Skip to main content

Winter Bird Feeding - What Seeds To Use

Winter can be a difficult time for birds as the foods they are used to eating to be covered in snow and not readily available. Therefore, keeping your bird feeder stock proceeds can help keep your feathered friends fed.
So what should you fill your winter bird feeder up with?
Most of the seeds that you feed birds in the summer work in the winter to. You might want to experiment and see which seeds attract birds the best. One thing I don't recommend, is buying a cheap mix at the supermarket since a lot of the seeds in the mix birds don't like. Here are some seeds that most birds seem to enjoy:
1. Black sunflower seeds or block oil sunflower seeds will attract many birds to feeder and might even bring in some that you've never seen before if you haven't used these types of seats. These are the seeds that look like a sunflower seed but they're smaller and all totally black. These seeds have a higher oil content and a softer and easier to open.
2. Safflower is a white seed and one of the few seeds that squirrels don't like. decedent might attract Cardinals,- and even the Downey woodpecker and the great thing is you can put it in a platform feeder and the squirrels won't even bother with it!
3. Goldfinches are my favorite birds and I especially like to see them in winter and one seed that will attract tons of them is niger. This is a teeny tiny black seed and it is very expensive but well worth it as it may cause dozens of goldfinches to flock around your feeder. you might want to buy a special feeder ( the hanging tube type) and you can get them designed just for the seat with small holes. You can put it right up near the house so that you can get a better view the birds. Goldfinches don't mind people to munch and can become rather tame over time.
4. White Miller is an inexpensive seed that's great for ground feeding birds such as mourning doves sparrows and juncos and you can scattered on the ground even in the snow to let these birds have a nice meal.
5. Fat is a great source of energy so hanging a suet feeder out in winter can help give your birds a little boost. you can buy all kinds of different suet feeders some with other things mixed in or you can make your own with fat from the butcher counter in a mesh onion bag.
Along with making sure that your birds have plenty of seed for the winter, you might want to think about getting a heated birdbath. Water is vital to birds and often in wintertime the there is no running water to be found so your birdbath maybe even more attractive than your feeder!

Comments