the different seed if possible...

I'm curious as to what exactly I'm feeding when I buy mixed bird seed.

Rancid

First off, avoid any mix that has lots of wheat seeds in it!
The cheaper mixes usually do, such as the "bargain" wild bird seed from Aldi.

There a fair bit of info here:
http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/information/feeders.htm

I find sunflower hearts very popular in my garden, along with the usual wild bird mix, fat and suet balls and peanuts, too.

littlebug

None of the "wild bird seed" Mixes ever went down well in my garden. Last year the birdies showed no interest in the fat balls or sunflower seeds either It was peanuts or nothing. "My" birdies were mostly goldfinches, greenfinches, siskins.

This year i put out one of those ready to go aldi seed things and a hanging net thing with peanuts and fat balls and that attracted a nice wee group of great tits that loved them. There were also a few blue tits and loads of sparrows. I've just today put out loads of new peanut feeders and for the first time a niger seed feeder so I await the results with interest. No sign of the goldfinches yet.

Amalgam

I tried dried Meal Worms this year, peanuts vanish first I find, then you have the suet balls.

The Meal Worms are crispy, but soften up once moisture gets to them.

Try and split up food to more than one area of the garden, this might sound like stating the obvious, but we have a pair of tits basically spending their time swooping others.. spreading the food out prevents that.

I don't know much about brands, I opted for a 'Cheeky Boy' bucket.

magicbastarder

using bill oddie mix at the moment, the birds clean it all up. tits, sparrows, finches, starlings, magpies, and blackbirds all noted so far - probably more, but my skills of identification aren't adequate to list them.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I have been feeding and recording birds in the garden for over 30 years and I have to say that, regardless of whatever seed mix has been provided, they always wolf it down. I now buy a loose mix in the pet store and while it contains a fair amount of wheat the birds still eat every grain. I add porridge oaks and raisins. It's only now that I think about it that I feel there should be no reason why wheat would not attract birds as its a natural crop in this country unlike nyger, or sunflower seeds etc.
I honestly think that talk of garden birds not liking particular seed mixes is a bit of nonsense. If the mix contains seeds/grains suitable for birds then there should be no reason they turn their noses up at it. I have noticed they are not particular about those coloured flakes that are in some mixes but then again they probably don't recognise it as food (it certainly doesn't look much like any grains I've every come across). In the wild birds/animals will take what's available - why would our gardens be any different?

Amalgam

This is a bit off topic, it wasn't meant to be food, but..

We purchased cat litter made from some sort of organic crop left-over. The cats shat and pissed to their hearts glee and I was too lazy to clean it at that moment, so I put it outside. A Robin spent the entire day just sitting on the rim of the tray eating the soiled litter. The little fecker could hardly move by the end of the day, a very circular Robin.

Bright yellow granular, looked like grain, no idea what it was, but it was edible to that (dirt) bird.

littlebug

Niko Happy Scrapbook wrote: »

I honestly think that talk of garden birds not liking particular seed mixes is a bit of nonsense

But... but... it's true
Last year I had a big bucket of a seed mix (supreme?). it was my first attempt at feeding the birds and not one bird came near it until I put peanuts out over a week later. Every so often I would try it again but no... most ended up in the bin. Even when the peanuts were gone they still wouldn't touch it so it wasn't just coincidence. Actually they wouldn't touch the sunflower seeds either. I wonder was it the feeders rather than the seeds

Rancid

Hmm... so a couple of weeks on, the pigeons have developed a taste for the wheat seeds!
The blue tits, coal tits and sparrows still don't seem to like it, they take it from the feeders and fling it on the ground so now the crafty pigeons hang out under the feeders and wait for breakfast to "fall from above"!

I add sunflower seeds to the mix but they never end up on the ground.

Amalgam

Rancid, we have two Wood pigeons that do the same, forever loitering under a perspex tube feeder.. they're very plump.

I saw what look like turtle doves yesterday, silver grey with a hint of brown in the mix, a distinctive black dot or streak on the neckline, thin, an inch or so below the beak. Very shy, have trouble deciding wether to land or not. A pair. I put peanuts on the rim of the garden shed roof for them, addicts.

Amalgam

I forgot to say, the cat litter that the birds were eating is made of millet.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Amalgam wrote: »

I forgot to say, the cat litter that the birds were eating is made of millet.

Well D'oh! That might explain it:rolleyes:

Rancid

A pair of collared doves sometimes appear in the garden, always a bit shy and always together and they know where to wait for food, too!
Beautiful birds, they are.

Amalgam wrote: »

Rancid, we have two Wood pigeons that do the same, forever loitering under a perspex tube feeder.. they're very plump.

I saw what look like turtle doves yesterday, silver grey with a hint of brown in the mix, a distinctive black dot or streak on the neckline, thin, an inch or so below the beak. Very shy, have trouble deciding wether to land or not. A pair. I put peanuts on the rim of the garden shed roof for them, addicts.

myjugsarehuge

Amalgam wrote: »

I saw what look like turtle doves yesterday, silver grey with a hint of brown in the mix, a distinctive black dot or streak on the neckline, thin, an inch or so below the beak. Very shy, have trouble deciding wether to land or not. A pair. I put peanuts on the rim of the garden shed roof for them, addicts.

They will be collared doves, beautiful birds, turtle doves are migratory, very rare in Ireland even in the summer, I saw/heard a few in France last year, a new "tick" for me.

