Choosing the Right Bird Seed for Your Area

Bird seed is food – often seeds – that is eaten by most birds. There are a lot of use for bird seed, but the most important one if being used as a food for domestic poultry. In the developed countries there are people who will buy this bird seeds to feed their pet bird or use them as feeders to other wild birds.

There are number of factors you should consider before choosing a bird seed. There are natural and commercial bird foods. The choice of which seed to choose depends on the birds being fed. You should also be careful as bird food attracts rodents too. You should settle on the seed that attracts most birds.

1. SUNFLOWER
There are two types of sunflower that are known to man – striped and black oil. The seeds obtained from the black oil sunflower are relatively thin shelled and are very easy with almost all birds to crack and feed on. Their kernel also have a relatively higher fat content, this is very important when it comes to winter birds.
On the other hand, the seeds from stripped sunflower have a thicker shell that is hard to some birds to crack. So if you want to feed your birds with sunflower, you should go for the black oil sunflower seeds.

2. SAFFLOWER
The safflower seeds also have a thick shell that some birds find hard to break. This seeds are, however, a favorite when it comes to the cardinals. Some other birds like the doves, native sparrow and grosbeaks eat them. There are a number of birds that are known to dislike this seeds, house sparrow, squirrels and European starlings. It has also observed that this birds in the long run they will eat them.

3. WHITE PROSO MILLET
This white millet seeds are more preferred by ground feeding birds like doves, quails, cardinals and juncos. They are also a favorite bird food to the blackbirds and cowbirds, even though they are subsided by human activity. If this birds are present, it recommended that you do not use millet with them. This is because the birds that like this seeds also like black oil sunflower.

When feeding the ground birds, the millet seeds are scattered on the ground. This is a good practice unless you feed the birds too much than they need. There are some low–set feeding trays that have a good drainage that can be used too.

4. CRACKED AND SHELLED CORN
There are specific birds that eat corn. They include: quails, cardinals, crows and turkeys. The corn seeds have their share of problems. First they are favorite to birds that we should not be feeding like cowbirds, house sparrow and starlings. Secondly corn is prone to contamination with aflatoxins. This is very dangerous even at low levels.

It is recommended that you do not buy corn that is wrapped with plastic paper bags, you should also never allow it to be wet. When feeding the birds you should make sure that you feed them with an amount that they can finish in a one day consumption.