Best bird seed

[SwanShaped]

What’s your best bird seed? I’ve just got a multi hanger bird feeder. Birds enjoy the fat balls but don’t seem bothered about peanuts. I’m looking at getting more bird seed, the mixed kind, but reviews are all very varied.

I don't really bother with mixed seed anymore as it just gets left or bigger birds would come and attack the feeders and stop the little birds coming.

sunflower hearts, nyjer seeds, suet blocks and mealworms are what I have.
I do put peanuts out but only a little in a feeder as they go mouldy quite quickly.
I get a good amount of birds from this - from lots of finches, siskins, nuthatches to the odd woodpecker.

That’s a good tip thanks! The wood pigeons seem to be the main ones interested in the mixed seed I did have. It’s just run out which is why I was asking. I’ll look at sunflower hearts instead. I filled up the peanut feeder to the top so better go check it’s not mouldy.

Sunflower hearts are a winner in our garden xx

I think meal worms need to be soaked coz of the choking risk to baby birds. Is it really gross when you do this?

I have to put peanuts out to distract the squirrels from the bird feeder.
I do the suet blocks/fat balls on the hanger then sunflower seeds or hearts in the dish.

I just spritz mine - not a full soaking and not had any issues (that I know of) to be honest the juvenile starlings are the ones that have been eating the mealworms at the moment. Also we have robins that fight over them.

I think my peanut feeder just gets mouldy as we sadly get a lot of rain and because it doesn't get eaten as quick they just start to rot in the weather...

I don't feed the birds, but once in my garden I saw the most amazing green bird. It looked like it had escaped from one of those topical world places.

Turns out it was a Green Woodpecker, but seemed to be a particularly colourful specimen.

That’s good to know about the meal worms. The peanuts seem to get a bit of a nibble but not much. I’ve ordered some sunflower hearts now.

I regularly get a Woodpecker on the peanut hanging feeder. I chuck mealworms on the lawn, it's so wet at the moment they soon soften, and they go instantly with all the starlings.

I am in landlocked Worcestershire but we seem to get a lot of Seagulls coming to see what's on offer.

Watching with interest. We get loads of starlings and bigger birds but I want to attract smaller birds. We have had a goldfinch and Blue tit today and I got very excited.

I got a blue tit today. I was also quite excited when I saw them zooming into my lavender bush. Hoping they’re eating the bugs. But mainly I get magpies and wood pigeons. Luckily magpies are my favourite bird but there is something so captivating about the tiny birds. Do other people find that once one bird type comes, others will do too? Do they see that there’s some activity going on and go there too?

Our lawn has grubs in it so the magpies eat them too. God knows how they know they’re in there or find them! It’s a mystery.

Our resident Magpie is brilliant. He'll take a piece of stale bread from the shed roof and dunk it in Sparklingcat's water bowl before eating it. Like soup.

Our birds adore sunflower hearts but they are expensive. We tend to buy seed cheaply from BM and they eat that too. Nyger seeds are good for attracting goldfinches and siskins.

Wilko's wild bird food is good value.

I only feed seed on flat surfaces (bird table, hanging table feeder) as it tends to get ignored in the tube feeders and go off. I favour Wilko no-mess seed so that it doesn't germinate 😁

I gave up on peanuts altogether as they get left and go mouldy/poisonous.

You could try suet pellets in the feeder, there are various different 'flavours' available.

Mine love black sunflower seeds for B&M/Home Bargains. They're cheaper than sunflower hearts and the casing is softer than the stripey sunflower seeds.

For seed just use Sunflower hearts🌻
Everybody loves them and there is no mess. Looking out of the window right now I can see bullfinches, goldfinches, chaffinches, green finches on the feeders with a dunnock, wren and blackbirds pecking underneath.
Peanuts are popular with woodpeckers, nuthatches and tits (especially coal tits) but if you don't have them visiting regularly then the nuts can go mouldy quite quickly.
In breeding season live mealworms are great for growing chicks and blackbirds, tits and robins especially love them.
Suet blocks I would save for winter months as it can melt or go rancid in hot weather.

On my sunflower hearts dish currently sits a huge pigeon on top of the lot. Talk about hogging the food.

We are getting through a suet block every 2 days at the moment, very popular.

It's been years since I had a garden but nyjer seeds were always great for the littler birds.

I don’t bother with peanuts as they get left, I use Wilko premium bird seed and premium fat balls, the birds LOVE them!
I also put out suet pellets and mealworm on a tray for the tits and robins.

I it just me with the squirrel problem? They can take the feeders apart round here. I put them a dish of peanuts to keep them away from everything else and it seems to work.

I get huskless seed mix from Wiggly Wigglers. The birds love it and it doesn't make a mess below the feeders.

I find the mixed seed gets wasted too so I do fat balls depending on season and peanuts as I have various tits (who I swear mither when the feeder is empty) and sunflower hearts which attract lots of greedy goldfinches, and needs a refill every day, the bits that fall on the ground get eaten by sparrows and a robin.

@ColinKnocksTwoPence

How lucky to have such a lovely variety of birds ❤️ are your goldfinches greedy and grumpy as well ? I seem to have one that bullies all the others

Mine love mixed seed! I get a big variety of small birds.

Peckish have started doing fat balls and seed in cardboard boxes instead of plastic bags 👍🏻

Well it sounds like sunflower hearts are the winner, and mixed seed and peanuts are variable. Love the magpie dunking bread.