I feed peanuts in a mesh feeder, niger seed in a special feeder for the goldfinches & siskins and at the moment "Bill Oddies really wild" bird seed mix on the bird table. Its good enough, not much wheat and a good mix of black sunflower seeds, pinhead oats and other nutricious seeds.

The best website/catalogue around is CJ Wildbirdfoods but I'm not sure if they deliver in Ireland, I had some bird food delivered from a company in the Birdwatch Ireland magazine but to be honest it cost a fortune.

http://www.birdfood.co.uk/

Amalgam

Thanks myjugsarehuge. I have to admit the Cheeky Boy bucket I purchased is a waste. One of the tits basically goes about emptying a tube feeder to get at the stuff it likes, casually flicking the (wheat?) rest to one side, under the feeder is a right mess. Had I known this, I would have just got a big bag of peanuts, as most of the birds seem to favour the peanuts. The place is covered in cracked wheat grain now.

Anything I can put out to get Chaffinches in? There's a pair about, but they don't seem to hang around much.

Sigma Force

I have a bird feeder with peanuts in it, well I did but within a day and a half it's empty. I have a cockatiel so threw some of his mix out for the robin and he seems to like it, also used millet seed sprays (you know the ones for budgies etc).

Question: When making fat balls can any type of fat be used or is it just suet/lard?

We have finches and a robin that regularly visit the peanut feeder only have the one at the moment must get some more. I bought a cheap plastic one with a lid that can be turned the other way to hold some water in it, best bird feeder I ever got.

Already have pets to fork out for so don't want to have to go to the expense of paying out for bird seed to be delivered so what can people recommend that you can just pick up at the local hardware or supermarket?

Raisins were mentioned what other types of fruit are ok to leave out for smaller birds?

allthedoyles

Peanuts , but remember birds should only be fed in winter

myjugsarehuge

allthedoyles wrote: »

Peanuts , but remember birds should only be fed in winter

This advice is very out of date, wild birds appreciate feeding all year round, you can actually buy a summer seed mix. I feed table seed, niger seed (for siskins/goldfinches) and peanuts. I stop in May usually and start again the end of October when the fields around us are getting a bit bereft of seeds.

In a town or city you can safely feed all year if you wish, if the feeders remain untouched then stop feeding for a while. Peanuts in a mesh feeder are quite safe, its been proven that blue tits etc feed their young on a natural diet of aphids, caterpillars etc, even if peanuts are freely available.

The only thing that should be reserved for the depths of winter are fat balls/cakes. I make my own from suet/seeds but they really are high energy feed and not needed except Nov-March when the weather is coldest.

I'm a member of Birdwatch Ireland and have been interested in Ornithology for 25 odd years.

artieanna

Gosh it maddening to see those coal tits chucking away the bits they don't like and pulling out what they do.. So much seed ends up on the ground!

I have tried different qualities of seed and find all are eaten but there is one small pack I got which is specially for songbirds and they loved it..it had dried worms in it and berries and dried suet can't think of the maker though!!!

Amalgam

artieanna wrote: »

Gosh it maddening to see those coal tits chucking away the bits they don't like and pulling out what they do.. So much seed ends up on the ground!

I took the acrylic tube feeder in for a while, until I get a mix with less wheat in it. One little tyke emptied half a tube to get at a few peanuts mixed in.

We have suet balls being fed on by a group of birds that look like a cross between a tit and a wagtail, basically a tit with a very long tail. Five to a ball.

Chaffinches have also got very hardy, will basically sit in one of the seed trays upwards of five to ten minutes, bold as brass, fun to watch.

magicbastarder

artieanna wrote: »

Gosh it maddening to see those coal tits chucking away the bits they don't like and pulling out what they do.. So much seed ends up on the ground!

there's usually spilt seed on the ground beneath our feeders, but it never lasts more than a couple of days if the feeder runs out - we've yet to find any seeds which the birds will not eat.

Sigma Force

Our garden is more of a jungle and hae left the hedgerows to their own devices (although farmer in next fields cuts them back on his side a bit) so there are loads of things in Spring/Summer and Autumn for the birds to eat so I don't tend to give them much at other times of the year, although last summer there were so many sparrows and they're so fun to watch we did feed them and I think it was a little wren that used to pop up now and then but the wagtail and robin preffered it when we mowed the lawn or dug some holes.

The robin was very cheeky the other day, he flew in the back door, flew into the kitchen onto the chopping board and started eating crumbs from it..left a little poop and eventually got him to fly out the window. Not sure if it was hunger that made him that forward or if he was just chancing it, I'm thinking he may of done this before and I've just never caught him at it.

Our budgies are in an outdoor aviary and when I hang the millet seed sprays inside the aviary the finches would land on the outside of the aviary and start eating the millet, seem to like it a lot.

Filling the bird feeder every second day, not great at naming bird species but I think it's green finch mostly scoffing it.

Amalgam

I've changed the behaviour of our Wood pigeon pair. I put the wheat heavy feed on an upside down plastic basic, about a foot off the ground, circular. The pigeons would not go near it, preferring to be neck high in grass, loitering under the acrylic tube feeder.

As the weather has got colder, they now sit on the basin top all morning and just graze on the food.

Further up the thread there's tips on buying 25kg-35kg bags of peanuts, on the Northside, is there a place that sells peanuts in bulk on the southside of Dublin.

You have to laugh, Woodies want close to ten euro for a 1kg or 2kg bag.