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.

@SwanShaped

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

They all seem to like them 🦜 When I put sunflower seeds with the shells on they ignored them I think they are a bit spoiled probably explains them turning their beaks up at the mixed seed. Home Bargains is great prices for all sorts of animal food And the coconut shell filled with fats are only 49p in there too.

We've just got a big bag of Vine Farm's Robin and Friends mix - obviously need a feeder that robins can land on. Very very popular. Also have as standard the Premium High Energy which is very popular and disappears quickly. Vine farm consistently very good quality

I like the Jacobi Jayne range and find I get more birds when I used these products. Cheaper bird food doesn’t seem to have the same response.

I fill two large feeders with seed at least every other day. If I swap to cheaper seed it can sit untouched for days. They are not very keen on peanuts but some like them, especially the woodpeckers. I also have jars of peanut butter, everyone loves them. I have a resident pheasant and some very fat pigeons who keep the ground clear of dropped seed.

Think everyone must be right about the ‘cheep’ seed
I often wonder how a being so tiny and delicate can stuff so much food tbh

I love the birds and it’s so nice to hear from others that do as well
💐

@Sparklingbrook

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 have squirrels as well, cute but annoying.

Not only do they steal the bird food, they dig up my pots!

No squirrels here.

I put out sunflower hearts, suet and mealworms. They also have peanuts which the tits enjoy. My birds are far too spoilt for mixed seed, they spit out the stuff they don’t want.
I reckon I spend £1 a day on feeding the birds though, not an especially cheap hobby. And the feeders need cleaning regularly.

We had a squirrel but my NDN shot it..

@Temp023
What with ?
It’s illegal to discharge a firearm unless you are licensed

www.gov.uk/pest-control-on-your-property

What a nasty piece of work, that’s awful🥲

Most popular in my garden are :

Mealworms - birds clear the whole feeder out within 20 minutes of me filling it
No mess high energy food
Mixed fruit suet sticks
Robin food
Flutter butter (although took a few weeks for birds to take to this one initially)
Ground peanuts but not whole ones

The things they won’t eat are suet balls and nyjer seeds.

We get the big sack of mixed wild bird seed by peckish for a big feeder on the table and they all seem to like that.
We have smaller feeders on the fences and the goldfinches like the sunflower hearts, the starlings go crazy for the fatballs and the tits like the meal worms.
All of them stick their beaks up at our peanut offering though fussy little things.

We put out fat balls, chunks of lard and cheese, apple halves, and cat biscuits (just the cheap supermarket own brand ones). This time of year we soak them.
If we put out seed the pigeons just scarf the lot.

Meant to add to my post, that in terms of brands, birds seem to prefer the big bags that I buy from a local pet foods store rather than the (more expensive) branded and packaged stuff from garden centres, supermarkets etc.

Ours comes in bulk from Brinvale (next day delivery) sunflower hearts and fat balls only, with some dried mealworms thrown in. (Separate feeder.)
We used to get the mixed seed, but some seeds were always spurned so we’d have a lot of wheat-like weeds springing up.
Our birds are spoilt! All down to dh. However the birds do always send him a Christmas card. 😂

The Nyger seed was a big hit. I bought some yesterday and put it out today and it’s been cleared. Also saw a coal tit hopping about so was really pleased.

I just caught the neighbours cat stealing the cheese!

My little rescue cats used to rush out and eat spilled seed from the ground under the feeders, probably because they had a very hard start to life being born under a shed. Eating cheese is probably just greed though! Cats love cheese. I do put cheese out when it snows.

I like the suet filled coconuts and the birds seem to as well. No mess and recycleable too. Just wish they didn't come wrapped in plastic.

I’ve just been outside and despite the dedicated basket of monkey nuts being refilled there’s a squirrel contorting himself to rob the sunflower hearts from a cage feeder so yep. Sunflower hearts are a hit with birds and squirrels it seems 🐿🤣

@Chemenger

My little rescue cats used to rush out and eat spilled seed from the ground under the feeders, probably because they had a very hard start to life being born under a shed. Eating cheese is probably just greed though! Cats love cheese. I do put cheese out when it snows.

My cat goes crazy and purrs when I give him bits of laughing cow triangles …..that’s sad about your cats having a rough start in life, I’m sure they’re happy now 😻

I caught one of the dogs hoovering up the mealworms under the bird table earlier. They are not rescue dogs and are well fed. I was not impressed with him and he knows it.

I buy big bags of Wilko mixed seed and decant it into a clip tub adding sunflower hearts and mealworms to it. Always goes down well here.

My sunflower hearts have been posted now so I’m looking forward to that. Still only magpies, wood pigeons and a single blue tit. But hopefully more will find it. Although it does all sound pricey!