Note: Never offer microwave popcorn or popped corn to birds. Since these are larger birds, offer corn in tray feeders on the ground. Many larger species like cardinals, turkeys, quails, grosbeaks, crows, jays and ducks eat corn. You can usually find them in small stores or online and they are sometimes mixed in with other food because they are high in oil and starch.Ĭorn tends to spoil quickly, so it's something you never want to leave out for long periods on rainy or humid days. Cracked corn is cracked into smaller bits and typically intended for livestock. Yes, corn (technically the corn kernel) is another seed you can offer birds. These are best suited for tray and hopper feeders because typical visitors to those feeders enjoy safflower seeds the most. Another reason why these are popular is that more invasive species like House Sparrows and European Starlings don't have a taste for safflower seeds. Many types of birds enjoy them, including cardinals, chickadees, doves, sparrows and even some grosbeaks. This type of seed is not common, which is why you typically won't find much in stores. Safflower seeds are white and a little smaller than sunflower seeds but have a similar shape. Safflower seeds are often used as an alternative to sunflower seeds because they are nutritionally similar in many ways and squirrels are said to dislike them. This type of seed attracts around 40 species, including cardinals, chickadees, jays, Evening Grosbeaks, Mourning Doves, nuthatches, House and Purple finches and many more. Sunflower seeds are best offered on feeders like platform feeders, hoppers, tube feeders and window feeders. Sunflower hearts and chips tend to spoil more quickly, but whole sunflower seeds will leave more of a mess as birds crack them. The next question is whether to feed your birds whole seeds or cracked. The reason you'd want to use striped sunflower seeds is if your feeder is getting raided by those pesky little brown birds, like House Sparrows, or blackbirds, like Common Grackles, because they wouldn't be able to open them. Striped sunflower seeds, on the other hand, are much more difficult for smaller birds to crack open. Along with the ease of opening, the kernels have a high fat content to help birds survive the harsh winter months. Of the two, black oil sunflower seeds are more widely used because they have thinner shells, which allows nearly any seed-eating bird to crack them.
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